Professor Dr Otto Kraus

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Area of Taxonomic Interest:

Arachnida, Myriapoda, Arthropod Phylogeny

Country:

Role:

Trustee

Otto Kraus is a systematicist primarily focused on spider and myriapod taxonomy, including interest in phylogeny, biogeography and evolutionary biology.

Summary of Research & Education

Born in Frankfurt a.M. in May 1930. PhD at the University of Frankfurt (1955); advisors were Rud. Richter and Rob. Mertens — both former influential members of the ICZM. From 1955 onwards curator, Dept. of Lower Invertebrates at Senckenberg-Museum, Frankfurt. Lecturer in Zoology (1965). Director of the Hamburg Zoological State Institute & Museum (1969 - 1995). — Presently a member of the ITZN, Kraus served as Commissioner (1963 - 1995), finally as president of the ICZN (1989 - 1995). The presently valid 4th ed. of the Code was developed during this period and came into force on 1st January 2000, including the Official German Text (ed. O. Kraus).

Otto Kraus is member of two Academies of Sciences (Hamburg; Erfurt), corresponding member of the Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft, honorary member of the British Arachnological Society and the Centre International de Myriapodologie. He is advisory editor of Zoomorphology.