Collection

• Conodont collection (mainly Palaeozoic conodonts)
• Microfacies/Sedimentology (preferably thin sections)
• Mesozoic collection (rocks from different areas in Germany: Solnhofener Plattenkalk, Rhön)
• Middle Devonian Collection: This collection essentially consists of stratigraphic and/or facial indicative rock samples, which were taken during the last century in the Eifel Mountains, Germany. This collection conserves important rock documents from the type area of the Eifelian Stage, which is internationally used as the first respectively oldest of two stages of the Middle Devonian (see German GSSP in the Eifel hills).
• Micropalaeontology

Micropalaeontology is a science concerned with microscopic animals and plants, mostly but not all less that 1mm in size, their morphology, taxonomy, palaeobiology, palaeoecology, distribution patterns, and application to understanding Earth History. The former sektion “Micopalaeontology” is since 2022 part of the section Historical Geology and Fazies for structural reasons. The head of the section is curator although he is not working on ostracods.

Many of the groups of microscopic animals and plants are alive today and micropalaeontologists are interested in the living forms in order to interpret the fossils. Most microfossil groups are simple, single cell, organisms that only rarely exceed 1mm in size and therefore require the use of optical and electron microscopes and other specialist techniques for their study. Research focuses on ostracods conodonts and spores & pollen (Palaeobotany, Palynology). Other microfossil groups are represented by large collections of, especially, foraminifera and otoliths.

Research is related to the whole Phanerozoic with special focus on the Mesozoic and the Tertiary. Accordingly, they are mainly connected to “Biodiversity and Earth System Dynamics”. For the Recent material there are also connections to “Biodiversity and Systematics”.