Director, Chair of Paleontology & Geobiology, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, LMU München

Curator, Palaeobotany

Research interests

Current Research Interests

Fossil microorganisms and their interactions

• Fossil non-calcareous (foliose) macroalgae
• Growth habits and life strategies of Carboniferous and Permian seed ferns
• Triassic and Cretaceous ferns and gymnosperms

Research Projects

• Plant microbe interactions in deep time: A multidisciplinary study of Permian microorganisms associated with tree ferns, and their responses to climate change
• Microbial symbioses in the Lower Devonian Rhynie chert of Scotland
• Diversity and biology of cyanobacteria in late Palaeozoic and Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystems
• Mycorrhizal fungi in early terrestrial ecosystems

Curator, Geology & Historical Geology

Research interests

• Mesozoic tetrapods and their ecosystem.
• Mesozoic marine invertebrate faunas (gastropods, bivalves, scleractinia, and others).
• Sandelzhausen site (vertebrates, gastropods, ecology, genesis of the site, sedimentology)
• History of palaeontology
• Nomenclature and systematics

Conservator, fossil invertebrates:

• Section Fossil Non-Marine Molluscs
• Section Bryozoans, Traces
• Section Annelids, Echinoderms, Hemichordata, Tunicates

Chief Conservator, Invertebrates

• Section Fossil Sponges, Corals, Brachiopods
• Section Fossil Arthropods

Research

• Palaeoecology and facies of reefs (Palaeozoic, Triassic, Jurassic)
• Autoecology of reef-building metazoans (Rugosa, Tabulata, Scleractinia)
• Microbialites, cyanobacteria and calcareous algae in platform carbonates

Deputy Director, Senior Conservator Fossil Molluscs

• Section Fossil Marine Molluscs
• Section Micropalaeontology

Research interests

Phylogeny and evolution of gastropods (especially late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic); gastropods at the Permian/Triassic boundary; evolution of larval ecology of molluscs; systematics and taxonomy of gastropods.

• Evolution of the Late Palaeozoic Caenogastropoda
• Jurassic(Pliensbachium, Toarcium, Aalenium) Gastropod faunas of Franken
• Late Paleozoic larval palaeobiology (DFG NU 96/10-1; Förderungszeitraum:1. 5. 2006 bis 30. 4. 2009)
• Gastropod diversity and evolution at the turn from the Paleozoic to the Mesozoic (DFG NU 96/6-1, 6-2; Funding period: 2002 until 2005; Alexander von Humboldt Foundation with Andrzej Kaim as scholarship holder since 2009)
• Evolution, phylogeny and taxonomy of selected superfamilies of the Gastropoda in the period Upper Triassic to Middle Jurassic.(DFG NU 96/11-1; Förderungszeitraum:1. 2. 2009 bis 31. 1. 2011)

Chief Conservator, fossil fish, amphibians & sauropsids

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).

Function

Research scientist and curator of fossil plants (BSPG)
Supernumerary professor (LMU, Munich)
Adjunct research professor (Univ. of Kansas, U.S.A.)

Responsibilities

Curation of the palaeobotanical collection, research, teaching, Co-editor of the journal Zitteliana

Research focus

Fossils microorganisms: Taxonomy, morphology, biology, and (aut-)ecology of Palaeozoic seed plants; Triassic and Cretaceous ferns and gymnosperms

Current positions

University studies in biology, history, musicology, and philosophy, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität (WWU) Münster, Germany

• Since 2007: Supernumerary professor (Apl. Professor) for paleobotany, Department for Earth and Environmental Sciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich
• Since 2003: Adjunct research professor, Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas at Lawrence, KS, U.S.A.
• Since 2003: Research scientist and curator of fossil plants, Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie
• 2002 – 2003: PostDoc, Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas at Lawrence, KS, U.S.A
• 2002: Habilitation in paleobotany, WWU Münster
• 1999 – 2000: PostDoc, Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas at Lawrence, KS, U.S.A.
• 1998: Doctorate in natural sciences (botany major, zoology and paleontology minors), WWU Münster
• 1994: High school teacher certification