Jurgens AJ Meester

Jurgens Anthonie Janse Meester (born May 20, 1931 ; † October 7, 1994 ), also known as Waldo Meester, was a South African Mammaloge . His research focus was on the small mammals of southern Africa, especially the shrews and the golden mole .

Life

In 1953, Meester graduated with a Master of Science degree from the University of Pretoria . In the same year he became curator for mammals at the Transvaal Museum . In 1956 he received his masters degree from the University of Michigan . He then returned to the University of Pretoria, where he received his Ph.D. received his doctorate. During this time, Meester devoted his research to the taxonomic revision of the genus of the white-toothed shrew ( Crocidura ) in southern Africa. In 1963 he became director of the Kaffrarian Museum in King William's Town , which has a considerable collection of mammals.

Meester only stayed a short period in King William's Town before returning to Pretoria University as a lecturer in zoology. In 1966 he founded the Mammal Research Institute at the University of Pretoria, which he headed until 1971. In the same year he published the work The Mammals of Africa: an identification manual in collaboration with Henry W. Setzer . In 1972 he became head of the zoological department at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg . In 1980 he became head of the biological department at the University of Durban-Westville . In 1986, the Classification of Southern African mammals appeared , which is one of the standard works on the taxonomy of South African mammals. Meester and his co-authors Nicolaas Jacobus Dippenaar, Ignatius Lourens Rautenbach and Carolyn Margaret Baker received the University Book Prize for this. Meester was also the author or co-author of over 150 scientific publications. Among them are first descriptions of the subspecies Chrysospalax villosus rufus of the wire-haired golden mole , Juliana's golden mole ( Neamblysomus julianae ) and the long-tailed wood shrew ( Myosorex longicaudatus ). In 1991, he finished his university career. Meester then worked as assistant research director at the Natal Shark Authority.

Meester's research focused on a collection-based taxonomy and systematics. He was active on various boards and committees. From 1976 to 1994 was chairman of the board of the KwaZulu-Natal Museum and from 1984 to 1994 chairman of the board of the Durban Natural Science Museum .

Honors and Dedication Names

The Durban Natural Science Museum named a library after Meester. He was an Honorary Research Associate at the Smithsonian Institution , the Transvaal Museum, and the Durban Natural Science Museum. In 1994 he received the gold medal from the Zoological Society of Southern Africa , where he was president in 1981. In 2013 Peter J. Taylor and his co-authors named the species Myosorex meesteri from the genus of the African wood shrews ( Myosorex ) after Meester.

literature

• Peter John Taylor : Obituary: Jurgens Anthonie Janse (Waldo) Meester 20 May 1931 - 7 October 1994 , Durban Museum Novitates, Volume 20, 1995, p. 75
• Honoring our Leading Minds - Hulde aan ons Denkleiers 1908–2008. Universiteit van Pretoria, 2008, pp. 30–31

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter John Taylor, Teresa Catherine Kearney, Julian C Kerbis Peterhans, Roderick M Baxter, Sandi Willows-Munro: Cryptic diversity in forest shrews of the genus Myosorex from southern Africa, with the description of a new species and comments on Myosorex tenuis , Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, Oxford University Press, 169 (4), 2013, pp. 881-902