Norman I. Platnick

Norman I. Platnick
Norman Platnick on the 15th International Congress of Arachnology, Badplaas, South Africa
Born	U.S.
Residence	U.S.
Nationality	American
Fields	Arachnologist
Institutions	American Museum of Natural History
Alma mater	Harvard University

Norman I. Platnick is an American arachnologist, and the Peter J. Solomon Family Curator of the invertebrate zoology department of the American Museum of Natural History. A 1973 Ph.D. recipient at Harvard University, Platnick has described thousands of species of spiders in various locales around the world, ranging from the dwarf tarantulas of North America, to the white-tailed spiders of the genus Lampona in Australia. He is also the maintainer of the World Spider Catalog, a website 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 Bonnet award (see Pierre Bonnet) of the International Society of Arachnology in recognition for his work on the catalog.

Notable publications

• Platnick, N.I. (1973): A Revision of the North American Spiders of the Family Anyphaenidae. Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University.
• Gertsch, Willis J. & Platnick, N.I. (1979): A revision of the spider family Mecicobothriidae (Araneae, Mygalomorphae)." American Museum novitates 2687 Abstract, PDF
• Platnick, N. I. (1990): Spinneret Morphology and the Phylogeny of Ground Spiders (Araneae, Gnaphosoidea). American Museum Novitates 2978: 1-42. PDF (33Mb)
• Platnick, N. I., Coddington, J.A., Forster, R.R., and Griswold, C.E. (1991): Spinneret Morphology and the Phylogeny of Haplogyne Spiders (Araneae, Araneomorphae). American Museum Novitates 3016: 1-73. PDF (50Mb)
• Platnick, N. I. (1998): Advances in Spider Taxonomy 1992-1995, with Redescriptions 1940-1980. New York Entomological Society 976 pp.
• Griswold, C. E., Coddington, J.A., Platnick, N.I. & Forster, R.R. (1999): Towards a Phylogeny of Entelegyne Spiders (Araneae, Araneomorphae, Entelegynae). Journal of Arachnology 27: 53-63. PDF
• Dimensions Of Biodiversity: Targeting Megadiverse Groups (from: Cracraft, J. & Grifo, F.T. (eds.) (1999). The Living Planet In Crisis - Biodiversity Science and Policy. Columbia University Press.
• Platnick, N.I. (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 - Abstract, PDF

External links

• Official website at AMNH
• World Spider Catalog

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