Rupert Riedl (22 February 1925 – † 18 September 2005) was an Austrian zoologist. He contributed to the areas of marine biology, developmental biology, morphology, evolution (a systems approach) and evolutionary epistemology.
Biography
Riedl was a professor at the University of Vienna between 1971 and 1995, where he established the first research unit of marine biology in Austria and the first electron microscopy laboratory at the university. He is credited with the creation of marine biology, theoretical biology, and cognitive biology at the University of Vienna . In his later life, he was active as a public intellectual and environmental activist. He was the Founder President of the Club of Vienna.
Marine Biology
Riedl is well-known for his work in the field of marine biology (biology of sea caves, fauna and flora of the Mediterranean). He undertook several research trips and assembled field guides of the Adriatic Sea and the Mediterranean. His expeditions included:
- 1948–1949 Head of the first Austrian post-war expedition with Heinz Löffler in Sicily and in the North African island world
- 1950–1952 Study stays at various sea stations in the Mediterranean and on the North Sea
- 1952 Head of the Austrian “Tyrrhenia Expedition”
Theoretical Biology
Riedl founded and headed the Unit in Theoretical Biology at the Institute of Zoology.
He held the opinion that the modern synthesis of the mid-20th century had ignored the role of development and morphology in evolution. He argued that the modern synthesis had failed to explain the origin of body plans and patterns at the macroevolutionary level. He presented his evolutionary theory in Order in Living Organisms: A Systems Analysis of Evolution (translated, 1978). He called for an extended evolutionary synthesis to integrate processes from developmental biology and macroevolutionary perspectives. Riedl and Michael Conrad in the 1970s were the first two scientists to propose explicit mechanisms for the evolution of evolvability.
Cognitive Biology
Riedl was a scientist with broad interests, whose influence in epistemology grounded in evolutionary theory was notable, although less in English-speaking circles than in German or even Spanish speaking ones. His 1984 work, Biology of Knowledge: The evolutionary basis of reason examined cognitive abilities and the increasing complexity of biological diversification over the immense periods of evolutionary time.