Daniel Frederik Eschricht

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Daniel Frederik Eschricht

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| image = Eschricht, Daniel Friedrich.jpg

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| birth_date = {{birth date|1798|3|18|df=y}}

| birth_place = Copenhagen, Denmark

| death_date = {{death date and age|1863|2|22|1798|3|18|df=y}}

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| nationality = Danish

| field = Zoology

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| author_abbreviation_zoo = Eschricht

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Daniel Frederik Eschricht (18 March 1798 – 22 February 1863) was a Danish zoologist, physiologist, and anatomist known as an authority on whales. He was born in Copenhagen, and studied medicine at Frederiks Hospital, graduating in 1822. He was a student of François Magendie in Paris from 1824-1825, composing a thesis on cranial nerves, after which he studied with prominent European naturalists and anatomists, including Georges Cuvier. He joined the University of Copenhagen in 1829, becoming Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in 1836.{{cite book|first=C. Barker|last= Jørgensen|title=Daniel Frederik Eschricht (1798-1863), Peter Wilhelm Lund (1801-1880): Danish Pioneers in Experimental Physiology |series=Historisk-filosofiske Meddelelser|volume=92|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=icZPT_yKZm8C |year=2005|publisher=Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters|location=Copenhagen |isbn=978-87-7304-314-1}}{{cite journal|title=Daniel Frederick Eschricht, M.D., &c.|journal= Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society: Zoology|volume=7|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=sCZLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR41 |year=1864|pages=xli–xlii}} The gray whale genus Eschrichtius was named for him a year after his death.{{cite book|author1=Bo Beolens|author2=Michael Watkins|author3=Michael Grayson|title=The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=I-kSmWLc6vYC&pg=PA129 |date=2009|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-9533-3|page=129}}{{cite book|first=Spencer Wilkie|last=Tinker |title=Whales of the World|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ASIVAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA271 |date=1988|publisher=Brill Archive|isbn=0-935848-47-9|page=271}} In 1861, Eschricht dissected an orca and found thirteen common porpoises and fourteen seals inside. Jules Verne referred to the incident in the Sargasso chapter of his 1870 novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.{{cite web |last1=Nicholls |first1=Henry |title=Greedy killer whale eats 27 porpoises and seals |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/animal-magic/2015/jun/11/greedy-killer-whale-orca-eats-porpoises-seals |website=The Guardian |access-date=6 May 2019 |date=11 June 2015}}

He was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1863.{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1863&year-max=1863&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-16|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}