Karl Alfred von Zittel
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
palaeontologist.
Biography
He was born at Bahlingen in Baden, and educated at Heidelberg, ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. For a short period he served on the Geological Survey of Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, and as assistant in the mineralogical museum at Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. In 1863 he became teacher of geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
and mineralogy
Mineralogy
Mineralogy is the study of chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their utilization.-History:Early writing...
in the polytechnic at Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
, and three years later he succeeded Oppel as professor of palaeontology in the university of Munich, with the charge of the state collection of fossils.
In 1880 he was appointed to the geological professorship, and eventually to the directorship of the natural history museum of Munich. His earlier work comprised a monograph on the Cretaceous bivalve mollusca of Gosau (1863-66); and an essay on the Tithonian
Tithonian
In the geologic timescale the Tithonian is the latest age of the Late Jurassic epoch or the uppermost stage of the Upper Jurassic series. It spans the time between 150.8 ± 4 Ma and 145.5 ± 4 Ma...
stage (1870), regarded as equivalent to the Purbeck
Purbeck
Purbeck is a local government district in Dorset, England. The district is named after the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula that forms a large proportion of the district's area. However the district extends significantly further north and west than the traditional boundary of the Isle of Purbeck along...
and Weald
Weald
The Weald is the name given to an area in South East England situated between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It should be regarded as three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the centre; the clay "Low Weald" periphery; and the Greensand Ridge which...
en formations.
In 1873-74 he accompanied the Friedrich Rohlf
Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs
Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs was a German geographer, explorer, author and adventurer.He was born at Vegesack, now part of Bremen. There was much pressure on Rohlfs to be in the medicine field, and he eventually joined the French Foreign Legion in a medical capacity...
's expedition to the Libyan desert
Libyan Desert
The Libyan Desert covers an area of approximately 1,100,000 km2, it extends approximately 1100 km from east to west, and 1,000 km from north to south, in about the shape of a rectangle...
, the primary results of which were published in Über den geologischen Bau der libyschen Wuste (1880), and further details in the Palaeontographica (1883). Dr Zittel was distinguished for his palaeontological researches. From 1869 until the close of his life he was chief editor of the Palaeontographica (founded in 1846 by W Dunker and H von Meyer
Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer
Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer was a German palaeontologist.He was born at Frankfurt am Main.In 1832 von Meyer issued a work entitled Palaeologica, and in course of time he published a series of memoirs on various fossil organic remains: molluscs, crustaceans, fishes and higher vertebrata,...
).
In 1876 he commenced the publication of his great work, Handbuch der Palaeontologie, which was completed in 1893 in five volumes, the fifth volume on palaeobotany being prepared by WP Schimper and A Schenk. To make his work as trustworthy as possible Dr Zittel made special studies of each great group, commencing with the fossil sponges, on which he published a monograph (1877-79). In 1895 he issued a summary of his larger work entitled Grundzuge der Palaeontologie (ed. 2, part i, Invertebrata, revised by Dr Zittel in 1903; the American edition of 1900 by CR Eastman is so revised, sometimes in opposition to Zittel's views, as to be practically an independent work).
He was author of Aus der Urzeit (1873, ed. 2, 1875); and Die Sahara (1883). In 1899 he published Geschichte der Geologie und Palaeontologie bis Ende des 19 Jahrhunderts, a monumental history of the progress of geological science (Eng. trans., Mrs Maria M Ogilvie-Gordon
Maria Gordon
Maria Matilda Ogilvie Gordon was a 19th century Scottish scientist.-Biography:Maria Ogilvie was born in Monymusk, Aberdeenshire in 1864, the eldest daughter of educationalist Rev. D. A. Ogilvie and Maria Matilda Nichol. She had five brothers and two sisters...
, 1901). Dr Zittel was from 1899 president of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences, and in 1894 he was awarded the Wollaston medal
Wollaston Medal
The Wollaston Medal is a scientific award for geology, the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London.The medal is named after William Hyde Wollaston, and was first awarded in 1831...
by the Geological Society of London
Geological Society of London
The Geological Society of London is a learned society based in the United Kingdom with the aim of "investigating the mineral structure of the Earth"...
.