About
50
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Introduction
My major research focus is on floral assemblages of the late Paleozoic. I am mainly interested in anatomy of fossil plants and its significance in interacting with the palaeo-environment. For me, interdisciplinary research in the field of palaeobotany, in combination with sedimentology, geochemistry and palaeoclimatology, is the key to understand relationships in ancient ecosystems and the driving forces of plant evolution in a constantly changing world.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
October 2019 - December 2020
IRD /CIRAD
Position
- PostDoc Position
Description
- Postdoctoral grant of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
October 2014 - June 2018
Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz/TU Berakademie Freiberg
Position
- PhD Student
Education
October 2007 - June 2014
Publications
Publications (50)
The evolutionary success of the Holometabola was primarily related to drastic changes in body structures between larvae, pupae and adults. This enabled the Holometabola to exploit a wide range of habitats during different ontogenetic stages. A unique adaptation of tiny, grub-like holometabolous larvae is leaf mining, which provides access to inner...
The “callipterids” (Peltaspermales) represent a group of pteridosperms that arose in the Pennsylvanian. Their radiation in the early Permian of Euramerica was presumably linked to major global change favoring the extension of dry habitats. Due to the taphonomic megabias mainly affecting dry floral communities, our knowledge on these plants is restr...
The book "Die Rotliegend-Fauna des Thüringer Waldes" was published in April 2024 as a special publication by Semana in A4 format by the Natural History Museum Schleusingen (editors: Ralf Werneburg and Joerg W. Schneider). 18 authors present the fauna of the Upper Carboniferous and Lower Permian of the Thuringian Forest Basin (Germany) in 19 chapter...
Ein Thuja-ähnliches Holz, cf. Taxodioxylon (aff. Thuja L.), aus dem Nördlinger Ries und Szenarien der paläobiogeografischen Evolution Kurzfassung Es wird ein fossiles Holz, cf. Taxodioxylon (aff. Thuja L.), aus der Bunten Brekzie des Nördlinger Ries-Impaktes in Bay-ern vorgestellt. Die Beschreibung basiert auf zwei xylitischen Hölzern, die mittels...
Premise of research. In our modern flora, the Cycadales represent one of the oldest-known gymnosperm clades, with their evolutionary roots tracing back to the late Paleozoic. Their radiation and wide distribution in the Mesozoic are well documented by numerous fossils. In contrast, the fossil record of late Paleozoic forms is restricted to a few sp...
Farnsamer der Gattung Medullosa sind im Fossilbericht des frühpermischen Versteinerten Waldes Chemnitz umfangreich überliefert. Dennoch liegt ihre letzte grundlegende Erforschung mehr als 100 Jahre zurück. Dabei ist das Vorkommen dieser für das mitteleuropäische Rotliegend prägenden Pflanzengruppe außerhalb von Chemnitz meist nur auf fragmentarisch...
In 2019 and 2021, Bunte Breccia have been documented and sampled in two
excavations in Nattheim, 31 km from the centre of the Ries impact. Ballistically
ejected, strongly shocked crystalline rocks and overburden components of the
presumed crater rim are found. Local material such as the Brenztal-Trummerkalk
and Tertiary sediments are widely represe...
In 2019 and 2021, Bunte Breccia have been documented and sampled in two excavations in Nattheim, 31 km from the centre of the Ries impact. Ballistically ejected, strongly shocked crystalline rocks and overburden components of the presumed crater rim are found. Local material such as the Brenztal-Trummerkalk and Tertiary sediments are widely represe...
Our understanding of fossil floras through geological time is mainly based on various differently preserved plant parts, often found isolated under restricted taphonomic circumstances. Preservation of whole plants is exceptionally rare in the geological record but provides the most reliable proof of ancient plants, especially those lacking a neares...
Seit über einem Jahrhundert gilt die Region Winnweiler am Donnersberg als klassisches Fundgebiet strukturerhaltener, verkieselter Hölzer. Auf Grundlage von Sammlungsmaterial und einer Grabung charakterisiert diese Arbeit die Sedimentarchitekturen und Stratigraphie der Wirtsgesteine und erhellt die Erhaltung, botanische Natur und Fossilwerdung der i...
Silicified woods found on fields near Winnweiler, SW-Germany, provide unique three-dimensional insights into the anatomy of late Paleozoic gymnosperms. However, little is known about the fossils’ origin impeding further research. Based on an excavation at the Zuckerwald locality, we characterise the host rocks and palaeobotanical nature of the petr...
The medullosans represent a diverse group of pteridosperms that was widely distributed in forested landscapes of the late Paleozoic. These plants became widely known from the extensive tropical lowland basins of Euramerica, where they grew as slender plants with large fronds and fern-like foliage. Besides, there also exist medullosans of Late Penns...
Subvolcanic intrusions are highly variable in shape and structure, and occur in nearly all parts of the upper crust, as a result of extensive volcanic activity. Processes of subvolcanics interacting with the host rock are insufficiently understood, as they are rarely exposed. In the southernmost part of the Flechtingen-Altmark Subprovince, (sub)vol...
The “Petrified Forest of Chemnitz” is an approximately 291-million-year-old palaeobotanical
fossil site, an ecosystem which has been exceptionally well preserved by
volcanic activity.
It provides geologists with insights into the development and disappearance
of habitats and the dynamics of environmental and climate change.
