Robert Potonié

Robert Henri Hermann Ernst Potonié (born December 2, 1889 in Berlin , † January 26, 1974 in Krefeld ) was a German paleobotanist . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " R. Potonié ".

Life

He was the son of the Franco-German palaeobotanist Henry Potonié and studied geology, botany and chemistry in Berlin from 1909, interrupted from military service in the First World War 1914 to 1918. In 1920 he received his doctorate (The microchemical evidence of fossil cutaneous cell walls and fossil cellulose and its importance for the geology of coal) and in 1922 he completed his habilitation at the TH Berlin (lignin origin of coal from a paleontological point of view). From 1920 he was at the Prussian Geological State Institute (PGLA), from 1923 as a permanent assistant. In 1934 he became a district geologist in the Reich Office for Soil Research and in 1955 he retired as a department director in the Geological State Office of North Rhine-Westphalia. During the Second World War he was a prisoner of war until 1948.

He taught at the TH Berlin from 1923 and after the war from 1950 at the University of Bonn, which he continued as an honorary professor until 1966 (giving lectures primarily on coal petrology). In 1957/58 he was a visiting scientist at the Institute for Paleobotany in Lucknow .

Potonié dealt with the palynology , paleobotany and petrology of coal and was known for researching fossil spores and pollen in tertiary lignite deposits and in the Ruhr Carboniferous. His recommendations were also implemented in the international botanical nomenclature commission, of which he was a member, and he also dealt with the general definition of paleobotanical species. Potonié was also interested in chemical questions of paleobotany ( caustobiolites , charred cell walls and spore skin). He published 226 scientific papers.

tomb

From 1937 to 1945 he was editor of the Geologische Zentralblatt. He was the first president of the International Commission for Coal Petrology and later its honorary president. In 1961 he received the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. He was an honorary member of the International Organization for Paleobotany and a corresponding member of the Societé Royale des Sciences de Liège. He received the Reinhardt Thiessen Medal.

Like his wife, he was a passionate butterfly collector.

His grave in the Lichterfelde park cemetery was an honorary grave of the city of Berlin from 1987 to 2009 .

Fonts

• On the microbotany of the Eocene humodile of the Geiseltal , work from the Inst. F. Paleobotany of the Preuss. Geol. L.-A. 1934
• with H. Venitz: On the microbotany of the Miocene humodile of the Lower Rhine Bay , Arb. Inst. Paläobotanik d. Preus. Geol. L.-A., 5, Berlin 1934
• with Ahmedjan Ibrahim, Friedrich Loose: Spore forms from the Aegir and Bismarck seams of the Ruhr Carboniferous. , New Yearbook Bell., 67, 1932, 438–454
• with Gerhard Kremp: The genera of the palaeozoic Sporae dispersae and their stratigraphy , Geolog. Yearbook, 69, 1954, 111-194
• with Gerhard Kremp: The Sporae dispersae of the Ruhr Carboniferous, their morphology and stratigraphy with views of species in other areas and time periods. Part 1,2, 3, Palaeontographica, Volume 98, 1955, 1-136, Volume 99, 1956, 85-191, Volume 100, 1956, 65-121
• Synopsis of the genera of the Sporae dispersae , six parts, supplements Geolog. Yearbook, 1956 to 1970
• Synopsis of the Sporae in situ , several parts, supplements Geolog. Yearbook, 1956 to 1970
• Phylogenetic Sporology. Change in the spore shape of the higher plants in the course of the earth's history (= advances in the geology of Rhineland and Westphalia, Volume 22), Geological State Office of North Rhine-Westphalia, Krefeld 1973

He published his father's book Die Steinkohle - their essence and becoming , Reclam 1921.

literature

• H. Grebe: In memoriam Robert Potonié (1889–1974). Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 17, 1974, pp. 217-220.

Web links

• Portrait at the Palynological Society