Научная статья на тему 'Wolf-Ernst Reif (27.06.1945-11.06.2009)'

Wolf-Ernst Reif (27.06.1945-11.06.2009) Текст научной статьи по специальности «Биологические науки»

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Текст научной работы на тему «Wolf-Ernst Reif (27.06.1945-11.06.2009)»

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Wolf-Ernst Reif (27.06.1945-11.06.2009)

Wolf, as he was called by many colleagues, was born in Heidenheim an der Brenz, 30 km north ofUlm, in southern Germany. His parents were both scientists from the university town of Jena, and he was the oldest of three children. Wolf was born under difficult conditions, at the end of a string of carts of immigrants from east-central Germany to the south. As the US Army withdrew from Thuringia, they had to leave infrastructure behind but took around 2000 German academics with them — mostly rocket scientists, physicists, and chemists — and among them were Wolf’s parents. This move to secure part of the German intelligence was coined “we take the brain” by the Americans. In the case of the Reif family, they took an unborn scientist with them they still could not know about.

Wolf was born with a spina bifida, which caused an increasing paralysis during all of his life. But health did not keep him away from choosing his profession very early: when three years old, he already loved to collect stones (“Stoinale”). By the age of eight, he was fascinated by the Swabian Alb and its formation on the ground of a tropical sea, and reported that in his imagination he could “hear the waves at the Jurassic coast”. Collecting fossils and reading books became his favoured hobbies, and by seventeen he had written a scientific paper which was granted the Horlein Prize by the Verband Deutscher

Biologen (Association of German Biologists). Thus, he had become a palaeontologist even before he entered university, and his first specialization was in Upper Jurassic sponges.

In 1965, Wolf went to Tübingen, then one of the best places to study palaeontology and geology in Europe. Before his training in geology started, he absolved a one-year college devoted to interdisciplinary topics (Leibniz-Kolleg). This proved befitting for his general attitude towards science, and in a sense foreshadowed what there was to come. During that time, he wrote an essay on the history of Czechoslovakia and worked on the early ontogeny of salamanders. He was a voracious reader of many kinds of books, a habit he fortunately did not give up even in his last months. His interests ranged from geology, biology, and physics to logic, philosophy, architecture, and art.

At Tübingen, Wolf became a student of Adolf Seilacher, with whom he shared broad interests in evolution, palaeontology, and geology (fossils’ deposit). This appears only logical, as both supervisor and student took unconventional paths and faced problems avoided or neglected by others. The topic Wolf chose for his diploma thesis (then a degree roughly comparable to a master) was the origin of the famous Triassic bonebeds. This project includes aspects of vertebrate palaeontology, palaeoecology, taphonomy, and sedimentology, again highlighting his interdisciplinary interests.

In his doctoral thesis, Wolf focussed on sharks, a topic that should form his centre of research for years to come. He developed a diverse set of research questions on the evolutionary biology of these fishes: how do shark scales and teeth form and how are they repaired (embryology), how do they differ (systematics), what is their fossil record (palaeontology), what is their impact on the swimming ability of sharks (functional morphology), and how did they evolve (evolutionary biology). In all named fields, Wolf was to make substantial, often ground-breaking contributions. In 1973 he finished his dissertation on shark tooth morphology and ultrastructure. The next step was to study on the role of shark scales for swimming, and in 1975-76 he spent a year in Hawaii with his family to focus on this project. This was a very active period, in which he travelled around the world and cooperated with many colleagues, among them functional biologists, physicists, and architects such as Otto Frei. In Tübingen, Wolf was further intimately involved in research programmes (SFBs) on palaeoecology, geology, and constructional morphology. During that time, he took part several times in the famous Dahlem Conferences, interdisciplinary workshops to which only very few German palaeontologists were invited.

In 1982, Wolf finished his Habilitation, in which he developed the sophisticated Odontode Regulation Theory. This theory explains the origin and evolution of scales and teeth in jaws of vertebrates by means of a morphogenetic model. By 1984, he was appointed a 4-year professorship (C2) at Tübingen. The functional morphology of shark scales led him to consider general aspects of hydrodynamics, and for his contribution to the field of bionics he was granted the Ernst Mach Award in 1986. Finally, in 1988, he became an assistant professor (C3) for constructional morphology, funded by the Stifterverband der Deutschen Wissenschaft explicitly in honour of his outstanding contributions.

