Gerlof Fokko Mees
Gerlof Fokko Mees (born June 16, 1926 in Velsen , Netherlands ; † March 31, 2013 in Busselton , Western Australia ) was a Dutch ornithologist and ichthyologist .
Live and act
Mees did his military service in the Dutch East Indies from 1946 to 1949 , where his interest in spectacled birds began. Mees studied biology at the University of Leiden with the degree (candidate examination) in 1953 and received his doctorate in 1957 under Hilbrand Boschma (1893-1976) ( A systematic review of Indo-Australia Zosteropidae ). From 1955 to 1957 he was assistant at the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (today Naturalis ) in Leiden in the ornithology department (and at times also fish), visiting New Guinea from December 1956 to May 1957 on behalf of the Rotterdam Zoo .
From 1958 to 1963 he was a curator for vertebrates at the Western Australian Museum in Perth . In 1963 he returned after the death of the curator for birds at the Natural History Museum in Leiden, George Christoffel Alexander Junge (1905–1962), and was his successor, which he remained until his retirement in 1991. During this time he undertook extensive expeditions to the Mariana Islands , Indonesia , Africa , the Norfolk Island and South America . After retiring in 1991, he returned to Australia.
The main research field of Mees was the spectacled family , about which he authored three books. Mees was a member of the International Ornithological Committee .
In 1961 he first described the salamander fish (Lepidogalaxias salamandroides).
Dedication names
Taxa such as Brachyrhamdia meesi , the Meesnachtschwalbe ( Caprimulgus meesi ) and Ninox rufa meesi (a subspecies of the red owl ) are named after Mees .
Works (selection)
- 1957: A systematic review of the IndoAustralian Zosteropidae, Part I. Zoologische Verhandelingen 35: 1-204.
- 1961: Avifauna of Trinidad and Tobago. EJ Brill, Leiden
- 1961: A systematic review of the IndoAustralian Zosteropidae, Part II. Zoologische Verhandelingen 50: 1-168.
- 1969: A systematic review of the IndoAustralian Zosteropidae, Part III. Zoological Negotiations 102: 1-390.
- 1970: Birds of the Inyanga National Park , Rhodesia, EJ Brill, Leiden
- 1974: The Auchenipteridae and Pimelodidae of Suriname (Pisces, Nematognathi) EJ Brill, Leiden
- 1982: Birds from the Lowlands of Southern New Guinea (Merauke and Koembe) EJ Brill, Leiden
- 1994: Birds of Suriname , VACO NV Uitgeversmaatschappij, Paramaribo (revised new edition of François Haverschmidt's work Birds of Surinam (1968))
- 1996: Geographical Variation in Birds of Java , Nuttall Ornithological Club
literature
- Marinus S. Hoogmoed : Notes on the Herpetofauna of Surinam IV: The Lizards and Amphisbaenians of Surinam. University of California, 1973. ISBN 90-6193-205-X
- Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins, Michael Grayson: The Eponym Dictionary of Birds , A & C Black, 2014. ISBN 978-1472905734 .
Web links
- Bright Sparcs Biographical entry
- LB Holthuis 1820 - 1958: Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie , Leiden 1995, biography of Mees pp. 138/139, Dutch, pdf
- Article by Mees at Naturalis
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mees, Gerlof Fokko |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch ornithologist and ichthyologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 16, 1926 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Velsen , Netherlands |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 31, 2013 |
| Place of death | Busselton , Western Australia |