Martin Sander (paleontologist)

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Paul Martin Sander (* 1960 in Würzburg ) is a German vertebrate paleontologist and paleobiologist who studies dinosaurs and marine saurians . His special research topic is the evolution of gigantism .

Life

Martin Sander went in Freiburg to school and studied at the University and at the University of Texas at Austin geology. He received his doctorate in paleontology from the University of Zurich (on ichthyosaurs from Monte San Giorgio ) and was at the University of Bonn from 1990 , where he completed his habilitation in 1995 . He was head of the Paleontological Museum there until 2007, where he is professor of vertebrate paleontology.

Since 2003, Sander has been the initiator and spokesman of the interdisciplinary working group Biology of Sauropod Dinosaurs - the Evolution of Gigantism, supported by the DFG , with the question of why sauropods greatly exceeded the limits expected for land animals of around 10 tons and 50 to 100 tons according to current theories achieved. Their gigantism developed in a few million years at the end of the Triassic . The hypotheses include air sacs in the body, which made the skeleton lighter, ensured better oxygen uptake in the lungs (similar to birds) and contributed to solving the cooling problem. Because of their size, the sauropods were able to find new sources of food (such as araucaria conifers). Further aspects were a high number of eggs and savings in the rearing of the offspring, rapid growth and the fact that the food was not chewed but swallowed (saving teeth, chewing muscles, saving time). Evidence of an adaptation of the metabolism in the course of growth was found in the bones. According to Sander and colleagues, the flexibility of the metabolism indicates that the sauropods were " warm-blooded ", which was confirmed in 2011 by researching the isotopic composition of the teeth by Robert Eagle and colleagues - they found body temperatures between 36 and 38 degrees Celsius.

After Sander and his Swiss colleague Marcus Clauss published the first results of the project in Science in 2008, he and colleagues published a book on the biology of sauropods in 2011. In 2011 he was a guest curator (alongside Mark Norell ) in the exhibition on sauropods at the American Museum of Natural History .

Sander worked on the findings of the Europäischeaurus from the Upper Jura of the northern edge of the Harz Mountains, found in 1998, which are only around 6 meters long and are “miniature versions” of sauropods, possibly developed into these dwarf forms on islands ( island dwarfing ). Many dinosaur remains (including skulls and footprints) were found at the excavation site.

In addition to ichthyosaurs and sauropods, he also dealt with the teeth of dinosaurs and the formation conditions ( taphonomy ) of the famous plateosaur sites in Germany.

Martin Sander is married to the paleobotanist Carole Gee and has three children.

Fonts

  • Editor with Nicole Klein, Kristian Remes, Carole T. Gee Biology of the sauropod dinosaurs: Understanding the life of giants , Indiana University Press 2011
  • Contributions to W. Westheide, R. Rieger (editor), special zoology, G. Fischer 2003
  • with Marcus Clauss Perspective: Sauropod dinosaur gigantism . Science, Volume 322, 2008, pp. 200-201.
  • Time travel to the Middle Ages - The paleobiology of the dinosaurs in Gerold Wefer (editor), Expedition Earth. Contributions to the Year of Geosciences 2002. University of Bremen, pp. 134–145, [1]
  • Long bone histology of the Tendaguru sauropods: Implications for growth and biology . Paleobiology, Vol. 26, 2000, pp. 466-488.
  • Life history of Tendaguru sauropods as inferred from long bone histology . Geoscientific series (Communications Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin), Volume 2, 1999, pp. 103–112
  • Ichthyosauria: their diversity, distribution, and phylogeny , Paläontologische Zeitschrift, Volume 74, 2000, pp. 1-35.
  • The Plateosaurus cemeteries in Keuper: evidence of mass death? , in V. Wilde, N. Hauschke (editor), Die Trias. A completely different world. Central Europe in the early Middle Ages . Publishing house Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, Munich, pp. 419-425.
  • Giants on land and ichthyosaurs in U. Gansloßer Top Achievements - The incredible abilities of the animals . Filander Verlag, Fürth, 1999
  • Teeth and jaws , in Philip Currie , Padian (Editor) Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs , Academic Press 1997
  • Reptilien , Enke Verlag, 1994
  • Keuper and Lias der Tongrube Frick , in: Werner K. Weidert, Classical Findings of Paleontology, Volume 2, Goldschneck Verlag 1990

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ In 2001, Jared Diamond investigated the dependence of population density on size in terrestrial animals

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Theory of the Giants, Zeit Online, 2005
  2. A hatchling sauropod initially doubled its weight in five days instead of five months as a human infant
  3. Robert Eagle et al. a. Dinosaur Body Temperatures Determined from Isotopic (13C-18O) Ordering in Fossil Biominerals , Science, Volume 333, 2011, pp. 443-445, abstract . However, the body temperature of the sauropods was generally high due to their weight.
  4. ^ Sander, Marcus Clauss Sauropod gigantism , Science, Volume 322, 2008, pp. 200-201 Abstract
  5. John Wilford Giants who scarfed down fast-food feasts , New York Times, April 11, 2011
  6. ^ American Museum of Natural History 2011 for the opening of the exhibition The Worlds largests dinosaurs
  7. P. Martin Sander, Octávio Mateus, Thomas Laven, Nils Knötschke: Bone histology indicates insular dwarfism in a new Late Jurassic sauropod dinosaur , Nature, Volume 441, 2006, pp. 739-741
  8. ^ Ernst Probst Dinosaurs in Lower Saxony , Grin Verlag 2010