Georg August Goldfuss

Georg August Goldfuß ( born April 18, 1782 Thurnau, † October 2, 1848 in Poppelsdorf in Bonn ) was a German paleontologist and zoologist.

Life

Goldfuß grew up in the Margraviate and 1791 the Prussian province of Ansbach -Bayreuth, the son of Johann August Goldfuß and Margaret born on guard. From 1800 to 1804 he studied at the Collegium Medico - chirurgicum in Berlin surgery and pharmacology and zoology and natural history, Carl Ludwig Willdenow. He joined the University of Erlangen and received his doctorate in 1804 with a drug history work of South African beetle over to the doctor of medicine. He then undertook a research trip to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.

In 1806 he worked as an editor in Erlangen, Germany, from 1807 to 1809 as a private tutor for the Barons von Winckler in Hemhofen at Erlangen. In 1810 he qualified as a professor, which he as a lecturer and Chair administrator at the University of Erlangen 1811-1818 taught zoology. Goldfuß joined the Masonic Lodge Erlanger Lebanon to the three cedars.

1813 took him the Leopoldina, the oldest scientific and medical scholars in Germany, as a member on. There he was entrusted with the task of Secretary and with the support of world-renowned scientific collections and the library. The Articles of Association were aligned to the sunken city, transnational Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation: The Leopoldina was located at the residence of the respective presidents.

1815 married Eleonora Goldfuß Oelhafen of Schöllenbach ( 1789-1873 ), the daughter of Assessors Christoph Carl Oelhafen of Schöllenbach from a known Nuremberg patrician family, with which he recently built on the mountainside Kessenicher Venus Castle Rosenburg moved in 1831.

During the occupation by Napoleonic France, the University of Erlangen in 1806 had ceased operations more or less, but after Erlangen in 1810 became Bavarian and the University of operation was resumed to Goldfuß and other scientists complained about a decline of the university. For laying the scientific collections of the Leopoldina to the newly founded Rheinische Friedrich- Wilhelms University in the Prussian Bonn devised Goldfuß and the Prussian Minister of Culture, Karl Freiherr vom Stein for Altenstein a tricky plan: Goldfuß operation 1817, the appointment of Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck to a Department of Botany to Erlangen and in 1818 also crucial whose election as President of the Leopoldina. Nees von Esenbeck was chosen to from the outset, only short stay in Erlangen and move as president, the collection and the library of the Leopoldina to Bonn; Goldfuß hoped to follow him there as a professor. Bavaria held the transport of the collections first at the border on - after the mineralogical collections were at least important not only for the scientific community but also for the economic development of the mining industry - but the move of the Leopoldina was finally successful, thanks to the backing of the Prussian diplomacy. In October 1818 Goldfuß as other Erlanger scientists actually called to Bonn, with explicit recognition of his services to the appointment of Nees Esenbecks to the new Prussian university. Goldfuß was in Bonn professor of zoology, paleontology and mineralogy. On 2 May 1836, Karl Marx wrote for his lectures "Zoology and Zootomie " and " Mineralogy " or "Natural History of the Mammalia " one.

From 1839 to 1840 he was rector of the University of Bonn. In this role, he drove to the homage ceremony for the new Prussian king to Berlin in order to obtain higher subsidies for the university there.

1848 died in Goldfuß Poppelsdorf in Bonn and was buried in a grave of honor Poppelsdorf cemetery.

Work

Cave finds woke early Goldfuß ' interest in fossils. In 1810 he published a description of the environment of Muggendorf, 1816, a description of the Fichtelgebirge. His palaeozoological work on the large mammals of the Pleistocene, approximately over the cave hyena and cave lion, the Permian and Mesozoic vertebrates and in particular the fossil invertebrate fauna are - apart from isolated descriptions of Ernst Friedrich von Schlotheim - for the beginning of the scientifically-based paleontology in western Germany. He introduced in 1818 the concept of protozoa in the science one.

Supported by Georg Graf zu Münster (1776-1844) he published in the years 1826-1844 his main work Petrefacta Germaniae in which the fossil invertebrates Germany should be fully recorded. The work remained unfinished, however, the representation of sponges, corals, crinoids and echinoderms was completed, to some extent, the molluscs.

In the course of his research named Goldfuß several hundred new species and genera, including the koala and the Cervidae (deer ).

After Goldfuß inter alia the types Favosites goldfussi, Sphenodontiers Pleurosaurus goldfussi, Chalicotherium goldfussi, Brachypotherium goldfussi, Uncinulus ( Kransia ) goldfussi and Omphalocirrus goldfussi were named. Also the paleontological museum of the University of Bonn bears his name.

Writings

• Enumeratio Insectorum Eleutheratorum Capitis Bonae memory totiusque Africae descriptione iconibusque nonnullarum specierum Novarum, Erlangen 1804
• The environments of Muggendorf. A pocket book for lovers of nature and antiquities, Erlangen 1810 digitized
• Microscopic observations on the metamorphosis of the vegetable and animal life, in: Proceedings of the Erlanger Societät, Volume 1, Erlangen 1810
• Natural description of mammals, Erlangen 1812
• About the metamorphosis of the animal and vegetable life, in: Proceedings of the Erlanger Societät, Volume 2, Erlangen 1812
• Physical- statistical description of the Fichtelgebirge, with G. bishop, Nuremberg 1817 Second Part digitized
• Concerning the developmental stages of the animal, Nuremberg 1817 digitized (reprint Basilisk Press, Marburg 1979)
• Handbook of Zoology, Nuremberg 1818 digitized
• Description of a fossil wolverine skull from the Gailenreuther Höle, in: Novis Actis physico- medicis Acad. Caesareae Leopolodino - Carolinae naturae Curiosum, Erlangen 1818
• A word about the importance of scientific institutions and on their influence on humane education, Bonn 1821
• Nature Historical Atlas, 1 - 23rd Booklet, Dusseldorf 1824-1843 Table 101-200 Digitalisat
• Outline of Zoology, Nuremberg 1826, 2nd edition 1834 digitized
• Contributions to Petre Fact customer. 1838 digitized
• Petrefacta Germaniae. Tam ea, quae in museo universitatis Regia Borussicae Fridericiae Wilhelmiae Rhenanae servantur, quam alia quaecunque in MUSEIS Hoeninghusiano Muensteriano aliisque extant, iconibus et descriptionibus illustrata = pictures and descriptions of petrifactions Germany and the angränzenden countries, with the participation of Georg Graf zu Münster, Dusseldorf 1826 -1844 first Part. 2nd edition 1862 digitized
• The cranial structure of the mosasaur, by description of a new species genus. Mainz 1842 digitized
• Contributions to the fauna of the antediluvian coal Mountains. Bonn 1847 digitized