Peter Ascanius  Peter Ascanius (24 May 1723 – 4 June 1803) was a Norwegian biologist. He was born at Aure in Møre og Romsdal, Norway. He was a student of Linnaeus. He taught zoology and mineralogy in Copenhagen from 1759 to 1771, and later worked as a supervisor at the mines in Kongsberg and elsewhere in Norway. Among his published works was the five-volume illustrated "Icones rerum naturalium". He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, elected in 1755 as a Foreign Member. Ascanius first described the giant oarfish in 1772.