Theodor Boveri (1862-1915), German geneticist. Boveri's initial education was in history and philosophy, but he soon changed to science. His research extended the work of Edouard van Beneden on cell division. Boveri showed that a chromosome deficiency in an embryo led to abnormalities, and that each species has a specific selection of chromosomes. By 1910, it was clear that chromosomes carried the information of heredity. The chromosome theory of inheritance is known as the Boveri-Sutton chromosome theory, as the principle was independently discovered by Walter Sutton at around the same time (1902 to 1904).