Franz Spillmann

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Franz Spillmann (born January 1, 1901 in Scharnstein - Viechtwang , Upper Austria ; † June 6, 1988 ) was an Austrian palaeontologist whose main research interests were in Ecuador and Peru .

Life

Spillmann was the son of court councilor Alois Spillmann, who worked as an engineer and head of torrent control in Upper Austria. After attending the elementary schools in Scharnstein and Linz and the Landesreal-Obergymnasium in St. Pölten , he graduated from the military high school in Vienna from 1915, where he passed the Matura in 1919 . From 1919 to the summer semester of 1924 he studied five semesters at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna , where he took partial exams in the fields of zoology , histology , embryology , physics and chemistry . In the winter semester of 1920/1921 he attended lectures in palaeontology, palaeobiology and vertebrate zoology at the University of Vienna as an extraordinary listener .

Between 1920 and 1925 Spillmann collected numerous small mammals , especially bats, in Lower Austria . He gave some evidence to Otto Wettstein and the Natural History Museum Vienna . However, the majority of his skull and skeleton collection was acquired by Wilhelm Marinelli for the zoological collection of the University of Vienna in 1925 . In 1923 he worked on Othenio Abel's excavation in the Drachenhöhle near Mixnitz . In 1924 he was elected a member of the Paleontological Society .

In 1925 he moved to Quito , Ecuador, where he held the post of director of the scientific cabinet of the Universidad Central del Ecuador from 1927 to 1937 and taught as a professor at the Universidad Central del Ecuador from 1938 to 1942. In 1942 Spillmann became a natural historian and head of the paleontological department at the Upper Austrian State Museum in Linz. In the six years of his tenure, the old general paleontological display collection was completely reorganized and expanded with the purchase of 1251 fossil samples from the estate of the Kröner school council in Bad Reichenhall . In 1943 he was awarded the PhD Eremotherium carolinense. Genus et Species novum. A paleobiological study of a Pleistocene giant steppe animal for Dr. rer. nat. PhD at the University of Vienna. From 1948 to 1962 he was professor of historical geology and micropalaeontology at the Universidad de Lima in Peru. From 1964 to 1969 Spillmann was a scientific officer at the Lower Austrian State Museum in Vienna.

In 1927 Spillmann described the sloth taxa Bradypus ecuadorianus and Bradypus nefandus from the Ecuadorian coastal region of Costa, which are now considered synonyms for the brown-throated sloth ( Bradypus variegatus ). In 1929 he wrote an analysis on a new type of tooth in bats. These were the first mammalian articles to be published in the university journal Anales de la Universidad Central del Ecuador , which has been published since 1883 . But are far more important his articles about fossil mammals, of which he 64 taxa described, including in 1948, the sloth genus eremotherium and 1959, the manatee Halitherium abeli from the Oligocene of the Linz basin , which is now synonymous with Lentiarenium crist olli (Fitzinger, 1842) applies .

Today more than 240 specimens of around 60 species are kept in museums in Brazil, Ecuador, the United States and France, with the two largest collections in the Museo de Historia Natural "Gustavo Orcés V." the Escuela Politécnica Nacional in Quito and in the Brazilian National Museum in Rio de Janeiro .

In 1942 Spillmann described the Pleistocene bird species Archeoquerquedula lambrechti (now a synonym for Anas bahamensis ) and Aratinga roosevelti from the Santa Elena Peninsula in Ecuador.

Dedication names

Erwin Stresemann named the Roststeißtapaculo ( Scytalopus spillmanni ) from Ecuador after Spillmann in 1937 .

Fonts (selection)

