Jens Lorenz Franzen

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Jens Lorenz Franzen (born April 27, 1937 in Bremen ; † November 21, 2018 in Freiburg i. Breisgau ) was a German paleontologist . Most recently he was head of the department of paleoanthropology and quaternary paleontology at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt am Main. He carried out scientific excavations at fossil sites in Germany - such as Messel , Dorn-Dürkheim and Eppelsheim - and discovered and described many previously unknown fossil mammal species.

Life

From 1968 to 1969 Franzen was scientific assistant at the Geological-Paleontological Institute of the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg , from 1969 to 1970 scientific assistant (DFG) to Prof. Dr. Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald and from 1971 to 1977 scientific assistant at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt am Main. In the years from 1973 to 1984 Franzen dealt with the initiation and organization of the international science protest against a landfill in the Messel pit near Darmstadt.

Between 1975 and 1984, the Senckenberg Research Institute set up and managed the excavation program in the Messel pit. In 1987 he worked as a scientific advisor to the municipality of Messel in the process before the Hessian Administrative Court in Kassel. From 1977 to 2000 he was curator and section head of paleoanthropology at the Senckenberg Research Institute, from 1982 to 1999 head of the paleoanthropology department at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt am Main and from January 1, 2000 head of the paleoanthropology and Quaternary paleontology department at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt am Main and in Weimar . From 1989 to 2000 he was a member and from 1992 to 2000 first chairman of the science committee of the Senckenberg Research Institute, at the same time a member of the board of directors of the Senckenberg Natural Research Society . Since September 1, 2000, he was retired and volunteer at the Senckenberg Research Institute and at the Geosciences Department of the Natural History Museum Basel .

In 1998 he was the first recipient of the Friedrich von Alberti Prize ( for his studies on human tribal history and the exploration and conservation of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Messel Pit. (Laudation)) and in 2003 honorary member of the Friends of the Dinotherium Museum Eppelsheim. He coined the concept for the Dinotherium Museum in Eppelsheim, which opened in 2001 and which bears the name of the fossil trunk dinotherium . In 2009 he was one of the authors of the accompanied by a large media response first description of the fossil primate Darwinius from Messel, the phylogenetically the last common ancestor of dry proboscis monkeys and wet-nosed monkeys near stands.

Act

Franzen dealt with palaeogenic Equoidea (Palaeotheria, Equidae, Messel primeval horses), the primates of Messel, also with the Eocene mammals of the Eckfelder Maar ( Eckfeld / Vulkaneifel) and the late Miocene large mammals ( tapirs , chalicotheria from Dorn-Dürkheim ), as well as with the mammalian chronology of the European Eocene and Upper Miocene.

Franzen took part in excavations and expeditions in Europe, Africa and America. He dug in the fossil site Messel Pit near Darmstadt in Hesse (1975-1984), in Dorn-Dürkheim in Rhineland-Palatinate (1973-1979, 1985-1986, 1989-1996) and in Eppelsheim in Rhineland-Palatinate (1996-2002) . In Eppelsheim and Dorn-Dürkheim there are deposits of the Ur-Rhine ( Dinotheriensande ). Franzen also carried out paleontological and paleoanthropological studies in Morocco (1971), Libya (1972), Greece (1963, 1975) and Mexico (1991, 1992).

Franzen was a member of numerous renowned societies: Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Paleontological Society, Upper Rhine Geological Association, Natural Research Society Freiburg i. Br., Archaeological Society of Hesse, Messel Museum Association and the Dinotherium Museum Eppelsheim Association.

The paleontologist examined numerous fossil mammals from the Tertiary - especially from the Eocene and Miocene -, described and named them.

New genres

New species

  • Palaeotherium pomeli Franzen , 1968
  • Pseudopalaeotherium longirostratum Franzen , 1972
  • Messelobunodon schaeferi Franzen , 1981
  • Messelobunodon ceciliensis Franzen & Krumbiegel , 1980
  • Europolemur koenigswaldi Franzen , 1987
  • Hallensia matthesi Franzen & Haubold 1986
  • Hallensia parisiensis Franzen , 1990
  • Neufferia manderscheidi Franzen , 1994
  • Lutzia Eckfeldensis Franzen , 1994
  • Lophiotherium sondaari Franzen , 1999
  • Europolemur kelleri Franzen , 2000
  • Plesiosorex roosi Franzen , Fejfar & Storch , 2003

New subspecies

  • Palaeotherium castrense robiacense Franzen , 1968
  • Palaeotherium crassum robustum Franzen , 1968
  • Palaeotherium muehlbergi praecursum Franzen , 1968
  • Palaeotherium curtum villerealense Franzen , 1968
  • Palaeotherium curtum frohnstettense Franzen , 1968
  • Palaeotherium duvali priscum Franzen , 1968

Dedication names

A number of fossil animal species have been named in honor of Franzen. In the area of ​​the genera and sub-genera Franzenium ng ( Casanovas-Cladellas & Santafé-Llopis , 1989) and Franzenitherium n.subg. ( Remy, JA , 1992). In addition, the newly discovered species Palaeotherium franzeni n.sp. ( Casanovas-Cladellas , 1980), Masillabune franzeni n.sp. Erfurt & Haubold , 1989, Neochelys franzeni n.sp. ( Schleich , 1993) and Tachypteron franzeni n.sp. ( Storch , Sigé & Habersetzer , 2002)

Scientific publications (selection)

  • New mammal finds from the Eocene of the Eckfelder Maar near Manderscheid (Eifel). In: Mainzer Naturwiss. Arch. Beiheft 16, Mainz 1994, pp. 189-211.
  • The Equoidea of ​​the European Middle Eocene. In: Hallesches Jb. Geowiss. Volume 17, Halle 1995, pp. 31-45.
  • A coprolite as a treat. The seventh primate find from Messel. In: Natur u. Museum. Volume 127, No. 2, Frankfurt am Main 1997, pp. 46-53.
  • The sixth Messel primate (Mammalia, Primates, Notharctidae, Cercamoniinae). In: Senckenbergiana lethaea. Volume 80, Frankfurt am Main 2000, pp. 289-303.
  • First fossil primates from the Eckfeld Maar, Middle Eocene (Eifel, Germany). In: Eclogae geologicae Helvetiae. Volume 97, Basel 2004, pp. 213-220.
  • The primeval horses of the dawn. Origin and evolution of horses . Spectrum Academic Publishing House (Elsevier), Heidelberg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8274-1680-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary notice Jens Lorenz Franzen In: FAZ . 15th December 2018.
  2. ^ Ottmar Kullmer, Stephan Schaal: In memoriam Jens Lorenz Franzen. In: Senckenberg Nature Research Museum. Volume 149, No. 1-3, 2019, p. 42.
  3. ↑ Thorsten Wenzel: The Lord of the Primitive Horses. In: Senckenberg. Nature, research, museum. Volume 147, No. 05/06 2017, pp. 170–172.
  4. ^ Alberti Prize
  5. ↑ JL Franzen, PD Gingerich, J. Habersetzer, JH Hurum, W. von Koenigswald et al: Complete Primate Skeleton from the Middle Eocene of Messel in Germany: Morphology and Paleobiology. In: PLoS ONE. Volume 4, No. 5, 2009, Art. E5723. doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0005723
personal data
SURNAME Franzen, Jens Lorenz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German paleontologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremen
DATE OF DEATH November 21, 2018
Place of death Freiburg i. Breisgau