Karl Bogislaus Reichert (20 December 1811 â 21 December 1883) was a German anatomist, embryologist and histologist. He is remembered for his work in embryology, and for his pioneer research in cell theory. Reichard created the ReichertâÂÂGaupp theory together with Ernst Gaupp, concerning the origin of mammalian ossicles of the ear.
His name is lent to the eponymous "Reichert's cartilage", described as a cartilaginous structure in the second branchial arch from which develop the temporal styloid processes, the stylohyoid ligaments, and the lesser cornua of the hyoid bone.
Reichert was born in Rastenburg (KÃÂtrzyn), East Prussia. From 1831, he studied at the University of Konigsberg, where he was a student of embryologist Karl Ernst Baer, then continued his education at the University of Berlin under Friedrich Schlemm and Johannes Peter Müller. In 1836, he received his doctorate with a dissertation on the gill arches of vertebrate embryos. Afterwards, he worked as an intern at the Charité, and from 1839 to 1843, served as an assistant and prosector at the University of Berlin.
In 1843 he attained the chair of anatomy at the Imperial University of Dorpat, and ten years later, succeeded Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold as professor of physiology at the University of Breslau. In 1858 he returned to Berlin as chair of anatomy, where he succeeded his former mentor, Johannes Peter Müller.
Reichert died in Berlin.