Konrad Lorenz Born on November 7, 1903, Konrad Lorenz instantly fell in love with animals. At a young age Lorenz had several different types of animals for pets, he had a young duckling that a neighbor had given to him, and that small duckling triggered his interest in ethology. Not knowing exactly what he was doing, Lorenz, only ten years old at the time, began studying the behaviors of his duckling and noticing that the duckling took to him as if he were its mother. This small idea had brought on one of Lorenz's most controversial experiments later on in his life. From studying small crustaceans at the bottom of the ocean to becoming the first zoologist to be appointed the chair of psychology Lorenz had lived an amazingly wild and important life.
Lorenz went on in life and began to take an interest in evolution. The relationships between birds and reptiles and worms and insects intrigued him. During his high school career, Lorenz wanted to become a paleontologist, but he also wanted to study zoology and evolution. One important teacher in his life, Philip Heberdey had taught Lorenz Darwin's theory of evolution. This intrigued Lorenz so much that he began to study the way crustaceans behave in controlled environments and in uncontrolled environments. This idea of evolution had made Lorenz want to begin studying zoology. Despite his love for animals and evolution, Lorenz had followed the will of his father and went medical school. Eventually, after medical school he became a professor and studied ethology for many years. He once again began working with Bernhard Hellmann, and Hellmann gave Lorenz a book about animal behavior. Lorenz then realized that everything his partners, MacDougall and Watson, had ignored were actually true. Lorenz was so impressed with his own beliefs that he began to really get into the study of evolution. Hellmann had believed that considering Lorenz's theories would be the way to better understanding of...