PD Dr. Gertrud Rößner
Section Fossil Mammals
Profile – Chief Conservator, fossil mammals
My expertise is the evolution and diversity of mammals and their habitats. It is based on many years of experience in collection work, research, public relations and teaching in mammal palaeontology. Fossil teeth and bones play a dominant role in this, because they are by far the most common things left over from extinct mammals and also contain a lot of information. I am interested in all levels of biological organisation, from faunal composition and species distribution in time and space, to skeletal and dentition structure, to the microscopic structure of hard tissues and genomes. For my studies I use classic methods like comparative morphology and anatomy, taxonomy and stratigraphy, building on these with a variety of modern analytical techniques in collaboration with other experts. The aim of my work is to integrate the results into existing frameworks of earth and life sciences and to reconstruct processes leading to modern biodiversity. One focus of my research is the group of ruminants (Ruminantia).