In concert with Frank Westphal, Wolf made vertebrate palaeontology a hot spot at Tübingen. In the 1970s—1990s, the place attracted many students, postdocs, Humboldt and Royal Society Fellows, and visiting professors from around the world. Characteristically, Wolf regarded his professorship essentially as a research position — a decision from which his students profited substantially. He held that proper science requires a lot of time to think, and it needs the freedom to read and think in any direction. Apart from research, he devoted much time and effort to editing, such as for Neues Jahrbuch and Paläontologische Zeitschrift. Naturally, Wolf also had to teach and administer, but after his early retirement in 1996 he was finally freed from such dependencies. In 2008, he became an honorary member of the German Palaeontological Society.

Wolf’s analysis of major theories was focused on many topics in geology and biology, but the centre of gravity clearly lay on evolution. This is exemplified by his vast library, which he partly acquired by writing so many thoughtful book reviews — sometimes more than a hundred per year! Among the eminent biologists, Lamarck, Darwin, Wallace, Haeckel, Abel, Weismann, Zimmermann, Mayr, Goldschmidt, Hennig, and Gould form just a few of the many foci Wolf chose during his career, and often he returned to earlier interests after many years of further thinking. The work of Charles Darwin, particularly On the Origin, was perhaps the most often revisited, since multi-facetted theme for him. Wolf’s respect for Darwin was immense and apparently ever growing, but this did not keep him away from “dissecting” each of Darwin’s sentences in his usual way.

The implications of Otto H. Schindewolf’s work, Wolf’s academic grandfather, also formed a topic that attracted him repeatedly. Schindewolf was a professor at Tübingen from 1948—1964, a successful director and scientist widely known for his integrity. His research was focused at the stratigraphy, systematics, and evolution of ammonoids and corals, but like Wolf Reif he was deeply interested in theoretical issues. Yet both his primarily geological background and the strong German tradition in seeing evolution as subject to internal forces — Goethe’s shadow was long — led him to hold very different views from that of the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis. In more than one sense, Schindewolf formed the opposite pole to Darwin: here the gradualistic, stochastic, unpredictable course of evolution (Darwin), there the saltational, lawful, and historicist path of typostrophes (Schindewolf). This whole story was not only a matter of arguments, but also about tradition and cultural heritage, as Schindewolf traced back his ideas not only to those of von Baer and Haeckel, but also to Spengler! For most Germanspeaking palaeontologists, evolution was seen through the eyes of a stratigrapher, and if at all, the German biologists were consulted rather than Darwin. Wolf Reif broke with this tradition in that he took the position of Darwin without compromises, albeit acknowledging the logic and internal consistency of Schindewolf’s Typostrophe Theory. His thorough analysis of these issues led him to expand on typology, a pre-Darwinian concept that had once formed the foundation of morphology, but also caused many problems for biology and palaeontology. A few colleagues mistook Wolf’s rigorous analysis of Schindewolf’s typology as a critique of the person, but this is clearly a profound misunderstanding.

Wolf passed away on Thursday, June 11, 2009.

Rainer Schoch, Uwe Hoßfeld, and Georg S. Levit

Вольф-Эрнст Райф (27.06.1945-11.06.2009)1

Вольф, как его звали многие коллеги, родился на юге Германии в трудное время, когда армия США, покидая Тюрингию, забрала с собой многих немецких ученых, в том числе и родителей Райфа. Будущий зоолог появился на свет в обозе беженцев, он родился с нарушением ЦНС, которое привело к прогрессирующему параличу. Однако болезнь не помешала Райфу увлечься науками, в частности геологией и палеонтологией, привлекавшими его с раннего детства. В 1965 г. он поступил в Тюбингенский университет, славившийся своими курсами палеонтологии и геологии на всю Европу. Здесь Вольф стал учеником Адольфа Зайлахера, с которым он разделял взгляды на

1 Составление аннотации на русском языке — Н.Е. Берегой.

