Günter Bechly

Günter Bechly

Günter Bechly (2004)
Born (1963-10-16) October 16, 1963
Sindelfingen, West Germany
Nationality German
Fields Paleoentomology, Odonatology, amber
Institutions State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart 1999-2016
Spouse Maria Luise Bechly (1979–)

Günter Bechly (born 16 October 1963) is a German paleontologist and entomologist, specialising on fossil insects (especially odonates).

Life

Bechly was born in Sindelfingen to Ursula Elfriede Bechly, and Günter Erwin Hermann Bechly. He is married to Maria Luise Bechly (*1979, née Winkelhofer) and has two sons.

Bechly studied biology at the University of Hohenheim and zoology, parasitology and paleontology at the University of Tübingen. In 1999 he finished his PhD thesis on the fossil history and phylogeny of dragonflies and damselflies. After working for nearly a year as scientific volunteer in 1999, Bechly began became curator for amber and fossil insects at the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart. He left the museum in December 2016. He has made research visits to the Museum of Comparative Zoology and other natural history museums.[1]

Work

Bechly's research as palaeoentomologist is mainly focussed on the evolution, phylogeny, and fossil history of odonates and other basal pterygotes, and fossil insects from the Upper Jurassic Solnhofen Plattenkalk of Germany and the Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil, as well as diverse amber inclusions. Bechly described about 167 new species and numerous higher taxa, including a phylogenetic re-classification of dragonflies and damselflies. The description of the new fossil insect order Coxoplectoptera in 2011 provided new clues to the evolution of insect wings and received broad international media coverage.[2]

In 2009 Bechly organized as project leader the special exhibition "Der Fluss des Lebens - 150 Jahre Evolutionstheorie" at Rosenstein Castle, which attracted over 90.000 visitors and was one of the largest events of the "Darwin Year" celebrations in Germany. The concept for this exhibition was among the winners of the idea competition "Evolution heute" by the German VolkswagenStiftung in 2008.[3]

Bechly has made several appearances on German TV.[4]

In 2015 Bechly criticised Neo-Darwinism and expressed his support for Intelligent Design theory on a new private webpage[5] and blog.[6] Bechly is a convert to Roman Catholic Christianity.[7] He emphasizes on his website that he strictly separates his private activities for Intelligent Design and Christian apologetics from his former professional work as museum scientist and in his paleontological publications.[8]

Since 2016 Bechly is Senior Fellow of the Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Institute in Seattle, and since 2017 senior scientist at the Biologic Institute in Redmond. He featured in the Intelligent-Design documentary "Revolutionary" (2016).[9]

Eponymy

The following new taxa and species have been named after him:[10]

Publications

Literature

References

  1. ↑ Probst, E. 2011
  2. ↑ Probst, E. 2011
  3. ↑ press report by the VolkswagenStiftung
  4. ↑ "Homepage of Dr.Günter Bechly". Natural History Museum, Stuttgart. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  5. ↑ http://gbechly.jimdo.com/world-view/intelligent-design/
  6. ↑ http://gbechly.jimdo.com/2016/03/21/the-lamoureux-delusion/
  7. ↑ http://gbechly.jimdo.com/world-view/theology/
  8. ↑ http://gbechly.jimdo.com/world-view/intelligent-design/
  9. ↑ http://www.revolutionarybehe.com/category/revolutionaries/
  10. ↑ Probst, E. 2011
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.