Günter Bechly

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Günter Bechly (2004)

Günter Bechly (born October 16, 1963 in Sindelfingen ) is a German paleontologist and entomologist who works with fossil insects (especially dragonflies ). From 1999 to 2016 he was scientific curator for amber and fossil insects at the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart .

Life

Bechly studied biology at the University of Hohenheim from 1987 to 1991 and from 1991 to 1994 zoology , parasitology and paleontology at the University of Tübingen . He graduated in 1994 with Gerhard Mickoleit on the morphology of dragonfly wings and was in 1999 when Wolf Ernst Reif with summa cum laude on phylogeny doctorate of dragonflies. After almost a year of academic traineeship , he began working as a curator at the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart in 1999, which he ended in December 2016. Research stays led him a. a. to the Museum of Comparative Zoology and numerous other natural history museums around the world.

plant

Bechly's work focuses on fossil dragonflies from all geological ages, the evolution and tribal history of dragonflies and other early flight insects, and fossil insects from the Upper Jurassic of Germany ( Solnhofen limestone ) and the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil (Crato limestone) as well as various amber inclusions . Bechly has described 167 new species, including Lebanoraphidia nana and the related genus. The description of the new fossil insect order of the chimera winged in 2011, which also provided new information on the evolution of the insect wings, received international attention .

In 2016 he and colleagues introduced a new, now extinct, insect order, Permopsocida . At the end of 2013, Bechly and André Nel found a specimen ( Psocorrhyncha burmitica ) from Burma (medium chalk, around 100 million years old) in the amber collection of the Natural History Museum in Stuttgart and an employee of Nel at about the same time found another specimen of the order in a Chinese amber collection. They belonged to the early pollinators in the Cretaceous period, fed on pollen, have the status of a missing link and are related to today's Schnabelkerfen and fringed winged birds. The order was relatively poor in species, existed for at least 185 million years and died out at the end of the Cretaceous 65 million years ago. So far, older fossils are only known from a much earlier time than the new finds. The finds also provided evidence of the evolution of the snout's proboscis from mouthparts originally used for chewing.

As project manager, Bechly organized the special exhibition "The River of Life - 150 Years of Evolution" in Rosenstein Castle in 2009, which was one of the largest events in Darwinian 2009 in Germany with more than 90,000 visitors. The concept for this exhibition was one of the winners of the ideas competition "Evolution Today" of the Volkswagen Foundation in 2008.

TV appearances include appearances as a studio guest at Planet Wissen and Sky Magazin as well as various interviews with ZDF Mittagsmagazin , Landesschau KulTour ( SWR ), nano (ZDF / 3sat ), as well as L-TV and Regio-TV news.

Private

Bechly is married and has two sons. He lives with his family in Echsenbach . In his private life, he deals extensively with topics such as philosophy, theology, metaphysics and politics.

Intelligent design support

Bechly was an atheist and a staunch supporter of Richard Dawkins . Today he rejects naturalism and materialism and advocates the intelligent design approach with regard to biological origins . The latter, however, according to his own statement, for purely scientific reasons. However, he expressly advises against promoting these positions either in his previous work as a museum employee or in his specialist palaeontological publications.

Bechly has been a Senior Fellow of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute in Seattle since 2016 and a Senior Scientist at the Biologic Institute in Redmond, an institution also committed to intelligent design, since 2017. He worked on the intelligent design film "Revolutionary" (2016).

Eponymy

The following new taxa were named after Günter Bechly:

