Max Carl Wilhelm Weber

{{Short description|German-Dutch zoologist and biogeographer}}

{{other uses|Max Weber (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Max Carl Wilhelm Weber

| image = Max Wilhelm Carl Weber (1852-1937), by Ferdinand J Hart Nibbrig (1866-1915).jpg

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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1852|12|05|df=y}}

| birth_place = Bonn, Germany

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1937|02|07|1852|12|05|df=y}}

| death_place = Eerbeek, Netherlands

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| nationality = German
Dutch

| fields =

| workplaces = University of Utrecht, University of Amsterdam, University of Bonn, Humboldt University

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| known_for = Weber's Line

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| author_abbrev_zoo = Weber

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| awards = Foreign Member of the Royal Society{{Cite journal | last1 = Thompson | first1 = D. W. | author-link = D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson| title = Max Wilhelm Carl Weber. 1852-1937 | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1938.0017 | journal = Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society | volume = 2 | issue = 6 | pages = 346–355| year = 1938 }}

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| spouse = Anna Weber-van Bosse

}}

File:Map of Sunda and Sahul.svg and Lydekker, as well as the probable extent of land at the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, when the sea level was more than 110 m lower than today]]

Max Carl Wilhelm Weber van Bosse or Max Wilhelm Carl WeberWatkins, M. & Boelens, B. (2015): Sharks: An Eponym Dictionary. pp. 219. Pelagic Publishing. {{ISBN|978-1-907807-93-0}}. (5 December 1852 – 7 February 1937) was a German-Dutch zoologist and biogeographer.

Weber studied at the University of Bonn, then at the Humboldt University in Berlin with the zoologist Eduard Carl von Martens (1831–1904). He obtained his doctorate in 1877. Weber taught at the University of Utrecht then participated in an expedition to the Barents Sea. He became Professor of Zoology, Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Amsterdam in 1883. In the same year he received naturalised Dutch citizenship.

{{anchor|Weber Line}}His discoveries as leader of the Siboga Expedition led him to conclude that Wallace's Line was placed too far to the west. His studies, along with others, led to a series of alternative lines to be proposed to delimit two major biogeographic realms, the Australasian realm and the Indomalayan realm. These lines were based on the fauna and flora in general, including the mammalian fauna. Later, Pelseneer published an influential paper on this topic,{{cite journal |last1=Pelseneer |first1=Paul |title=La ligne de Weber, limite zoologique de l'Asie et de l'Australie |journal=Bulletin de la Classe des Sciences Académie Royale de Belgique |date=1904 |volume=1904 |pages=1001–1022}} in which he proposed to call his preferred limit Weber's Line, to honour Weber's contributions in that field. As is the case with plant species, faunal surveys revealed that for mollusks and most vertebrate groups Wallace’s line was not the most significant biogeographic boundary. The Tanimbar Island group, and not the boundary between Bali and Lombok, appears to be the major interface between the Oriental and Australasian regions for mammals and other terrestrial vertebrate groups.{{cite web |url=http://www.irgltd.com/Resources/Publications/ANE/2004-02%20Indonesia%20Biodiversity%20and%20Tropical%20Forest.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2009-09-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090306124053/http://irgltd.com/Resources/Publications/ANE/2004-02%20Indonesia%20Biodiversity%20and%20Tropical%20Forest.pdf |archive-date=2009-03-06 }} page 3-82

With G.A.F. Molengraaff, Weber gave names to the Sahul Shelf and the Sunda Shelf in 1919.{{cite conference |first=Chris |last=Ballard |title=Stimulating minds to fantasy? A critical etymology for Sahul |book-title=Sahul in review: pleistocene archaeology in Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia |pages=17 |publisher=Australian National University | location= Canberra |year=1993 |isbn=0-7315-1540-4 }}

Weber became member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1887.{{cite web|url=http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00003754 |title=Max Wilhelm Carl Weber (1852 - 1937) |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |access-date=17 July 2015}}

Weber is commemorated in the scientific names of three species of reptiles: Anomochilus weberi, Hydrosaurus weberi, and Pachydactylus weberi.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Weber", p. 280). Two species of mammal are also named after him: Prosciurillus weberi and Myotis weberi.{{Cite book|last=Weber|first=Max|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.52289|title=Zoologische Ergebnisse einer reise in Niederländisch Ost-Indien. Bd. 1-4.|date=1890|publisher=E.J. Brill|location=Leiden|doi=10.5962/bhl.title.52289|s2cid=86156252 }}