Jürgen Haffer
Jürgen Haffer ( born December 9, 1932 in Berlin, † April 26, 2010 in Essen ) was a German geologist, paleontologist, ornithologist and biographer.
Haffer studied geology, paleontology and biology in Göttingen and Freiburg. He received his doctorate in 1957 at the University of Göttingen and worked as a geologist and exploration manager in South America, USA, Iran, Egypt and Norway from 1957 to 1988. His addition to professional work areas were next to the speciation biogeography and systematics of birds.
He wrote the first detailed biography of Ernst Mayr and co-authored about the life and work of Erwin Stresemann. Haffer was the author of many ornithological journals such as the " Stresemann's revolution" in the early 20th century ornithology or over super species of birds.
Honors and Dedikationsnamen
In 1975 he was awarded the William Brewster Medal from the American Ornithologists ' Union. He received the award for his series of excellent publications on Ornithogeographie South America. The reasons for the award quoted from the decision-making body as follows:
"For most continents of the world basic inventory of live birds is made and the area of distribution of most species is described in detail. The students of zoogeography and classification have therefore satisfactory material as the basis for their analytical and synthetic work available. Paradoxically, this is not true for a continent that has one of the richest avifaunae at all - South America. Even today, important areas of South America are ornithological explored for the first time, new species are discovered and maps of distribution areas will be updated constantly. Nevertheless, there is a huge mountain of uncoordinated information about South American birds that are waiting for a serious analysis. In a series of brilliant articles, which culminated in an important monograph, which was published by the Nuttall Ornithological Club, the geologist Jürgen Haffer has set the standard for future studies of Ornithographie South America. He relies on existing knowledge about the geological history of South America and exact knowledge in the literature of ornithology, geology and evolutionary theory. In this he joined in the Neotropics, with his own field research, he has created a detailed and plausible reconstruction of the geological, climatological and evolutionary events. From them the instantaneous complex distribution schemes on birds from the Andean and Amazon regions have emerged. Almost as an additional product was a change study on neotropical bird families as Manakin ( " Pipridae " ), Jacamars ( " Galbulidae " ), toucans ( " Ramphastidae " ) and trogons ( " Trogonidae " ), which represented an important contribution that they now their own have attention in the literature. The Brewster Medal of the year 1975 goes to law to Jürgen Haffer, who has opened a new era in the history of ornithology of the Neotropics. These include, for example avifauna of North Western Columbia, South America, Avian speciation in tropical South America. Systematic with a survey of the toucans ( Ramphastidae ) and jacamars ( Galbulidae ) or Speciation in Colombian forest birds west of the Andes "
In 1999 he was awarded for his work in the bird species concepts systematic ornithologists Prize of the German Ornithological Society ( DO- G).
Haffer 2013 was named in honor of the new Blaurabenart Cyanocorax hafferi from the Brazilian state of Amazonas.
Works (selection)
- Ornithology, evolution, and philosophy: the life and science of Ernst Mayr 1904-2005.
- Erwin Stresemann (1889 - 1972) - Life and work of a pioneer of scientific ornithology. ( Co-author)
- Avifauna of Northwestern Colombia, South America.
- Secondary contact zones of birds in Northern Iran.
- Avian speciation in tropical South America, with a systematic survey of the toucans ( Ramphastidae ) and jacamars ( Galbulidae ).
- Speciation in Amazonian Forest Birds. In: Science, Vol 165, No 3889, 1969, pp. 131-137, DOI: 10.1126/science.165.3889.131