Fonts

  • G. Bechly: Morphological investigations on the wing veins of recent dragonflies and their main group representatives (Insecta; Pterygota; Odonata) with special consideration of the phylogenetic systematics and the basic plan of the Odonata. (= Petalura. Spec. Vol. 2). 1996, OCLC 180464255 .
  • G. Bechly: Evolution and systematics. In: M. Hutchins, AV Evans, RW Garrison, N. Schlager (Eds.): Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. 2nd Edition. Volume 3: Insects. Gale Group, Farmington Hills, MI 2004, pp. 7-16.
  • G. Bechly: Additions to the fossil dragonfly fauna of the Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil (Insecta: Odonata). In: Palaeodiversity. Volume 3, (Supplement "Contributions to the Willi-Hennig-Symposium on Phylogenetics and Evolution, University of Hohenheim, 29 September - 2 October 2009"), 2010, pp. 11-77.
  • G. Bechly, C. Brauckmann, W. Zessin, E. Gröning: New results concerning the morphology of the most ancient dragonflies (Insecta: Odonatoptera) from the Namurian of Hagen-Vorhalle (Germany). In: J. zool. Syst. evol. Res. Volume 39, 2001, pp. 209-226.
  • G. Bechly, F. Haas, W. Schawaller, H. Schmalfuss, U. Schmid: Ur-Geziefer - The fascinating evolution of insects. (= Stuttgart Contribution. Naturk. Ser. C. Volume 49). 2001, DNB 964675013 .
  • G. Bechly, A. Nel, X. Martínez-Delclòs, EA Jarzembowski, R. Coram, D. Martill, G. Fleck, F. Escuillié, MM Wisshak, M. Maisch: A revision and phylogenetic study of Mesozoic Aeshnoptera, with description of several new families, genera and species (Insecta: Odonata: Anisoptera). (= New Paleontological Treatises. Volume 4). 2001, ISBN 3-931689-07-7 .
  • G. Bechly, W. Wichard: Damselfly and dragonfly nymphs in Eocene Baltic amber (Insecta: Odonata), with aspects of their palaeobiology. In: Palaeodiversity. Volume 1, 2008, pp. 37-74.
  • G. Fleck, G. Bechly, X. Martínez-Delclòs, EA Jarzembowski, R. Coram, A. Nel: Phylogeny and classification of the Stenophlebioptera (Odonata: Epiproctophora). In: Annales de la Société Entomologique de France. n.S., Volume 39, No. 1, 2003, pp. 55-93.
  • G. Fleck, G. Bechly, X. Martínez-Delclòs, E. Jarzembowski, A. Nel: A revision of the Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous dragonfly family Tarsophlebiidae, with a discussion on the phylogenetic positions of the Tarsophlebiidae and Sieblosiidae (Insecta, Odonatoptera, Panodonata). In: Geodiversitas. Volume 26, No. 1, 2004, pp. 33-60.
  • A. Huguet, A. Nel, X. Martínez-Delclòs, G. Bechly, R. Martins-Neto: Preliminary phylogenetic analysis of the Protanisoptera (Insecta: Odonatoptera) [Essai d'analyse phylogénétique des Protanisoptera (Insecta: Odonatoptera)]. In: Geobios. Volume 35, 2002, pp. 537-560.
  • EA Jarzembowski, X. Martínez-Delclòs, G. Bechly, A. Nel, R. Coram, F. Escuillé: The Mesozoic non-calopterygoid Zygoptera: descriptions of new genera and species from the Lower Cretaceous of England and Brazil and their phylogenetic significance (Odonata, Zygoptera, Coenagrionoidea, Hemiphlebioidea, Lestoidea). In: Cretaceous Research. Volume 19, 1998, pp. 403-444.
  • DM Martill, G. Bechly, RF Loveridge (Eds.): The Crato Fossil Beds of Brazil: Window into an Ancient World . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK 2007, ISBN 978-0-521-85867-0 . (in it by Bechly the introduction with Martill and many of the insect articles, including the introduction to the insect articles and the articles Odonata, Isoptera, Blattaria, Chresmododea, Mecoptera, Trichoptera and Lepidoptera)
  • A. Nel, G. Bechly, E. Jarzembowski, X. Martínez-Delclòs: A revision of the fossil petalurid dragonflies (Insecta: Odonata: Anisoptera: Petalurida). (= Paleontologia Lombarda. Ns Volume 10). 1998, OCLC 39953723 .
  • A. Nel, G. Bechly, J. Prokop, O. Béthoux, G. Fleck: Systematics and evolution of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic damselfly-like Odonatoptera of the "protozygopteran" grade. In: Journal of Paleontology. Volume 86, No. 1, 2012, pp. 81-104.
  • M. Olmi, G. Bechly: New parasitic wasps from Baltic amber (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Dryinidae). (= Stuttgart Contribution. Naturk. Ser. B. Volume 306). 2001, OCLC 174765897 .
  • U. Schmid, G. Bechly (Hrsg.): Evolution - The flow of life. (= Stuttgart Contribution. Naturk. Ser. C. Volume 66/67). 2009, DNB 994306601 .
  • A. Staniczek, G. Bechly, RJ Godunko: Coxoplectoptera, a new fossil order of Palaeoptera (Arthropoda: Insecta), with comments on the phylogeny of the stem group of mayflies (Ephemeroptera). In: Insects Systematics & Evolution. Volume 42, No. 2, 2011, pp. 101-138.

literature

  • E. Probst : Who was the progenitor of insects? Interview with the Stuttgart biologist and paleontologist Dr. Günter Bechly. GRIN Verlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-656-09068-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from October 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b c E. Probst: Who was the progenitor of the insects? 2011, ISBN 978-3-656-09068-7 .
  3. ↑ Author's biography in MK Kohli, JL Ware, G. Bechly: How to date a dragonfly: Fossil calibrations for odonates. In: Palaeontologia Electronica. Volume 19, No. 1, 2016.
  4. ↑ G. Bechly, K. Wolf-Schwenninger: A new fossil genus and species of snakefly (Raphidioptera: Mesoraphidiidae) from Lower Cretaceous Lebanese amber, with a discussion of snakefly phylogeny and fossil history. , In: Insect Systematics and Evolution. Volume 42, 2011, pp. 221-236.
  5. ↑ Di-Ying Huang, Bechly, André Nel a. a .: New fossil insect or Permopsocida elucidates major radiation and evolution of suction feeding in hemimetabolous insects (Hexapoda: Acercaria). In: Nature.com, Scientific Reports. Volume 6, 2016, Article number: 23004. (nature.com)
  6. ↑ Press release from the Volkswagen Foundation
  7. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from January 6, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  8. ↑ gbechly.jimdo.com
  9. ↑ Jörn Schumacher: I became a Christian because I am a scientist. In: pro. Christian media magazine. No. 6, 2017, p. 16f.
  10. ↑ http://gbechly.jimdo.com/world-view/intelligent-design/ ( Memento from June 3, 2016 in the web archive archive.today ) Günter Bechly on Intelligent Design.
  11. ↑ - ( Memento of November 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Website of the film "Revolutionary".
personal data
SURNAME Bechly, Günter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German paleontologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 16, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Sindelfingen