German paleontology in the early 21st century.

Kießling W, Nützel A (2010)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2010

German paleontology has a long

tradition and is still very active and innovative in

many fields. Fields with the

highest impacts are Neogene to Recent micropaleontology

with paleoceanographic and climate focus as well as geobiology and paleoecology.

Systematic paleontology is well represented

in Germany and leading taxonomic exper-

tise is present for many groups although the

impact of this resear

ch is necessarily low.

Conservation of this expertise is important

but visibility should

be enhanced by cooper-

ation with researchers from other disciplines

. Analytical paleobiology is too weak in

Germany with a few exceptions, as is the de

ep-time perspective of evo-devo research

and efforts should be made not to fall further behind here.

The greatest risk for German paleontology is the continued closure of university

departments and the replacement of retired paleontologists by non-paleontologists.

This threatens the future of our students in science and the paleontological research

community may fall below a critical mass

which is needed for innovative research.

Some of these problems fa

ll in the responsibility of th

e paleontologists themselves

(e.g., lack of innovative approaches, appare

nt absence of practical/ economic applica-

bility, tactical mistakes) but others are the re

sult of administrative actions to save or

shift resources independent of the quality of research and teaching.

Wolfgang Kießling Lehrstuhl für Paläoumwelt

APA:

Kießling, W., & Nützel, A. (2010). German paleontology in the early 21st century. Palaeontologia Electronica.

MLA:

Kießling, Wolfgang, and Alexander Nützel. "German paleontology in the early 21st century." Palaeontologia Electronica (2010).

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