Johann Marcusen was born in Jelgava in present-day Latvia. He studied in Saint Petersburg and Tartu. Between 1851 and 1854 he conducted scientific journeys to the Mediterranean Sea, Syria and Egypt. In 1854 he was made a professor, and worked as a professor of zoology in Odessa from 1858. After his retirement in 1873 he moved to Switzerland, where he spent the rest of his life.[1]
