Heinz Felten

Heinz Felten (born May 8, 1922 in Mainz , † July 8, 2000 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German zoologist. His main research focus was mammalogy , especially bats and small mammals .

Live and act

Felten was the son of Adam Felten and his wife Agnes nee Klahr. His father was a tax inspector. After completing elementary school and secondary school in Mainz in January 1940, Felten was drafted into the air force. From the winter semester 1945/1946 he studied zoology, botany and biology at the University of Frankfurt am Main . In 1951 he was with the dissertation Studies on the taxonomy, Eidonomie and ecology of small mammals of the Rhine-Main area under the direction of Robert Mertens Dr. phil nat. PhD. In 1949 his first publication appeared with the title On the keeping and breeding of our wood mice . In August 1951, Felten began working as a research assistant in the Senckenberg Museum , where he became familiar with the mammal collection. From 1952 to 1954 he worked for a German-Salvadoran research program, where he researched the mammal fauna in San Salvador for 19 months . The collection he gathered on this expedition comprised 73 mammalian taxa, including two new bat subspecies, which he described between 1955 and 1958. He also brought valuable evidence of birds, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates back to the Senckenberg Museum. In 1955 Felten became a research assistant and on July 1, 1960 he took over the newly opened mammal department of the Senckenberg Museum as curator.

Dedication names and awards

In 1963, Franz Malec and Gerhard Storch described the Felten vole ( Microtus felteni ), which is called Felten's vole in the English-speaking world . In 1992 Felten was honored with the Silver Senckenberg Medal for the 175th anniversary of the Senckenberg Natural Research Society . In 1989 he received the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon . In the same year he was awarded the Golden Plaque of Honor by the Thai Minister of Science and Technology.

literature

• Konrad Klemmer : Personalia: Heinz Felten † (May 8, 1922 - July 8, 2000) In: Natur und Museum, 130 (11), November 2000, pp. 394–395
• Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins, Michael Grayson: The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals , Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0801893049 . Pp. 132-133