German zoologist from Koldenbüttel in the duchy of Schleswig. He was appointed professor of medicine (1851) and later professor of zoology (1856) in Berlin. He travelled in Africa and paid for collections made by local collectors. He is mainly known as a herpetologist but also published several papers on Myriapoda. Peters published Reise nach Mossambique and based his botanical observations on the collections of J.F. Klotzsch, C.A. Bolle & C.A.F. Garcke. The genera Petersia Welw. ex Benth. & Hook. f. and the segregate Petersianthus Merr., both in the Lecythidaceae, were named after him.