эволюцию и палеонтологию. Его дипломная работа охватывала разные дисциплины: палеоэкологию, тафономию, седиментологию и пр. Кандидатскую диссертацию Райф посвятил изучению акул. В 1973 г. он завершил свой труд о морфологии и ультраструктуре акульего зуба. После этого он провел несколько лет на Гавайях, где продолжил исследования в этой области.

В 1982 г. Вольф-Эрнст Райф получил докторскую степень за создание теории, объясняющей происхождение и эволюцию чешуи и зубов позвоночных на примере морфогенетической модели, после чего в 1984 г. он получил место профессора в Тюбингене на 4 года. Совместно с Франком Вестфалем он привлек интерес к палеонтологии позвоночных. Кроме научной работы занимался преподаванием, однако после выхода на пенсию в 1996 г. был освобожден от этой обязанности. В своих трудах Райф обращался к работам выдающихся ученых, таких как Ламарк, Дарвин, Уоллес, Геккель, Вайсман, Циммерман, Майр, Голдшмидт, Гулд, и конечно, Шиндефольф. В 2008 г. он стал почетным членом Немецкого палеонтологического общества.

Вольф-Эрнст Райф ушел из жизни 11 июня 2009 г.

Selected Scientific Publications by Wolf-Ernst Reif

1.Reif W.-E. Projektberich D “Konstruktionsmorphologie”, Übersicht // Zentralblatt für Geologie und Paläontologie. 1976. Bd. II. S. 272—277.

2.Reif W.-E. Paleobiology today and fifty years ago. — A review of two journals // Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Monatshefte. 1980. Bd. 6. S. 361—372.

3.Reif W.-E. From squamation to dentition in vertebrates: The evolutionary change of an epigenetic programme // Second International Congress in Systematic Evolutionary Biology. Vancouver, 1980. P. 319.

4.Reif W.-E. Konzepte und Methoden der Funktionsmorphologie // Paläontologische Kursbücher, Vol. 1: Funktionsmorphologie. München, 1981.

5.Reif W.-E. Struktur und Biomechanik von Knochen // Paläontologische Kursbücher. 1981. Bd. 1. S. 61—70.

6.Reif W.-E. Strategies in aquatic propulsion // Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Abhandlungen. 1982. Bd. 164. S. 151—153.

7.Braun J., Reif W.-E. A new terminology of aquatic propulsion in vertebrates // Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie. 1982. Bd. 164. S. 162—167.

8.Reif W.-E. Morphogenesis and function of the squamation in sharks // Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Abhandlungen. 1982. Bd. 164. S. 172—183.

9.Reif W.-E. Evolution of dermal skeleton and dentition in vertebrates. The Odontode-Regulation Theory // Evolutionary Biology. 1982. Vol. 15. P. 287—368.

10.Reif W.-E. Evolutionary Theory in German Paleontology // Dimensions of Darwinism, ed. M. Greene. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

11.Reif W.-E. Muschelkalk-Keuper-Bonbeds: Sturmbedingte Kondensation in einem regressiven Zyklus // Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Abhandlungen. 1982. Bd. 164. S. 39—40.

12.Reif W.-E. The search for a macroevolutionary theory in German paleontology // Journal of the History of Biology. 1986. Vol. 19. P. 79—130.

13.Reif W.-E. Functional morphology and evolutionary ecology // Paläontologische Zeitschrift. 1983. Bd. 57. S. 255—266.

14.Reif W.-E. Preadaptation and the change of function — a discussion // Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Monatshefte. 1984. P. 90—94.

15.Thomas R.K.D., Reif W.-E. Opportunity and constraint in the evolution of organic form // Geological Society of America. 1983. Vol. 15. P. 705.

16.Reif W.-E., Thomas R.K.D. Constraints on evolutionary change — limits on the power of selection? // Palaeontological Association Annual Conference 1983, Sansea, 1983. Abstracts.

17.Reif W.-E. Konzepte und Geschichte der Funktionsmorphologie // Aufsätze und Reden der Senckenbergischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft. 1985. Bd. 35. S. 107—131.

