Otto Schindewolf

Otto Heinrich Schindewolf ( born June 7, 1896 in Hannover, † June 10, 1971 in Tübingen ) was a German paleontologist.

Life

Schindewolf was born in 1896 in Hanover. He studied from 1914 at the University of Göttingen among others, Hans silence and Rudolf Wedekind and after interruption by military service in World War I at the University of Marburg, where he followed Wedekind, where he received his doctorate in 1919, Ammonites of the Upper Devonian from the area around the yard. In 1921 he qualified as a wizard of Wedekind and 1927 he was an adjunct professor in Marburg. In the same year he went to the Prussian Geological Survey in Berlin, where he was head of palaeozoology, the collection and library supervised. In 1933 he was in the U.S.. In 1947 he became a full professor of paleontology at the Humboldt University Berlin. From 1948 until his retirement in 1964 he was a professor at the University of Tübingen and director of the Paleontological Institute. 1956/1957 he was rector of the university.

As a paleontologist, he dealt primarily with ammonites and corals, but was also very interested in the implications for the theory of evolution, which resulted from paleontology. In his Typostrophenlehre he developed idealized notions of the legitimate rise and extinction of species in Earth's history. In contrast to the vast majority of evolutionary scientists ( Modern Synthesis ), who adopted the progress of evolution by small gradual changes to Schindewolf argued for the existence of abrupt changes by major mutations within the meaning of Richard Goldschmidt ( hopeful monsters ). After a catchy formulation of Schindewolf the first bird emerged from a reptile egg. These abrupt changes were even after Schindewolf the real reason why paleontologists often transitional forms could not be found. In his major work, the basic questions of paleontology Schindewolf presents his Typostrophen theory comprehensively dar. This textbook has long been the standard work of the theory of evolution for German paleontologist. Appeared in 1993 an English translation of his principal work because views Schindewolf in Stephen Jay Gould's work ( in punctualism ( Punctuated Equilibrium ) and punctuated equilibrium ) partly be taken up again. Schindewolf even suspected later extraterrestrial causes for the increase of mutations (increase of cosmic radiation). In 1954 he did field studies in the Salt Mountains in Pakistan, where he studied the Permian-Triassic boundary at which a large break in the fauna took place ( mass extinction ), and where he was looking for evidence of the development of his alternative theory of evolution.

In 1948 he was awarded the Leopold- of - book - badge. In 1962 he was made an honorary member of the Paleontological Society.

Works

• Ontogeny and phylogeny, palaeontologist Z. 11, 54-74; 1929
• Comparative studies on the phylogeny, Morphogenie and terminology of Ammoneenlobenlinie ..., Berlin 1929
• Paleontology evolution and genetics: Criticism and synthesis, Berlin 1936
• The time factor in geology and paleontology, Berlin 1947
• Nature and history of paleontology, Berlin 1948
• Fundamental questions of paleontology. Geological time measurement, Organic tribal development, Biological Systematics. Content Free Trial, Stuttgart 1950
• About the "type" in morphological and phylogenetic biology. Akad d Wissensch. Mathem. Naturwiss. Class 4:56-131, 1969
• Principles and methods of palaeontological chronology 1944
• Nature and history of the Paläontolologie, 1948
• Studies on the phylogeny of the Ammonites, Part 1, Abhh. d Acad. and d ref Mainz, math. - Naturwiss. Kl, 1960, pp. 635-743
• Earth's history and world history, Abhh. d Acad. and d ref Mainz, math. - Naturwiss. Kl, 1964, p 53-104.
• Otto H. Schindewolf Basic questions in paleontology: geologic time, organic evolution, and biological systematics, editor Wolf -Ernst Reif, Foreword by Stephen Jay Gould, University of Chicago Press 1993