Georg Haas (zoologist)

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Georg Haas (1955)

Georg Haas (born January 19, 1905 in Vienna , † September 13, 1981 in Jerusalem ) was an Israeli herpetologist and paleontologist of Austrian origin.

Life

During his zoology studies at the University of Vienna , Haas attended courses with Jan Versluys , Franz Werner and Otto von Wettstein . In 1928 he received his doctorate in philosophy with a dissertation on the functional skull anatomy of primitive snakes and venomous snakes . After a short stay at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin from 1931 to 1932, he emigrated to the Mandate Palestine , where he did research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem . In 1976 he retired.

In addition to his anatomical and morphological work, Haas studied the distribution and taxonomy of reptiles and amphibians in the Middle East . He participated in several expeditions to Transjordan , the Negev and the Sinai Peninsula . His careful and extensive taxonomy studies led to the first description of several new taxa and the differentiation of species whose status had long been unclear.

Haas described the reptile species Acanthodactylus hardyi , Acanthodactylus schmidti , Atractaspis engaddensis , Pseudoceramodactylus khobarensis , Stenodactylus grandiceps , Stenodactylus slevini and Trigonodactylus arabicus . In 1951 he described the snail species Elia elonensis .

In the course of time, Haas turned more and more to paleontology, especially the snake fossils of the Cenoman ( Upper Cretaceous ), which were found in the Ein Yabrud fossil site near Ramallah in the Judean Mountains, aroused his interest. One species, Haasiophis terrasanctus , discovered by Haas and described by Eitan Tchernov in 2000, had well-developed hind legs.

Throughout his career, Haas has been interested in questions of anatomy, particularly the jaw muscles. Research, with which he tried to answer key questions of phylogenesis and classification , dealt with the Central American pointed head python (1955), the hump lizard ( Xenosaurus ) and the Chinese crocodile tail lizard (1960) as well as various venomous snakes and primitive snakes. Between 1929 and 1982 Haas published 77 papers, 45 of which are herpetological in nature.

Haas was a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His most famous students include Eitan Tchernov , Elazar Kochva , Eviatar Nevo , Yehudah L. Werner , Ephraim Katzir , who was Israeli President from 1973 to 1978, and Renana Leshem , the daughter of David Ben-Gurion .

Awards and dedication names

The Skinkart Sphenomorphus haasi from Sarawak was named in 1965 by Robert F. Inger and William Hosmer in honor of Georg Haas.

In 1963 Georg Haas received the Rothschild Prize in Life Sciences.

After Haas are skinks Acanthodactylus haasi and Sphenomorphus haasi , the snail species Truncatellina haasi from the family of vertiginidae (Vertiginidae) Cristataria haasi of the family door snails (Clausiliidae) Euchondrus haasi from the family of Wolverine worm (Enidae) and Mathilda haasi (today a synonym of Mathilda gemmulata ) from the sea snail family Mathildidae , the subspecies Elia moesta georgi from the door snail family and the fossil snake genus Haasiophis .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Georg Haas: About the head skeleton and the masticatory muscles of the Typhlopiden and Glauconiiden , Vienna, Univ. Diss. 1928.
  2. ↑ Donald R. Prothero: The Story of Life in 25 Fossils: Tales of Intrepid Fossil Hunters and the Wonders of Evolution Columbia Univers. Press, 2015, ISBN 978-0231171908 , p. 161.
  3. ↑ dispute over fossil snake legs , spektrum.de , March 22, 2000th
personal data
SURNAME Haas, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli herpetologist and paleontologist of Austrian origin
DATE OF BIRTH January 19, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH September 13, 1981
Place of death Jerusalem