Comparative anatomy
Edward Tyson is regarded as the founder of modern comparative anatomy. He is credited with determining that whales and dolphins are, in fact, mammals. Also, he concluded that chimpanzees are more similar to humans than to monkeys because of their arms. Marco Aurelio Severino also compared various animals, including birds, in his "Zootomia democritaea", one of the first works of comparative anatomy. In the 18th and 19th century, great anatomists like George Cuvier, Richard Owen and Thomas Henry Huxley revolutionized our understanding of the basic build and systematics of vertebrates, laying the foundation for Charles Darwin's work on evolution. An example of a 20th-century comparative anatomist is Victor Negus, who worked on the structure and evolution of the larynx. Until the advent of genetic techniques like DNA sequencing, comparative anatomy together with embryology were the primary tools for understanding phylogeny, as exemplified by the work of Alfred Romer.
Robert Wheeler Rand
Robert Wheeler Rand, Ph.D., J.D., M.D. (January 28, 1923 – December 14, 2013), was an American neurosurgeon, inventor, and Professor of Neurosurgery in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1953 to 1989.
Dr. Robert W. Rand, the only son of Carl Wheeler Rand, M.D. and Katherine Humphrey Rand, was born in Los Angeles, California on January 28, 1923. His father, Dr. Carl W. Rand, a respected neurosurgeon, was trained under Harvey Cushing, known to be the "father of modern neurosurgery."