Willy Wolterstorff, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Willy Wolterstorff

German paleontologist and herpetologist

Date of Birth: 16-Jun-1864

Place of Birth: Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

Date of Death: 01-Jan-1943

Profession: naturalist, zoologist, paleontologist, herpetologist

Nationality: Germany

Zodiac Sign: Gemini


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About Willy Wolterstorff

  • Willy Georg Wolterstorff (16 June 1864 in Calbe – 21 January 1943 in Magdeburg) was a German paleontologist and herpetologist. As a child he lost his hearing due to disease, thus finding it necessary to lip-read from an early age.
  • He learned natural sciences through private lessons.
  • After receiving vocational training as a bookbinder, he studied geology from 1884 under Karl von Fritsch (1838-1906) at the University of Halle.
  • At Halle he also received training as a curator. In 1889 he became an assistant to Konrad Oebbeke (1853-1932) at the mineralogical-geological institute at Erlangen, and two years later was appointed curator at the Museum fĂĽr Naturkunde und Vorgeschichte (museum of natural history and prehistory) in Magdeburg.
  • After his retirement in 1929, he remained at the Magdeburg museum, performing important functions as a volunteer. Wolterstorff is known for scientific research of "lower vertebrates", in particular investigations involving the systematics, reproduction and behavior of members of the family Salamandridae.
  • He was the author of nearly 300 scientific papers, and from 1909 was editor of Blätter fĂĽr Aquarien- und Terrarienkunde.
  • He is credited with creation of the "Tradescantia-Glas", an enclosure-method (Hälterungsmethode) for maintenance and breeding of newts.The recently extinct Wolterstorff's newt (Cynops wolterstorffi), is one of the species named in his honour.
  • As a taxonomist, he described the salamander genus Mertensiella (1925).Wolterstorff is also commemorated in the scientific name of a species of gecko, Urocotyledon wolterstorffi and the Killifish Cynolebias wolterstorffi.

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