Gerald Mayr

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gerald Mayr is a German expert in paleornithology and ornithology .

Mayr received his doctorate in 1997 at the Humboldt University Berlin (" Coraciiforme " and " piciform " small birds from the Middle Eocene of the Messel pit (Hesse, Germany)) and is curator for ornithology at the Senckenberg Research Institute , where he has been since 1997.

He dealt in particular with the bird fauna of the Paleogene and is an expert on fossil birds from the Messel Pit .

His first descriptions include the extinct pseudo- toothed bird Pelagornis chilensis from Chile (with David Rubilar ), which lived on the coast of Chile in the Miocene 5 to 10 million years ago and had the largest wingspan of all fossil birds (17 feet, correspondingly over 5 m) .

He and colleagues also examined the eleventh Archeopteryx find (Thermopolis specimen) and found clear indications of a relationship to theropods (such as Deinonychosauria or Dromaeosauridae ). In addition, the find also lacked a clear bird feature that had previously been overlooked in the other specimens or was not so clearly visible: the rear toe is not pointing backwards, but rather spreading to the side.

Fonts

  • Paleogene Fossil Birds, Springer Verlag 2009
  • The flock of birds in front of finches and starlings: Palaeogene birds, Biology in our time, Volume 37, 2007, Issue 6, pp. 376–382.
  • with Stefan Peters , Karin Böhm: Extinct and Endangered Birds in the Collections of the Research Institute and Nature Museum Senckenberg, Treatises of the Senckenberg Natural Research Society 560, 2004

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Courier Research Institute Senckenberg 205, 1998, 1-101
  2. Biggest fossil bird ever discovered
  3. Gerald Mayr, Burkhard Pohl, D. Stefan Peters: A Well-Preserved Archeopteryx Specimen with Theropod Features. In: Science. 310, 2005, No. 5753, pp. 1483-1486
  4. Primeval birds with dinosaur feet, Telopolis 2005
  5. German Ornithological Society: The Maria Koepcke Prize 2013 goes to Dr. Gerald Mayr