  • The South American mastodon as a contemporary of the human majoid culture. Paläontologische Zeitschrift, 11, Berlin 1929, pp. 170–177.
  • The mammals of Ecuador through the ages , published by Universidad Central, Quito 1931.
  • The fossil horses of the genus Neohippus of Ecuador. In: Palaeobiologica, 6, Vienna / Leipzig 1938, pp. 372–393.
  • Scientific activity and homeland maintenance in Upper Austria. State Museum. Botanical-Zoological and Palaeontological Department. In: Yearbook of the Upper Austrian Museum Association. Year 92, Linz 1947, pp. 26–33.
  • The sirens from the Oligocene of the Linz basin (Upper Austria), with explanations about "osteosclerosis" and "pachyososis". In: Memoranda of the Academy of Sciences in Vienna, mathematical-natural science class, 110, Vienna 1959, pp. 3-68.
  • The fossil mammal faunas of the Linz area. In: Geology and palaeontology of the Linz area: The soil of Linz: Catalog for the exhibitions of the City Museum Linz in the New Gallery of the City of Linz, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum and the Upper Austrian State Museum, Linz 1969, pp. 56–69.
  • Young tertiary mammal remains of the Lower Pliocene. In: Geology and palaeontology of the Linz area: The soil of Linz: Catalog for the exhibitions of the City Museum Linz in the New Gallery of the City of Linz, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum and the Upper Austrian State Museum, Linz 1969, pp. 190–193.
  • The quaternary mammal fauna of the Linz Basin. In: Geology and palaeontology of the Linz area: The soil of Linz: Catalog for the exhibitions of the City Museum Linz in the New Gallery of the City of Linz, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum and the Upper Austrian State Museum, Linz 1969, pp. 196-200.
  • New rhinocerotids from the Oligocene sands of the Linz basin. In: Yearbook of the Upper Austrian Museum Association. Year 114, Linz 1969, pp. 201–254, online (PDF) in the OoeGeschichte.at forum.
  • An attempt to clarify the origin of the phosphorites from the Linz area. In: Yearbook of the Upper Austrian Museum Association. Volume 117, Linz 1972, pp. 251–280, online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at.
  • Halitherium Pergense (Toula). A polemic about the taxonomy and age classification of the siren remains from the sandstone of Perg (Upper Austria) and Wallsee (Lower Austria). In: Yearbook of the Upper Austrian Museum Association. Year 118, Linz 1973, pp. 197–210, online (PDF) in the OoeGeschichte.at forum.
  • A new Anthracotherium from the Upper Oligocene Sands of Linz (Anthracotherium frehi n. Sp.). In: Yearbook of the Upper Austrian Museum Association. Year 119, Linz 1974, pp. 179–198, online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at.

literature

  • Jorge Ortega, José Luis Martínez & Diego G. Tirira: Historia de la mastozoología en Latinoamérica, las Guayanas y el Caribe. Editorial Murciélago Blanco y Asociación. Ecuatoriana de Mastozoología, Quito y México DF, 2014
  • Fritz F. Steininger, Daniela Angetter, Johannes Seidl: On the development of palaeontology in Vienna up to 1945 - treatises of the Federal Geological Institute in Vienna - 72, 2018, pp. 9–159.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ F. Spillmann: Sobre dos nuevas especies de "Bradypus" de la region costefia de la Republica del Ecuador. Anales de la Universidad Central 39, Quito, 1927, pp. 317-322.
  2. ^ F. Spillmann: Sobre un nuevo tipo de dentadura en los quirópteros. Anales de la Universidad Central, 42 (267), Quito, 1929, pp. 25-32.
  3. ↑ F. Spillmann: Contributions to the knowledge of a new gravigraden giant step animal (Eromoiherium carolinense gen. Et spec. Nov.), Its habitat and its way of life. Palaeobiologica, 8, pp. 231-279, Vienna 1948
  4. ↑ F. Spillmann: The Sirens from the Oligocene of the Linz Basin (Upper Austria), with explanations on "Osteosclerosis" and "Pachyososis". - Memoranda of the Academy of Sciences in Vienna, mathematical and natural science class, 110, 3-68, Vienna, 1959.
  5. ^ M. Voss, B. Berning, E. Reiter: A taxonomic and morphological re-evaluation of “Halitherium” cristolii Fitzinger, 1842 (Mammalia, Sirenia) from the late Oligocene of Austria, with the description of a new genus. European Journal of Taxonomy 256, pp. 1-32
  6. ^ Franz Spillmann: Contribución al conocimiento de fósiles nuevos de la avifauna Ecuatoriana en el Pleistoceno de Santa Elena. In: Paul H. Oehser (Ed.) Proceedings of the 8th American Scientific Congress, Washington, 10-18 May 1940 , vol. 4, American Scientific Congress, Washington DC, 1942, pp. 375-389
personal data
SURNAME Spillmann, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian paleontologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Scharnstein - Viechtwang , Upper Austria
DATE OF DEATH June 6, 1988