Heinz Steinitz was a senior Israeli marine biologist and herpetologist, professor and chairman of the department of zoology

Zoology

Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...

 at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He was one of the founding members of the Zoological Society of Israel.

He took over the scientific legacy of his father, the zoologist and hydrologist Walter Steinitz

Walter Steinitz

Walter Steinitz was an Israeli medical doctor, zoologist and hydrologist, and founding director of the Marine Biological Laboratory of the Hebrew University in Eilat, on the Red Sea....

 (1882 - 1963).

He died in 1971.

In 1997, a previously unknown species of amphibian tree frogs was discovered in the Mamilla Pool

Mamilla Pool

Mamilla Pool is one of several ancient reservoirs that supplied water to the inhabitants of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is located outside the wall's of the Old City about 700 yards northwest of Jaffa Gate in the center of the Mamilla Cemetery. With a capacity of 30,000 cubic meters, it is...

. The researchers, led by Yehudah L. Werner

Yehudah L. Werner

Yehudah Leopold Werner is an Israeli herpetologist and Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem ....

, named their find Hyla heinzsteinitzi

Hyla

The genus Hyla is one of approximately 38 genera in the New World family of tree frogs . The word Hyla translates to "tree," and tree frogs are indeed arboreal...

 , in honor of Steinitz. The fish species Tylognathus

Tylognathus

Tylognathus is an invalid genus of ray-finned fishes in the family Cyprinidae. It was established by Heckel in 1843 without a type species. As type species, Varicorhinus diplostomus was designated by Bleeker in 1863; this had been described by Heckel in 1838, and was erroneously described again by...

 steinitziorum (Kosswig, 1950, now Hemigrammocapoeta nana

Hemigrammocapoeta nana

Hemigrammocapoeta nana is a ray-finned fish species in the family Cyprinidae. It is found in Israel, Jordan, and Syria.Its natural habitats are freshwater rivers, lakes and ponds of the Barada and Jordan River drainage basins, as well as the Kishon River. This bottom-dwelling fish is often...

) was dedicated to Walter Steinitz and his son Heinz Steinitz.

Additional animal species named after Heinz Steinitz include Rubratella steinitzi (Pawlowski & Lee, 1991); Hydroides steinitzi (Ben-Eliahu, 1972); Bohadschia steinitzi (Cherbonnier, 1963); Typhlocirolana steinitzi (Strouhal, 1961); Aphanogmus steinitzi(Priesner, 1936); Elasmopus steinitzi (Ruffo, 1959); Pseudocyclops steinitzi (Por, 1968); Albunea steinitzi (Holthuis, 1958); Istiblennius steinitzi (Lotan,1969); Scorpaenodes steinitzi (Klausewitz & Fröiland, 1970); Gammogobius steinitzi (Bath, 1971); Photoblepharon palpebratum steinitzi (Abe & Haneda, 1973); Cryptocentrus steinitzi (Klausewitz, 1974); Omobranchus steinitzi

Omobranchus steinitzi

Omobranchus steinitzi is a species of combtooth blenny found in the western Indian ocean, in the Red Sea.The species is named after the Israeli marine biologist Heinz Steinitz....

(Springer & Gomon, 1975); Cocotropus steinitzi (Eschmeyer & Dor, 1978); Helcogramma steinitzi (Clark, 1980).

The Heinz Steinitz Marine Biology Laboratory in Eilat was also named after him.