Norman I. Platnick
Norman Ira Platnick (born December 30, 1951 in Bluefield , West Virginia , † April 8, 2020 in Philadelphia ) was an American arachnologist and curator of the invertebrate zoology department of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). He received his PhD from Harvard University in 1973 and described thousands of arachnids from around the world.
He also owes his fame to the World Spider Catalog, which he set up and operated online on behalf of the AMNH. The catalog is the only up-to-date resource for described spider species. It is unique in its claim to contain a worldwide complete list of species, to examine the results of all work, to summarize and to classify them taxonomically. All scientific descriptions and new determinations that have been written to date can be found there in a taxonomically organized manner. For this work of "priceless value" he was honored with the 2007 Pierre Bonnet Award for Devoted Service to the Advancement of Arachnology from the International Society of Arachnology .
He also worked with other scientists on an image-based identification system, SPIDA-web. The Atlas of phylogenetic data for entelegyne spiders was created in collaboration with Griswold, Ramírez and Coddington.
As a professor he has taught at City University of New York since 1978 and at Cornell University since 1988 . At Columbia University , he was Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation since 1999.
Researches
In 1973 he presented his doctoral thesis "A Revision of the North American Spiders of the Family Anyphaenidae" .
His focus was particularly on the ground-dwelling Gnaphosids of Australasia. Together with two other partners, he has written monographs on Australasian representatives of seven families. At the beginning of the work on lamponids it was estimated that the 17 species of the single genus Lampona described up to that point represented 20% of the family Lamponidae . In fact, however, the team found 171 more species, which they grouped into 22 genera into two subfamilies. The Lamponidae monograph comprises 330 printed pages and is also available on the Internet; the family has since been considered the most species-rich spider family in Australia.
By the end of 2011 he wanted to complete a research project supported by the National Science Foundation with over $ 2 million as part of the Planetary Biodiversity Inventory to describe the Oonopidae members. 30 arachnologists are involved. It is estimated that instead of the 500 species described so far, there are 2,500 species worldwide with very small distribution areas about which nothing is known. Through the work, knowledge is also expected that not only serve to protect species, but also provide information about the historical biogeographical development of the earth.
Furthermore, he wrote a large number of publications with other arachnologists, including not only articles about real spiders , but also about tarantulas and hooded spiders as well as taxonomy by means of DNA analysis.
Web links
- CV (PDF file; 18 kB)
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Platnick, Norman I. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Platnick, Norman Ira (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American arachnologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 30, 1951 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bluefield |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 8, 2020 |
| Place of death | Philadelphia |