Sedimentary rocks of late Middle to Late Permian age, outcropping at Mammendorf quarry in northern
Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, yielded an assemblage of continental trace fossils including reptilian and
therapsid tracks, scratches and scrabbling traces, invertebrate burrows and plant root traces. Since
the first finds in May 2016 ca. 90 individual slabs...
Woody trees are regarded as excellent natural data archives, even far back in geological time. In addition to regular growth patterns, destruction scars bear witness to various kinds of growth disturbances which are recorded as a result of environmental impact during the life time of a tree. Although stem injuries can provide significant insight in...
Der „Versteinerte Wald von Chemnitz“ ist eine etwa 291 Millionen Jahre alte paläobotanische
Fossillagerstätte – und ein außergewöhnlich gut vulkanisch konserviertes Ökosystem. Geologen gewinnen hier Einblicke in das Werden und Vergehen von Lebensräumen und die Dynamiken von Umwelt- und Klimawandel.
An assemblage of continental trace fossils has recently been found within Permian sedimentary rocks outcropping at Mammendorf quarry in the Flechtingen High area of Saxony-Anhalt, northern Germany. It includes different types of tetrapod tracks, scratches and invertebrate burrows preserved on thin mud-crack-bearing siltstone laminae within red and...
The Chemnitz Fossil Forest depicts one of the most completely preserved forest ecosystems in late Paleozoic Northern Hemisphere of tropical Pangaea. Fossil biota was preserved as a T⁰ taphocoenosis resulting from the instantaneous entombment by volcanic ashes of the Zeisigwald Tuff. The eruption depicts one of the late magmatic events of post-varis...
A new fossil amniote from the Fossil Forest of Chemnitz (Sakmarian-Artinskian transition, Germany) is described as Ascendonanus nestleri gen. et sp. nov., based on five articulated skeletons with integumentary preservation. The slender animals exhibit a generalistic, lizard-like morphology. However, their synapsid temporal fenestration, ventrally r...
In contrast to in-situ preserved plant associations such as petrified forests, alluvial or fluvial plant assemblages often receive less scientific attention. The reasons are obvious: a lack of site-specific information and a loss of anatomical integrity connected to enhanced fragmentation during transport. However, such plant assemblages may offer...
The Chemnitz Fossil Forest represents a diverse T0 assemblage of a fossil forest ecosystem of early Permian
age (Sakmarian, 290.6 ± 1.8 Ma), which was preserved by a series of volcanic events. The hygrophilous plant
community grew on the mineral substrate of an alluvial plain under a sub-humid local climate. Strong seasonality triggered the formati...
The early Permian Chemnitz Fossil Lagerstätte (Leukersdorf Formation, Chemnitz Basin, SE Germany) represents a diverse T⁰ assemblage of a fossil forest ecosystem around the Sakmarian-Artinskian transition (290.6 ± 1.8 Ma), which was preserved by pyroclastic deposits of a multi-phased volcanic eruption. The multi-aged plant community consists of pre...
The recently discovered trace fossil assemblage of Mammendorf
quarry in Saxony-Anhalt, northern Germany, comes
from a Middle to Late Permian non-marine succession of
sedimentary rocks. Here we focus on the most fossiliferous
track horizon which represents one of several centimeterthin
siltstone layers within a unit of gray-white sandstones.
This ho...
Modern-day periodic climate pattern variations related to solar activity are well known. High-resolution records such as varves, ice cores, and tree-ring sequences are commonly used for reconstructing climatic variations in the younger geological history. For the first time we apply dendrochronological methods to Paleozoic trees in order to recogni...
First complete body fossils and several exuvia of scorpions from the Permian are presented from a recently excavated locality in Chemnitz. Explosive volcanism preserved these remarkable specimens in situ as part of the palaeosol and bedrock of the Petrified Forest. Embedded by the Zeisigwald Tuff this T0 assemblage dates to the early Permian (Sakma...
The field-trip visits Chemnitz in the northeastern Chemnitz Basin (E Germany)
and illustrates the geological development, formation and fossil content of the
early Permian sedimentary and volcanic strata. Specific taphonomic characteris -
tics related to volcanic fossilisation processes are discussed in detail.
The Petrified Forest of Chemnitz is an outstanding example of an early Permian forest ecosystem preserved by an explosive volcanic event. The fossil site represents a 3D-snapshot of a floodplain environment in the Leukersdorf Formation of the Chemnitz Basin, 291 Ma ago. A detailed reconstruction of the ecosystem as well as its surrounding environme...
Anatomically preserved calamitalean trunks are described from the Permian fossil forests of Chemnitz, Germany, and Tocantins, central-north Brazil. Several trunk bases were found in situ, still rooting in their former substrate or in parautochthonous sediments and revealing multiple organic connections between stems and roots. The new evidence of s...
The Petrified Forest of Chemnitz is an outstanding example of an Early Permian forest ecosystem preserved by an explosive volcanic event. The fossil site represents a 3D-snapshot of a floodplain environment in the Leukersdorf Formation in the Chemnitz Basin, 291 Ma ago. The substrate of the forest, a two meter thick palaeosol shows typical features...
This contribution summarizes the excavation activities at the petrified forest of Chemnitz (Lower Permian Rotliegend, Asselian/Sakmarian) undertaken at the site Frankenberger Straße 61 in 2010. This fossillagerstätte was buried in situ by volcanic ash falls and flows. We particularly focus on finds, observations and conclusions obtained from the de...
