History

Biological Anthropology

The academic history of physical anthropology at the University of Barcelona began in 1920 with the first professor of the subject, Professor Telesforo de Aranzadi y Unamuno (1860-1945). He was succeeded by Professor Santiago Alcobé Noguer (1903-1977), who approached human variability from the perspective of genetics and quantitative analysis. Subsequently, Professor Josep Pons Rosell (1918-2013) developed the various topics on which the research and teaching of Biological Anthropology is currently based within this Department: osteology, biodemography, population biology, auxology, molecular variation, population genetics, human evolution, somatology, etc.

Zoology

The area of zoology has its origins in the studies of Natural Sciences that were taught at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Barcelona, located in Plaça Universitatd. The first chair of Natural History was created in 1899 and was occupied by Dr. Odón de Buen (1863-1945), a radical Darwinist, who was in charge of teaching zoology. Odón de Buen was the founder of oceanography in Spain; he created the Marine Biology Laboratory in Palma de Mallorca and the Spanish Institute of Oceanography.

In 1910, the Natural Sciences Section was created. At that time, the building of the University of Barcelona housed the Institut de Barcelona, a secondary school that would later be called Institut Balmes, so the natural history collections were shared between the two institutions.

In 1941 the first chair of Zoology, specialising in Arthropods, was endowed. The first full professor was Dr Francisco García del Cid, who founded the Institute of Applied Biology of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in 1943, linking it to the chair of Zoology. Later, in 1951, he created and directed the Instituto de Investigaciones Pesqueras within the Patronato Juan de La Cierva of the CSIC, which is the current Instituto de Ciencias del Mar in Barcelona.

The first publication of the chair was the prestigious journal "Publicaciones del Instituto de Biología Aplicada", which later became "Publicaciones del Departamento de Zoología" and then "Historia Animalium".

In 1954, the Natural Sciences degree was divided into Biological Sciences and Geological Sciences. The Minister of Education and Science at the time, Dr. Manuel Lora Tamayo, established and created the university departments, among them the Zoology Department of the University of Barcelona.