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
Spouse Maria Luise Bechly (1979–)

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

Life

Bechly was born in Sindelfingen to Ursula Elfriede Bechly, and Günter Erwin Hermann Bechly. He is married since 2005 to Maria Luise Bechly (*1979, née Winkelhofer) and has a son Lukas Hendrik Bechly (*2013).

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.[1] He has made research visits to the Museum of Comparative Zoology and other natural history museums.[2]

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 a broad international media coverage.[3]

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.[4]

Bechly has made several appearances on German TV.[5]

Support for Intelligent Design

In 2015 Bechly went public with his criticism of Neodarwinism and his support for Intelligent Design theory on a new private webpage[6] and blog.[7] Bechly is a convert to conservative, evangelical Christianity.[8] He emphasizes on his website that he strictly separates his private activities for Intelligent Design and Christian apologetics from his professional work as museum scientist.[9]

Since 2016 Bechly is Senior Fellow of the Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Institute in Seattle, and starred in the Intelligent-Design documentary "Revolutionary" (2016).[10]

Eponymy

The following new taxa and species have been named in his honour:[11]

Publications

Literature

External links

References

  1. ↑ http://www.naturkundemuseum-bw.de/forschung/palaeontology/bechly
  2. ↑ Probst, E. 2011
  3. ↑ Probst, E. 2011
  4. ↑ press report by the VolkswagenStiftung
  5. ↑ http://www.bernstein.naturkundemuseum-bw.de/odonata/gbechly.htm
  6. ↑ http://gbechly.jimdo.com/world-view/intelligent-design/
  7. ↑ http://gbechly.jimdo.com/2016/03/21/the-lamoureux-delusion/
  8. ↑ http://gbechly.jimdo.com/world-view/theology/
  9. ↑ http://gbechly.jimdo.com/world-view/intelligent-design/
  10. ↑ http://www.revolutionarybehe.com/category/revolutionaries/
  11. ↑ Probst, E. 2011
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