Josef Eiselt

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Josef Eiselt (born May 3, 1912 in Vienna ; † July 25, 2001 there ) was an Austrian zoologist . He dealt with systematic zoology, herpetology and crustaceology .

Life

After graduating from school, Eiselt originally wanted to become an innkeeper , but decided on an academic career and studied natural sciences and physics at the University of Vienna from 1933 . He then worked at the zoological institute of the University of Vienna. In 1939 he received his doctorate in philosophy under the direction of Jan Versluys with a dissertation on the comparative anatomy of the middle ear in frogs and toads . During his studies he worked as a volunteer under Otto Wettstein at the herpetological department of the Natural History Museum Vienna . Wettstein was also director of the Zoological Institute and Eiselt worked there as an assistant after completing his doctorate until he was drafted into the Wehrmacht . After the end of World War II , Eiselt was a British prisoner of war until autumn 1945. From 1949 to 1951 he was a school teacher. He also helped to rebuild the zoological institute. In September 1952 Eiselt became a curator at the herpetological department of the Natural History Museum Vienna. The herpetological collection, which includes over 100,000 specimens, was brought to safety during the war. Under the direction of Eiselt, the alcohol preparations and the 3,000 skeletons were moved to the new rooms. In 1972 he took over the management of the vertebrate department and in 1977 he retired.

In 1979 the Societas Europaea Herpetologica was founded and Eiselt was elected its first president. He held this office until 1985. Before and shortly after the war Eiselt limited himself to field excursions in the Mediterranean area . From 1962 to 1977, Northeast Africa and especially Southwest Asia were his main areas of study. He traveled to Nubia (between Aswan in Egypt and Wadi Halfa in northern Sudan ), Turkey , Iraq , Iran and Afghanistan . During his retirement he visited Turkey again, where he made a total of 15 excursions. At the age of 81 he made his last trip to Yemen . His research interests initially dealt with the existing museum material, in particular with salamanders , lizards and the Austrian herpetofauna . After the Nubia expedition, he focused on the systematics and distribution of the amphibians and reptiles of Southwest Asia, especially Turkey and Transcaucasia , where he mainly studied the lizards of the Lacerta genus . On his travels Eiselt was often accompanied by the German herpetologist Josef Friedrich Schmidtler and the Viennese photographer Inge Adametz. After Schmidtler and his father Josef Johann Schmidler, Eiselt named the subspecies Apathya cappadocica schmidtlerorum of the Cappadocian lizard in 1979 . Between 1940 and 1996 Eiselt published 45 herpetological writings, including the first descriptions of Bufotes oblungus , Bufotes zugmayeri , Anatololacerta budaki , Darevskia bendimahiensis , Darevskia steineri , Eirenis hakkariensis and Eirenis rechingeri . His best-known descriptions include the endangered Anatolian meadow viper ( Vipera anatolica ) and Iranodon persicus , the first species of angular newt to be found in Iran. In addition to his herpetological work, Eiselt devoted himself to copepods .

Dedication names

The species and subspecies Atretochoana eiselti , Gephyromantis eiselti , Podarcis tiliguerta eiselti , Dolichophis caspius eiselti , Emys orbicularis eiselti , Ablepharus chernovi eiselti , Calamaria eiselti , Eirenis eiselti and Pseudorabdion are named after Josef Eiselt .

literature

personal data
SURNAME Eiselt, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 3, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH July 25, 2001
Place of death Vienna