Jürgen Haffer

Jürgen Haffer (born December 9, 1932 in Berlin ; † April 26, 2010 in Essen ) was a German geologist , paleontologist , ornithologist and biographer .

Haffer studied geology, palaeontology and biology in Göttingen and Freiburg. He received his doctorate in 1957 from the University of Göttingen and worked from 1957 to 1988 as a geologist and exploration manager in South America, USA, Iran, Egypt and Norway. In addition to biogeography, his part-time work was the formation and systematics of birds.

He wrote the first detailed biography of Ernst Mayr and was a co-author of the life and work of Erwin Stresemann . Haffer was the author of numerous ornithological works such as The "Stresemannsche Revolution" in the ornithology of the early 20th century or About super species in birds .

On the basis of his studies on the Amazonian bird fauna, he wrote several papers on Neotropical ornithology and applied the theory of ice age retreats to the development of the enormous biodiversity of the rainforests of the Amazon basin. At the beginning of the 21st century, however, it turned out that the refugee theory was insufficient to justify biodiversity.

Honors and Dedication Names

In 1975 he was awarded the William Brewster Medal of the American Ornithologists' Union . He received the award for his series of excellent publications on the ornithogeography of South America. The decision-making body cites the reasons for the award as follows:

“ For most of the continents of the world, a basic inventory of live birds has been made and the range of most species is detailed. The students of zoogeography and classification therefore have satisfactory material at their disposal as a basis for their analytical and synthetic work. Paradoxically, this is not the case for a continent that has one of the most biodiverse avifaunas of all - South America. Even today, important areas of South America are being ornithologically explored for the first time, new species are being discovered and maps of distribution areas are constantly being updated. Even so, there is a vast mountain of uncoordinated information about South American birds awaiting serious analysis. In a series of brilliant articles that culminated in a major monograph published by the Nuttall Ornithological Club , geologist Jürgen Haffer has set standards for future studies of ornithography in South America. It draws on existing knowledge of the geological history of South America and precise knowledge in the literature of ornithology, geology and evolutionary theory. By combining this with his own field research in the neotropics, he created a detailed and plausible reconstruction of the geological, climatological and evolutionary events. The current complex distribution schemes via birds from the Andean and Amazon regions arose from them. As an additional product, a study of changes was made on Neotropical bird families such as purrbirds ("Pipridae"), glossy birds ("Galbulidae"), toucans ("Ramphastidae") and trogons ("Trogonidae"), which made an important contribution to making them their own today Have respect in the literature. The 1975 Brewster Medal rightly goes to Jürgen Haffer, who opened a new era in the history of neotropical ornithology. These include, for example, Avifauna of Northwestern Columbia, South America , Avian speciation in tropical South America: with a systematic survey of the toucans (Ramphastidae) and jacamars (Galbulidae) or Speciation in Colombian forest birds west of the Andes . "

In 1999 he received the ornithological award of the German Ornithological Society (DO-G) for his work on species concepts in bird systematics .

In 2013 Haffer named the new blue raven species Cyanocorax hafferi from the Brazilian state of Amazonas in honor. In the same year Morton L. Isler , Robb T. Brumfield and Gustavo A. Bravo established the genus Hafferia from the ant bird family .

Works (selection)

• Ornithology, evolution, and philosophy: the life and science of Ernst Mayr 1904-2005.
• Erwin Stresemann (1889–1972) - life and work of a pioneer of scientific ornithology. (Co-author)
• Avifauna of Northwestern Colombia, South America.
• Secondary contact zones of birds in Northern Iran.
• Avian speciation in tropical South America, with a systematic survey of the toucans (Ramphastidae) and jacamars (Galbulidae).
• Speciation in Amazonian Forest Birds. In: Science , Volume 165, No. 3889, 1969, pp. 131-137, DOI: 10.1126 / science.165.3889.131
• Handbook of the birds of Central Europe (15 volumes) Glutz von Blotzheim , UN & Bauer , K. (1966 - 1998) (contributor - including biogeography, systematics and taxonomy)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} In memoriam: Dr. Jürgen Haffer (1932-2010) , Anzeiger des Verein Thüringer Ornithologen 7, pp. 143–150, 2010.
2. ^ Jürgen Haffer in the catalog of the German National Library. (accessed on July 15, 2010)
3. ↑ Jürgen Haffer: The "Stresemannsche Revolution" in ornithology of the early 20th century. In: Journal of Ornithology. 142, 2001, p. 381, doi : 10.1007 / BF01651337 .
4. ↑ Jürgen Haffer: About super species in birds. ( Online (PDF; 3.7 MB) accessed on July 16, 2010)
5. ^ Daniel Gomes da Rocha, Igor L. Käfer: What has become of the refugia hypothesis to explain biological diversity in Amazonia? in "Ecology and Evolution", March 27, 2019, doi : 10.1002 / ece3.5051 , paragraphs 2 and 4.
6. ^ The American Ornithologists' Union: William Brewster Memorial Award. (accessed July 17, 2010)
7. ↑ The Auk, Vol 93, No. 1, 1976 Proceedings of the Ninety-Third Stated Meeting of the American Ornithologists' Union (PDF; 1.1 MB) Original article
8. ↑ Deutsche Ornithologen-Gesellschaft: Ornithologenpreis  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on July 16, 2010)  

Web links

• Literature by and about Jürgen Haffer in the catalog of the German National Library