Gerhard Heilmann
Danish artist and paleontologist (1859-1946) · Denmark · On the map · Artists · Died at 86
Gerhard Heilman was a Danish artist and paleontologist who created artistic depictions of Archaeopteryx, Proavis and other early bird relatives apart from writing the 1926 book The Origin of Birds, a pioneering and influential account of bird evolution.
Gerhard Heilmann is read about 3 times a day, in 6 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 24 August 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 60 days, one point a day.
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About this person
Heilman lacked a formal training in science although he studied medicine briefly before shifting to art. His ideas on bird evolution were first written in Danish in the Dansk Ornitologisk Tidsskrift. Heilman received little help and often got considerable opposition from Danish professional zoologists of the time and he in turn often made dismissive remarks on the ideas of some of the established scientists of the time. The English edition however reached out to a much larger audience and influenced ideas in bird evolution for nearly half a century.
