Alexander Makowsky

Alexander Makowsky (17 December 1833 in Zwittau – 30 November 1908 in Brünn) was an Austrian botanist, geologist and paleontologist.

He studied at the University of Technology in Brünn, and afterwards, worked as a schoolteacher in Olmütz (1858–64) and Brünn (1864–68). From 1873 to 1905 he was a professor of geology and mineralogy at the technical university in Brünn.^[1][2]

He devoted the early part of his career to botanical studies, but his interests later switched to the areas of geology, paleontology and prehistory. Included in his research were studies of Pleistocene era humans and animals of Moravia. With Anton Rzehak, he produced a geological map of the environs of Brünn, titled Geologische Karte der Umgebung von Brünn (1883).^[3][4] The discosauriscid seymouriamorph Makowskia laticephala commemorates his name.^[5]

Selected works

• Die Sumpf- und Uferflora von Olmütz, 1860 – Marsh and riparian flora of Olmütz.
• Die Flora des Brünner Kreises, nach pflanzengeographischen Principien, 1862 – The flora of the Brünn area, according to phytogeographical principles.
• Bericht über den Meteoritenfall bei Tieschitz in Mähren, 1878 – Report on the meteorite fall at Tieschitz in Moravia.
• Der Löss von Brünn und seine Einschlüsse an diluvialen Thieren und Menschen, 1888 – The loess of Brünn and its inclusions of Pleistocene animals and humans.
• Der diluviale Mensch in Löss von Brünn, 1889 – The diluvial man in the loess of Brünn.
• Das Rhinoceros der Diluvialzeit Mährens als Jagdthier des paläolithischen Menschen, 1897 – The rhinoceros of diluvial Moravia as a hunted animal of Palaeolithic people.^[4]

References