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On January 11, 2008 Christian Pott
received the annual Dissertation Prize for the Faculty of Mathematics
and Natural Sciences of the Westfälische Wilhelm-Universitäz
Münster
for his PhD thesis on 'Cuticular analysis of gymnosperm foliage
from
the Carinian (Upper Triassic) of Lunz, Lower Austria'. This prize
consists of a diploma and a sum of € 7500.- . We congratulate
Christian with this achievement. The picture shows all together
prize winners together with the rector of the university. For the
official press click here. |
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In
December 2007 Michael Krings was appointed as professor for
palaeontology (palaeobotany) by the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
in Münich in recognition of his scientific achievements. Michael
got his PhD in Münster where he also did his Habilitation.
He moved from Münster to Munich in 2003 but he still is our
cooperation partner in
several running projects. We congratulate Michael with this great
achievement !
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The
Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft funded a project on Triassic and Jurassic floras
from North Victoria Land, Antarctic. Our polar explorer Benjamin
Bomfleur
will continue the work on the floras he collected during the GANOVEX IX
expedition (see below). |
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In May 2007 Christian Pott
succesfully
defended his PhD thesis on 'Cuticular analysis of gymnosperm foliage
from
the Carinian (Upper Trias- sic) of Lunz, Lower Austria'. This thesis
consists
of not less than eight papers and manuscripts in press; for further
information
on the individual paper see our literature section and Christian's Lunz
page. |
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The "Förderkreis
der Universität Münster" provided financial support to
buy
a modern Leica MZ 16 stereomicroscope. They funded two projects each
with
a sum of up to € 15 000.-, the proposal of the palaeobotany
research group was one of them. |
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Dr.
Wang
Jun from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palynology, Academia
Sinica,
arrived in October 2006 for a one-year stay in Münster supported
by
a DAAD / KC Wong Fellowship and returned to Nanjing in September 2007.
He worked on Permian callipterids from
China,
particularly on cuticles. |
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The
Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft funded a project on Permian palynology of the
palaeotropics.
Ellen Stolle concentrates her PhD research project on Permian
microfloras
from Turkey. |
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Benni
Bomfleur
participated in the GANOVEX IX
expedition
(2005-2006) to North Victoria Land, Antarctica. He collected fossil
plant
material from the Triassic and Jurassic, including permineralized plant
material and compression fossils with cuticles. This expedition
received
considerable attention in the press, including tabloids.
This project is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Benni
intends
to do his PhD on Mesozoic floras from North Victoria Land. |
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Thomas N. Taylor was awarded a
grant by
the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to work with us on Rhynie chert
gametophyte
development and on fossil cuticles. This resulted in a PNAS paper
(2005). |
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In 2004 Christian Pott joined
our team.
He is doing a PhD on fossil cuticles of the
Lunz flora, Austria (Carnian). This is a joint research project
with
Dr. Michael Krings (Munich) that is funded by the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft.
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In February 2004 Wolfgang
Peters-Kottig
completed his PhD on carbon isotopes of terrestrial organic matter from
the Upper Palaeozoic, a project supervised by Profs. Drs. Harald
Strauß
and Hans Kerp. In November 2004 Abdalla Abu Hamad from Irbid
successfully
defended his PhD thesis at the University Hamburg. He worked on the
palaeobotany
and palynology of Permian-Triassic succession on the eastern side of
the
Dead Sea (Jordan). This was a joint project with Prof. Dr. Klaus Bandel
(Hamburg). Abdalla now holds a position at the University of Jordan in
Amman. |
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A paper by Jason Dunlop, Lyall
Anderson,
Hans Kerp and Hagen Hass, which appreared in Nature (September
2003),
on the oldest harvestman got considerable attention in the press and on
the internet. Search with Google for "oldest genitals". This harvestman
even made it into the 2005 edition of the Guinness Book of Records.
Howver,
a few months later another, c. 20 million older fossil animal with
preserved
genitals was described. Nevertheless, this 400 Million-year-old daddy
longlegs
is the oldest anatomically preserved animal with tracheae, which means
that it was fully adapted to life on land. |
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From October 2003 to October
2005, Dr.
Martine Berthelin who did her PhD at the Université Pierre et
Marie
Curie (Paris VI) worked in our group as a post-doctoral researcher with
a Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship. She worked on Permian cuticles
from
Oman and and the Middle East. To our deep sadness she
passed away on 18th August 2007. |
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In 2003 Birgit Niemann joined
our team.
She is doing a PhD project on Stomatal Indices and Stomatal Densities
of
selected taxa from the Upper Carboniferous, Permian and Triassic. This
project is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. In the
meanwhile, Birgit finished her thesis that she will defend in the fall
of 2007. In September 2007 she started working for Olympus Soft Imaging
Solutions in Münster.
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