Karl Alfred von Zittel
Karl Alfred von Zittel ( born September 25, 1839 in Bahlingen; † January 5, 1904 in Munich) was a German geologist and paleontologist.
Life
The son of evangelical pastor Karl Zittel studied at the University of Heidelberg geology and medicine among others, Heinrich Georg Bronn. During his studies, he became in 1857 a member of the fraternity Franconia Heidelberg. Zittel in 1860 received his doctorate at the University of Heidelberg. In the same year he undertook a research trip to Scandinavia and from 1861 studied in Paris, where he primarily focused on the research of Georges Cuvier and Jean -Baptiste Lamarck. 1862 Zittel went to the Geological Reichsanstalt Vienna, where he participated in the geological mapping of Dalmatia and assistant at Hofmineralienkabinett in Vienna. In 1863 he qualified as a professor in Vienna of Geology and Palaeontology, the same year he became a lecturer at the University of Vienna.
In 1863 he became professor of mineralogy and geology at the Karlsruhe Polytechnic, the predecessor institution of the University of Karlsruhe. In 1866 he took over the then only Chair of Paleontology at the University of Munich in Germany as the successor of Albert Oppel. With his work in Munich Zittel contributed decisively to the development of paleontology as an independent academic discipline.
From 1873 to 1874 he accompanied the expedition of Gerhard Rohlfs in the Libyan desert, the scientific results he published in his work over the geological construction of the Libyan Desert (1880 ) and Palaeontographica (1883 ).
In 1880 he was also Professor of Geology at the University of Munich and director of the " Paleontological Museum " of the Bavarian capital.
From 1869 until his death, he published the magazine Palaeontographica, which had been founded in 1846 by Wilhelm Dunker and Hermann von Meyer.
Honors and awards (selection)
The Paleontological Society awards since 1984, Zittel Medal, excellent collectors and paleontologists will be honored with that have taken particular care to successful cooperation with the academic experts.
Certificate of Zittel
Richard Goldschmidt wrote in experiences and encounters (1959 ) on Zittel, whom he had met while studying in Munich ( 1900):
" Zittel was a serious and dignified -looking man with a short black beard ... We all sat around a long table, with the professor in the middle. For each of these lectures he brought hundreds of fossils that he ... took the wonderful Bavarian State Collection. The lecture was terribly boring because he used a plethora of names to bring us unknown species. "
Works
- About Scientific truth. Munich: Verl d K. B. Academic, 1902
- Objectives and tasks of the academies in the twentieth century. Munich: Verl d k b. Akad, 1900
- Looking back on the creation and development of K. Bavarian Academy of Sciences in the 19th century. Munich: Verl d k b. Akad, 1899
- History of geology and paleontology to the end of the 19th century. München [ et al ]: Oldenbourg, 1899, Online
- Broad paleontology ( Palaeozoology ) München [ ua]: Oldenbourg, 1895 the English edition was published as Textbook of Paleontology by Macmillan in 1900, 1902 and 1925, in three volumes, edited by Charles R. Eastman and edited by American scholars such as EC Case. It was a standard work in the United States.