Nikolai Alekseevich Severtsov (1827–85)

Russian naturalist, zoologist, geographer, and explorer. Studied at Moscow University, 1843–6; MSc, Moscow, with a thesis in zoology, 1855; honorary doctorate, 1868. Travelled in Turkestan, Kazakhstan, Pamir, and Siberia. Formulated his own theory of evolution, rejecting the analogy between artificial selection and the formation of new species in the wild.