Haeckel, Ernst: - Ernst Haeckel (born on February 16, 1834, in Potsdam, Prussia [now Germany]; died Aug. 9, 1919) was a German zoologist, marine biologist, artist, and evolutionist who was a strong proponent of Darwinism and who proposed new notions of the evolutionary descent of human beings. He discovered, described and named thousands of new species, and mapped a genealogical tree relating all life forms.