Nils Hjalmar Odhner

Nils Hjalmar Odhner (born December 6, 1884 in Stockholm , † June 12, 1973 ) was a Swedish malacologist . He is considered to be the "great old man" of Swedish mollusc research.

Life

Nils Hjalmar Odhner was born as the son of the factory owner Hjalmar Odhner and his wife Eva nee. Mannerström was born. He grew up in Stockholm and attended school there, which he graduated from high school in 1903. He then studied zoology at the Zootomics Institute of Stockholm University . He completed his studies quickly; In 1908 he was already a Phil. Candidate, 1910 Phil. Licentiate and in 1912 he was promoted to Dr. phil. doctorate and has already received the teaching qualification. In his dissertation he dealt with the morphology of the nephridial system of mussels and its importance for phylogenesis . But this was not his first scientific work. In 1907, while still a student, he published his first scientific work on hind gill snails and pteropods . As early as 1904 he was given the opportunity to conduct his research in the Naturhistoriska riksmuseet in Stockholm. In 1915 he got a position as a museum assistant there. In 1946 he was appointed professor and head of the invertebrate department. Shortly afterwards he also became director of the entire museum. In 1949 he retired, but kept a job in the museum and was able to continue active research as a pensioner. He was a member of several scientific societies, such as the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences , the Physiographische Gesellschaft zu Lund, the German Malacological Society and the Malacological Society of London .

Research interests

As early as 1906 he accompanied Professor Hamberg on his expedition to Lapland and collected land snails there. He published the results as early as 1908 in one of the expedition volumes. In the following years he dealt with the marine arctic molluscs , the subfossil molluscs of Scandinavia and especially the recent land and freshwater mollusks of Scandinavia. In the field of the clam family of the spherical clams (Sphaeriidae) and the snail family amber snails (Succineidae) he carried out fundamental research and was considered the world's leading expert. Later he turned more and more to the molluscs of other seas and continents. He also expanded his research area within the molluscs, which was previously limited to snails and mussels, to the worm mollusks , the puntipods , the beetle snails and cephalopods . A few work also took him into the field of paleontology and geology . In the course of his long research life he published over 100 z. T. very extensive specialist publications. In total, he proposed more than 400 new scientific taxa , ranging from class to variety. He suggested the name of the single- shell class within the mollusc tribe in a letter to Wilhelm Wenz , who then published it with his author's name in 1940. A number of mollusc species have been named after him (e.g. Archidoris odhneri (MacFarland, 1966), Dicata odhneri Schmekel, 1967). The genus Odhneria and various kinds of flukes , however, by Theodor Odhner named.

Works (selection)

• Nils Hjalmar Odhner: Northern and arctic invertebrates in the collection of the Swedish State Museum (Riksmuseum). III. Opisthobranchia and Pteropoda. In: Kunliga Svenska Vetenskap-Akademien Handlingar , 41 (4). Stockholm 1907, pp. 1–116.
• The mollusks of the high mountains of Lapland. In: Naturw. Under Sarekgeb. , 4 (2). Stockholm 1908, pp. 133-168.
• Morphological and phylogenetic studies on the nephridia of the lamellar branches. In: Z. wiss. Zool. , 100 (2). Berlin 1912, pp. 287-391.
• The taker's mollusc faun. In: Sjön Tàkern's Fauna oh Flora , 8. Stockholm 1929, pp. 1–129.
• Contributions to the malacozoology of the Canary Islands. Lamellibranchia, cephalopods, gastropods. In: Ark. Zool. , 23A (14), Stockholm 1931, pp. 1-116.

literature

• Henrik Waldén: Nils Hjalmar Odhner (December 6, 1884 to June 12, 1973). In: Malakologische Abhandlungen , 5. Dresden, pp. 155–165.
• Lennart Sandberg, Anders Warén: Molluscan taxa introduced by Nils Hjalmar Odhner. In: Malakologische Abhandlungen , 16. Dresden, pp. 117-134.

Web links

• Literature by and about Nils Hjalmar Odhner in the catalog of the German National Library