[Taxacom] Norman I. Platnick (1951-2020)

[John Grehan]

In consideration of a comment sent to me separately, I would note that
Norman and I did agree on vicariance as the driver of evolution and that
centers of origin for the evolution of allopatry was a fantasy. And even
though he disagreed with aspects (at least) of panbiogeographic methodology
he did agree that it generated the same conclusions about these matters and
from recollection he did not oppose the tectonic predictions made from
panbiogeographic methodology (in other words the 'wrong' method still  gave
the 'right' answers). These issues certainly generated some interesting
debate.

John Grehan

On Fri, Apr 10, 2020 at 12:08 PM John Grehan <calabar.john at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thank you for posting this information. Very sad news as always to hear
> the passing of a colleague. While I found myself at polar opposites with
> Norman on biogeography he was (along with Gary Nelson) a pioneer in the
> exploration of improvements to biogeographic method. But my views did
> not mesh with Norman (with whom I had the interesting experience of meeting
> at one time) who had little tolerance for panbiogeography. But then it is
> probably true that I had just as little tolerance for his approach so I
> guess we were a bit alike in that respect. Such is life. He remains part of
> a my personal historical memory for biogeography.
>
> John Grehan
>
> On Fri, Apr 10, 2020 at 11:42 AM Dilrukshan Wijesinghe via Taxacom <
> taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> wrote:
>
>> Most subscribers of Taxacom will be familiar with the name of Norman I.
>> Platnick of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, the expert on
>> spider taxonomy and systematics and a major contributor to phylogenetic and
>> biogeographic theory. Norm passed away recently as a result of injuries
>> from a fall in his home. Please see the following:
>>
>> www.amnh.org/content/download/310553/4896671/file/NormanPlatnick1951-2020IZwebsite.pdf
>>
>> Norm's Facebook page has more:www.facebook.com/norman.platnick
>>
>> A book on spiders by Norm is due to be published by Princeton University
>> Press:
>> press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691188850/spiders-of-the-world
>>
>>
>> Priyantha
>>
>>
>> D. P. Wijesinghe
>> dpwijesinghe at yahoo.com
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>> Nurturing nuance while assaulting ambiguity for about 33 years, 1987-2020.
>>
>