Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (April 19, 1795 - June 27, 1876) was a German biologist, microscopist, explorer and micropaleontologist who has been called the founder of micropaleontology.
Ehrenberg's microscopical research was the first to treat in a scientific way that mass of minute beings that had formerly been vaguely known as the “infusoria,” both living or fossils.
He revealed that certain forms of rock, especially chalk, were composed of minute forms of animals or plants, among which were forms he was first to discover and characterize. Ehrenberg also did extensive work on diatoms and the foraminifera. From Today in Science History