Otto Kleinschmidt

Otto Kleinschmidt (13 December 1870 – 25 March 1954) was a German ornithologist, theologist and pastor. He introduced a typological species concept into German ornithology. His Formenkreis theory influenced the early ideas of Erwin Stresemann.[1][2] Others have considered him one of the first biogeographers. His position was that similar "forms" (species) found in geographically distant regions could be accounted for by "formation rings" – with a fixed set of characters. This allowed him to support creationism while explaining biogeographical similarities.[2][3]

Otto Kleinschmidt was born as the son of the factory overseer Adolph Kleinschmidt and his wife Elise (maiden name Dreydorf) in Geinsheim (Kornsand) on the Rhine. The house of the family was located miles from anywhere in between unspoiled countryside. Otto Kleinschmidt was already as a young boy highly interested in nature and the world of the birds. Besides that it was kind of a family tradition to research and collect. Already at the age of 8 Otto prepared his first taxidermied birds.

Published works

References

  1. Stresemann, Erwin (1936). "The Formenkreis-Theory" (PDF). Auk. 53 (2): 150–158. doi:10.2307/4077273.
  2. 1 2 Williams, D W (2007). "Otto Kleinschmidt (1870–1954), biogeography and the 'origin' of species: From Formenkreis to progression rule" (PDF). Biogeografía. 1: 3–9.
  3. Croizat, L. (1982). "Vicariance/vicariism, panbiogeography, "vicariance biogeography," etc.: A clarification". Systematic Zoology. 31 (3): 291–304. doi:10.2307/2413236.

Other sources

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/22/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.