Norman Ira Platnick (December 30, 1951 – April 8, 2020) was an American biological systematist and

arachnologist Arachnology is the scientific study of arachnids, which comprise spiders and related invertebrates such as scorpions, pseudoscorpions, harvestmen, ticks, and mites. Those who study spiders and other arachnids are arachnologists. More narrowly ...

. At the time of his death, he was a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

of the Richard Gilder Graduate School and Peter J. Solomon Family Curator Emeritus of the invertebrate zoology department of the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...

. A 1973 Ph.D. recipient at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, Platnick described over 1,800 species of

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

s from around the world, making him the second most prolific spider taxonomist in history, behind only

Eugène Simon Eugène Louis Simon (; 30 April 1848 – 17 November 1924) was a French naturalist who worked particularly on insects and spiders, but also on birds and plants. He is by far the most prolific spider Taxonomy (biology), taxonomist in history, ...

. Until 2014 he was also the maintainer of the

World Spider Catalog The World Spider Catalog (WSC) is an online searchable database concerned with spider taxonomy. It aims to list all accepted families, genera and species, as well as provide access to the related taxonomic literature. The WSC began as a series of ...

, a website formerly hosted by the AMNH which tracks the arachnology literature, and attempts to maintain a comprehensive list, sorted taxonomically, of every species of spider which has been formally described. In 2007 he received the International Society of Arachnology's Bonnet award, named for Pierre Bonnet, in recognition of his work on the catalog. Platnick was recognized as a world leader in

spider taxonomy Spider taxonomy is the part of taxonomy that is concerned with the science of naming, defining and classifying all spiders, members of the Araneae order of the arthropod class Arachnida, which has more than 52,700 described species. However, the ...

. Dr. Quentin D. Wheeler stated "He is the best arachnologist of his generation, has published more monographs and nomenclatural contributions than anyone, period." Platnick was one of the founding members of the Willi Hennig Society and its fourth President (1991–1992). His contributions to theoretical cladistics, such as his 1981 book, Systematics and Biogeography: Cladistics and Vicariance (coauthored with Gareth Nelson), are also highly regarded. Platnick's later undertaking involved the goblin spiders of

Oonopidae Oonopidae, also known as goblin spiders, is a family (biology), family of spiders consisting of over 1,600 described species in about 113 genus, genera worldwide, with total species diversity estimated at 2000 to 2500 species. The type genus of th ...

as a part of the Planetary Biodiversity Inventory, a project which includes scientific institutions from across the world. There are currently about 1,600 recorded species in 114 genera, but estimates have been placed as high as 2,500; the project aims to flesh out the recorded species list and gain a more exact picture of the family's

Phylogeny A phylogenetic tree or phylogeny is a graphical representation which shows the evolutionary history between a set of species or Taxon, taxa during a specific time.Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, M ...

through

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

analysis. Platnick died April 8, 2020, of complications following a fall. He is commemorated in the names of 8 genera and over 50 species of invertebrates.

Notable publications

* (1973): A Revision of the North American Spiders of the Family Anyphaenidae. Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University. * & (1979): A revision of the spider family Mecicobothriidae (Araneae, Mygalomorphae)." ''American Museum Novitates'' 2687''
Abstract, PDF
* . & (1981): ''Systematics and biogeography: cladistics and vicariance.'' Columbia University Press, New York. 567 pp. * (1990): Spinneret Morphology and the Phylogeny of Ground Spiders (Araneae, Gnaphosoidea). ''American Museum Novitates'' 2978: 1–42
PDF (33Mb)
* , , , and (1991): Spinneret Morphology and the Phylogeny of Haplogyne Spiders (Araneae, Araneomorphae). ''American Museum Novitates'' 3016: 1–73
PDF (50Mb)
* (1998): Advances in Spider Taxonomy 1992–1995, with Redescriptions 1940–1980. ''New York Entomological Society'' 976 pp. * , , & (1999): Towards a Phylogeny of Entelegyne Spiders (Araneae, Araneomorphae, Entelegynae). ''Journal of Arachnology'' 27: 53–63.'
PDF

from: Cracraft, J. & Grifo, F.T. (eds.) (1999). The Living Planet In Crisis – Biodiversity Science and Policy. ''Columbia University Press''. * (2000): A Relimitation and Revision of the Australasian Ground Spider Family Lamponidae (Araneae: Gnaphosoidea). ''Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History'' 245: 1–330.
Web version
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Abstract, PDF
* (2020): Spiders of the World. A Natural History Edited by Platnick''Princeton University Press''

References

External links

Official website at AMNH

* from the AMNH {{DEFAULTSORT:Platnick, Norman 1951 births 2020 deaths Educators from Bluefield, West Virginia Scientists from West Virginia Arachnologists American arachnologists Harvard University alumni People associated with the American Museum of Natural History Academics from Bluefield, West Virginia