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CONTRIBUTORS:
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JOURNAL:
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YEAR:
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2004
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PUB TYPE:
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Special Issue
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SUBJECT(S):
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Günter Tembrock; Carabus ullrichi; bibliography; biogeography; evolutionary synthesis; speciation; history of biology; Zoologisches Museum Berlin
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DISCIPLINE:
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Biology
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HTTP:
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http://www.wiley-vch.de
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LANGUAGE:
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English
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PUB ID:
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103-397-647
(Last edited on
2004/12/13 08:00:07 US/Mountain)
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SPONSOR(S):
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DESCRIPTION:
Why is this issue of the DEZ special? Three reasons could be proposed: it is the first special issue since the journal was founded in 1857, it publishes a manuscript which was accepted and in press 60 years ago, and last but not least it celebrates the 85th birthday of Günter Tembrock.
While it is not particularly unusual to honour a well-known scientist in this way, the case of Prof. Tembrock is different: he has gained a well-deserved reputation as one of the most distinguished ethologists, nicknamed the “man with the foxes” by Konrad Lorenz. There is in this respect no obvious connection to entomology.
However, beyond the celebration of Tembrock himself, this issue has two major aims. The first and obvious is to fulfill a historical obligation of the editors by finally publishing a paper originally printed in 1944, but never distributed due to wartime disruptions, in which the whole set of issues was destroyed by fire. Secondly, the study to be published - the PhD thesis of Tembrock - formed the basis for his later success in a different field and forms a sound systematic treatise in entomology.
Why so late? Apart from the desire to honour the 85th birthday of Prof. Tembrock, there has been no reason to wait 60 years for the publication of this paper. However, in contrast to Tembrock's earlier assumptions it was recently discovered, during the preparations for his birthday, that not a single copy of the 1944 issue was ever distributed. A respective volume in the library of the Berlin Museum of Natural History contains only the corrected proofs, which are all that remains of the whole edition (see p. VI). Thus, Tembrock’s PhD thesis remained unpublished without the author being aware of it.
It must be emphasized, though, that the publication of this ‘lost’ paper is not intended as a mere historical curiosity. Tembrock’s work on a carabid species complex in Central Europe is also one of the first scientific studies, not just in entomology, which attempted to apply the “new systematics” established at that time by Dobzhansky (1939) and Mayr (1940, 1942). While population thinking was barely gaining ground, Tembrock’s study is a fully-fledged exercise in applying its principles to a ‘boring’ taxonomic problem. He explicitly set out to show the potential of the Carabus ullrichi species complex as a model system in evolutionary biology. Prior to Tembrock’s work Carabus ullrichi had been treated and described as a static entity with the resulting plethora of minor taxonomic subdivisions neglecting any geographic or other information beyond the realm of observable differences among the studied specimens. Based on a thorough re-examination of morphological characters and their variation, Tembrock developed hypotheses about the distributional history of the species and aimed to explain repeatedly encountered characteristics of geographic forms by relating them to ecological factors. The historical value of his thesis arises from being one of the first studies to meet the Dobzhanskyan demand to consider variation, population size and isolation mechanisms in natural populations during evolutionary processes.
While the paper was obviously a promising start in systematics Tembrock chose not to continue in this field. He has since become known as one of the founders of bioacoustics, formulating many of its basic concepts. His distinction among fellow ethologists cames from taking behavioural biology beyond its empirical foundation by firmly embedding it within a theoretical framework centered on the organism, its ontogeny and evolution.
In acknowledgment of these achievements, this publication aims to complement them with a complete catalogue raisonné of Tembrock’s work.
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