From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
German paleontologist
Walter Georg Kuhne
(February 26, 1911 in
Berlin
? March 16, 1991 ibid.) was a German paleontologist, known as a "legendary explorer of
Mesozoic
mammals".
[1]
He graduated in March 1930 from reform boarding school
Schule am Meer
on the island of
Juist
in Prussia. In 1958 he founded the Institute for Paleontology of the
Free University of Berlin
.
His studies focused specifically on mesozoic microfaunae, seeking to bring to light the history of the oldest mammals, which until the 1960s was almost unknown. Before him, findings of species of small size in the continental Mesozoic deposits had been mostly random.
His efforts were concentrated more in excavations in lignite mines which he considered as preferred deposits for the remains of terrestrial vertebrates.
Thanks to his efforts new species could be described that were interpreted as the most primitive mammals as
Morganucodon
and
Kuehneotherium
, as well the
proto-mammal
Oligokyphus
.
He was the first to discover the immense paleontological heritage of the famous
Guimarota
lignite mine in Portugal to start methodological, accurate excavations in the area.
[2]
[A. W.] Crompton tells the story of a German refugee named Walter Kuhne, who at the start of World War II walked into Cambridge University with teeth from a borderline mammal. "I know where to discover early mammals," he told the British paleontologist
F. R. Parrington
. Parrington was impressed enough to offer him £5 (about $35 then) for every additional tooth he brought to the university.
[3]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
page 169 in
Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska
, Richard L. Cifelli, and Zhe-Xi Luo,
Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs: Origins, Evolution, and Structure
, Columbia University Press, New York, 2004
ISBN
0-231-11918-6
- ^
The Excavations of Guimarota, Upper Jurassic of Portugal
at the
Wayback Machine
(archived October 26, 2009)
- ^
William J. Cromie, "Oldest mammal is found",
Harvard Gazette
, May 24, 2001
- Rolf Kohring, "Walter Georg Kuhne, 1911-1991"
News Bulletin of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology
volume 153(1991) pages 46?47.
- Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska (2013). "Walter G. Kuhne".
In Pursuit of Early Mammals
. Life of the Past. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. pp. 74?77.
ISBN
978-0-253-00824-4
.
- Much of this page is a translation from the Italian Wikipedia entry for the subject.
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