He was born at
Darmstadt. After studying at
Göttingen and
Heidelberg he spent two years at
Leiden, where his attention was specially devoted to the
amphibians and fishes. He then returned to Darmstadt as an assistant in the grand ducal museum, of which in 1840 he became inspector. In 1829 he published
Skizze zur Entwickelungsgeschichte der europäischen Thierwelt, in which he regarded the animal world as developed from lower to higher forms, from the amphibians through the birds to the beasts of prey; but subsequently he repudiated this work as a youthful indiscretion, and on the publication of
Darwin's
Origin of Species he declared himself against its doctrines. The extensive
fossil deposits in the neighbourhood of Darmstadt gave him ample opportunities for
palaeontological inquiries, and he gained considerable reputation by his
Beiträge zur näheren Kenntniss der urweltlichen Säugethiere (1855–1862). He also wrote
Classification der Säugethiere und Vögel (1844), and, with
Heinrich Georg Bronn,
Die Gavial-artigen Reste aus dem Lias (1842–1844). He was elected as a member of the
American Philosophical Society in 1862. He died at Darmstadt. ==Mastodon fossil==