Goldschmidt, Richard Benedikt (1878-1958)

German evolutionary biologist who believed that environmentally-induced changes in organisms with similar genotypes could provide information about the origin of species. He worked for many years on the genetics of butterflies using the X chromosome as a model, and formulated a theory (now largely discredited) that chromosomes rather than individual genes are the units of heredity.

Goldschmidt was born in Frankfurt and appointed director of Biological Studies at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin 1921. In 1935, just before World War II, he left Germany for the USA to become professor of zoology at the University of California at Berkeley.