Willy Wolterstorff

Willy Georg Wolterstorff (16 June 1864 in Calbe – 21 January 1943 in Magdeburg) was a German paleontologist and herpetologist.

As a child he lost his hearing due to disease, thus finding it necessary to lip-read from an early age. He learned natural sciences through private lessons. After receiving vocational training as a bookbinder, he studied geology from 1884 under Karl von Fritsch (1838-1906) at the University of Halle. At Halle he also received training as a curator.

In 1889 he became an assistant to Konrad Oebbeke (1853-1932) at the mineralogical-geological institute at Erlangen, and two years later was appointed curator at the Museum für Naturkunde und Vorgeschichte (museum of natural history and prehistory) in Magdeburg. After his retirement in 1929, he remained at the Magdeburg museum, performing important functions as a volunteer.

Wolterstorff is known for scientific research of "lower vertebrates", in particular investigations involving the systematics, reproduction and behavior of members of the family Salamandridae. He was the author of nearly 300 scientific papers, and from 1909 was editor of Blätter für Aquarien- und Terrarienkunde. He is credited with creation of the "Tradescantia-Glas", an enclosure-method (Hälterungsmethode) for maintenance and breeding of newts.[1]

The recently extinct Wolterstorff's newt (Cynops wolterstorffi), is one of the species named in his honour. As a taxonomist, he described the salamander genus Mertensiella (1925).[2]

Wolterstorff is also commemorated in the scientific name of a species of gecko, Urocotyledon wolterstorffi [3] and the Killifish Cynolebias wolterstorffi.