Vincent Ziswiler

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Vinzenz Ziswiler (born February 1, 1935 in Lucerne ) is a Swiss zoologist . The spelling Vincent Ziswiler is also often found .

Life

In 1962, Ziswiler was awarded the doctoral thesis The Anus Feather of Birds. Investigations on the morphogenesis and phylogenesis of the so-called aftership under the direction of Hans Steiner, doctor of philosophy at the University of Zurich . He also worked under Hans Burla (1920–2010) as a curator in the Zoological Museum of the University of Zurich . In 1967 Ziswiler became a private lecturer, 1972 associate professor and 1981 professor at the University of Zurich. In 2002 he retired as a professor emeritus. From 1984 to 1987 he was President of the Research Commission of the University of Zurich. In 1985 he succeeded Hans Burla as director of the Zoological Museum at the University of Zurich. Ziswiler's zoological interests are diverse. He deals with ornithological topics, including fine finches and the functional morphology of the digestive tract of songbirds, but also with endangered and extinct species. Further research areas are the evolution of vertebrates, especially adaptive radiation in the nutritional and digestive areas, domestication and the history of science. In 1963, Ziswiler published the book The Forest and its Animals together with the ornithologist and animal draftsman Jörg Kühn (1940–1964) . In 1965 he published the book Threatened and Exterminated Animals in Springer Verlag , which appeared in an English translation in 1967 ( Extinct and Vanishing Animals ). In 1966 he translated the alarming report Avant que Nature meure (German: Nature in Danger) by Jean Dorst into German. In 1996 he wrote a treatise on the dodo entitled The Dodo: Fantasies and Facts about a Vanished Bird . In 1965 and 1969, Ziswiler compiled indexes of synonyms for trivial names in the annotated facsimile new editions of Conrad Gessner's works Thierbuch and Vogelbuch . His 1976 published two-volume textbook special zoology. Vertebrates were considered one of the standard works in German-language biology studies for a decade. In 1982, together with Jürgen Jacob, he wrote the chapter on the root gland in the sixth volume of the compilation Avian Biology by Donald S. Farner, James R. King and Kenneth C. Parkes . In 2002, together with Urs Utiger, Notker Helfenberger, Beat Schätti, Catherine Schmidt and Markus Ruf, he established the adders genus Orthriophis for four species that were previously assigned to the genus Elaphe .

Ziswiler had research stays at Harvard University , the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum in Leiden . He also undertook research trips to Lake Kivu , New Guinea, New Caledonia and the Southwest Pacific island groups.

literature

  • Short biography Vincent Ziswiler In: Hansjürg Büchi, Markus Huppenbauer (Ed.): Autarky and Adaptation On the tension between self-determination and environmental conservation . Westdeutscher Verlag, 1996. ISBN 978-3-531-12795-8 . P. 359
  • Short biography Vinzenz Ziswiler In: Urs N. Glutz von Blotzheim : Ornithological research in the 20th century in Switzerland - a successful cooperation between specialists and lay ornithologists Der Ornithologische Beobachter / Volume 106 / Issue 1 / March 2009, p. 33

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Short biography Vinzenz Ziswiler In: Urs N. Glutz von Blotzheim (Ed.) Ornithological research in the 20th century in Switzerland - a successful cooperation between specialists and lay ornithologists Der Ornithologische Beobachter, Volume 106, Issue 1, March 2009, p. 33
  2. ↑ Urs Utiger, Notker Helfenberger, Beat Schätti, Catherine Schmidt, Markus Ruf and Vincent Ziswiler: Molecular Systematics and Phylogeny of Old and New World Ratsnakes, Elaphe auct., And Related Genera (Reptilia, Squamata, Colubridae). Russian Journal of Herpetology 9 (2), 2002, pp. 105-124.
  3. ↑ Short biography Vincent Ziswiler In: Hansjürg Büchi, Markus Huppenbauer (Hrsg.): Autarky and adaptation To the tension between self-determination and environmental conservation . Westdeutscher Verlag, 1996. ISBN 978-3-531-12795-8 . P. 359
personal data
SURNAME Ziswiler, Vincent
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ziswiler, Vincent
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Lucerne