Wolfgang Maier (zoologist)

Wolfgang Maier (born August 4, 1942 in Horb am Neckar ) is a German vertebrate morphologist who worked primarily in Frankfurt am Main and Tübingen and made significant contributions to the development of the mammalian skull.

Life and research

Wolfgang Maier studied biology , chemistry , geography and anthropology at the University of Tübingen from 1962 to 1966 . From 1966 to 1969 he did his doctorate on a primatological topic at the Anatomical Institute (Dr. Senckenbergischen Anatomie) at the University of Frankfurt am Main under Dietrich Starck . In 1970 he went to the Bernard Price Institute in Johannesburg (South Africa) on a postdoctoral fellowship , where he did research on plio - Pleistocene monkey relatives . He also got in touch with paleanthropology and the paleontology of the Therapsids . In 1971 he became a research assistant at the Dr. Senckenberg anatomy and was appointed professor of human anatomy in 1973. Maier completed his habilitation in anatomy in 1980 and in 1987 was appointed to the chair for special zoology at the University of Tübingen, where he taught until his retirement in 2007. In 2009 he was made an honorary member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology .

From 1992 to 1994 Maier was Vice President of the University of Tübingen.

In addition to various studies on the morphology of primates (teeth, musculoskeletal system, facial skull and nasal region), he shifted his research focus to comparative ontogenetic studies on marsupials from the 1980s onwards . This consequently led to occupation with the evolutionary biology of the early mammals . In particular, the anatomical adaptations of immature young animals to active milk suckling were seen as a key event in the development of mammals. In his studies he focuses on the interrelationship between ontogenetic adaptation and evolutionary transformation as well as on a holistic concept of the organism.

In 2017 Wolfgang Maier published a collection of 20 popular science texts from four decades under the title 'The Way to People. Selected writings on the evolutionary biology of vertebrates'. The articles document the author's broad areas of interest and work. The texts are supplemented by an autobiographical summary and a complete list of scriptures.

Publications (selection)

• (1971). "Comparative and functional-anatomical studies on the forelegs of Theropithecus gelada (RÜPPELL 1835)." Treatises of the Senckenberg Natural Research Society 527: 1-284.
• (1980). "Construction morphological investigations on the dentition of the recent Prosimiae (primates)." Treatises of the Senckenberg Natural Research Society 538: 1-158.
• (1989). Ala temporalis and alisphenoid in therian mammals. Trends in Vertebrate Morphology. Progress in Zoology 35. H. Splechtna and H. Hilgers. Stuttgart, Fischer Published by 396-400.
• (1989). "Morphological Investigations on the Middle Ear of Marsupialia." Journal for Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research (Festschrift W. Herre) 27: 149-168.
• (1991). "Zoology in Tübingen." Relation to Zool. Ges. 84: 23-30.
• (1999). "On the evolutionary biology of early mammals - with methodological remarks on the interaction between ontogenetic adaptation and phylogenetic transformation." Zoological indicator. Festschrift D. Starck 238 (1-2): 55-74.
• with MR Sánchez-Villagra (2002). "Ontogenetic data and the evolutionary origin of the mammalian scapula." The Sciences 89: 459-461.
• (2007). Zoomorphology in the 20th century. Highlights of zoological research in the German-speaking area - commemorative publication for the 100th annual meeting of the German Zoological Society in Cologne from September 21 to 24, 2007. Marburg, Basilisken-Presse.
• with I. Werneburg (ed.): Key events of the organismic macroevolution . Scidinge Hall Verlag, Zurich 2014.
• (2017). "The way to humans. Selected writings on the evolutionary biology of vertebrates". Scidinge Hall Verlag, Tübingen.
• (2018). "Reproductive Biology and Origins of Mammals". Biology in Our Time 5/2018 (48): 301-309.

Awards

• 2009 Honorary Membership Award Winners: Wolfgang Maier , Society of Vertebrate Paleontology