18.Reif W.-E. Konstruktionsmorphologie als biologisches Arbeitskonzept bei Hermann Weber // Aufsätze und Reden der Senckenbergischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft. 1985. Bd. 35. S. 133—142.

19.Reif W.-E. Constructional morphology as a working tool in evolutionary paleontology // International Geological Congress Moscow. Moscow, 1984. Vol. 9. P. 60.

20.Reif W.-E. Artabgrenzung und das Konzept der evolutionären Art in der Paläontologie // Zeitschrift für zoologische Systematik und Evolutionsforschung. 1984. Bd. 22. S. 263—286.

21.Reif W.-E., Thomas R.D.K., Fischer M.S. Constructional Morphology. The Analysis of Constraints in Evolution // Acta Biotheoretica. 1985. Vol. 34. P. 233—248.

22.Reif W.-E., Brettreich J. Definitions of evolutionary species: A discussion // Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Monatshefte. 1985. S. 421—426.

23.Reif W.-E. Symposium on cellular mechanics, May 1985 // Konzepte SFB 230. 1985. 18. Bonn (DFG).

24.Reif W.-E. Naturwissenschaften: Ein zu enges Bild der Natur? // Konzepte SFB 230. 1986. Bd. 16. S. 51—54. Bonn (DFG).

25.Hoffman A., Reif W.-E. The methodology of the biological sciences. From an evolutionary biological perspective // Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Abhandlungen. 1988. Bd. 177. S. 185—211.

26.Reif W.-E. Theoretische Morphologie: Wachstum und Funktion? // Natürliche Konstruktionen. 1989. Bd. 3. S. 253—262.

27.Hoflman A., ReifW.-E. On the study of evolution in species-level lineages in the fossil record: Controlled methodological sloppiness // Paläontologische Zeitschrift. 1990. Bd. 64. S. 180—210.

28.Thomas R.D.K., Reif W.-E. The skeleton space. A finite set of organic designs // Evolution. 1993. Vol. 47. P. 341—360.

29.Reif W.-E., Weishampel D.B. Theoretical Morphology 1960-1990: An annotated bibliography // Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg. 1992. Bd. 142. S. 1—140.

30.Reif W.-E. Population, ecosystems and global diversity: the scientific work of Antoni Hoffman // Palaeontologica Polonica. 1994. Vol. 38. P. 123—139.

31.ReifW.-E., Weishampel D.B. Structured morphospaces and stable ecosystems? // Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Monatshefte. 1996. Bd. 1999. S. 647—660.

32.Reif W.-E. Practice and Theory in Natural History: Domains and Epistemic Things // Theory in Bioscience. 1999. Vol. 118. P. 161—174.

33.ReifW. - E., Junker T., Hoßfeld U. The synthetic theory of evolution: general problems and the German contribution to the synthesis // Theory in Biosciences. 2000. Vol. 119. P. 41—91.

34.Reif W.-E. Darwinism, gradualism and uniformitarism // Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Monatshefte. 2000. S. 669—680.

35.Reif W.-E. Darwinismus als konzeptionelle Ideologie: Instruktionismus Selektionismus und Erkenntnistheorie // Hossfeld U. & Brömer R. (eds.): Darwinismus und/als Ideologie. Berlin: Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung, 2001. S. 263—286.

36.Reif W.-E. Theoretische Morphologie // Reinhardt W. & Reiner R. (eds.): Natürliche Konstruktionen in Raum und Zeit. Stuttgart, 2001. S. 24—28.

37.Reif W.-E. The primacy of morphology: pattern cladism, idealistic morphology, and evolution // Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Abhandlungen. 2003. Bd. 228. S. 399—419.

38.Reif W.-E. Darwin on picking, sorting, separating, isolating, etc: The development of his theory of natural selection // Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Abhandlungen. 2006. Bd. 240.

S. 153—205.

39.Seilacher A., Reif W-E., Wenk P. The parasite connection in ecosystems and macroevolution // Naturwissenschaften. 2007. Bd. 95. S. 155—169.

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