Nineteenth-century paleontological art in the Natural History Museum Vienna, Austria: Between demystification and mythologization

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Jovanovic-Kruspel ◽  
Mathias Harzhauser
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Hard Core ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
Science Museums ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Systematic Paleontology

ABSTRACT The nineteenth century was the dawn of scientific and systematic paleontology. The foundation of Natural History Museums—built as microcosmic “Books of Nature”—not only contributed to the establishment of this new discipline but also to its visual dissemination. This paper will take the metaphor of the “book” as a starting point for an examination of the paleontological exhibition at the Natural History Museum in Vienna. In keeping with “Natural Theology,” the earliest natural science museums in Britain were designed as expressions of the medieval idea of the “Holy Book of Nature.” Contrary to this, the Natural History Museum Vienna, opened in 1889, wanted to be a nonreligious museum of evolution. Nevertheless, the idea of the “book” was also influential for its design. According to the architects and the first director, it should be a modern “walk-in textbook” instructive for everyone. The most prominent exhibition hall in the museum is dedicated to paleontology. The hall’s decorative scheme forms a unique “Paleo-Gesamtkunstwerk” (Gesamtkunstwerk: total piece of art). The use of grotesque and mythological elements is a particularly striking feature of the hall’s decoration and raises the question of how this relates to the museum’s claim to be a hard-core science institution. As it was paleontology’s task to demystify the monsters and riddles of Earth history systematically, it seems odd that the decorative program connected explicitly to this world. This chapter sheds light on the cultural traditions that led to the creation of this ambiguous program that oscillates between science and imagination.

Ediacaran Acanthomorphic Acritarchs and Other Microfossils from Chert Nodules of the Upper Doushantuo Formation in the Yangtze Gorges Area, South China

2014 ◽  
Vol 88 (S72) ◽  
pp. 1-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengju Liu ◽  
Shuhai Xiao ◽  
Chongyu Yin ◽  
Shouming Chen ◽  
Chuanming Zhou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South China ◽  
Doushantuo Formation ◽  
Systematic Treatment ◽  
East European ◽  
Northern India ◽  
Systematic Paleontology ◽  
First Occurrence ◽  
Biostratigraphic Subdivision ◽  
Multicellular Organisms ◽  
Algal Thalli

Silicified microfossils preserved in chert nodules of the Doushantuo Formation in the Yangtze Gorges area of South China have great potential to improve the biostratigraphic subdivision and correlation of the Ediacaran System. This potential can be realized only if solid taxonomy is available. However, a systematic treatment of these microfossils (particularly acanthomorphic acritarchs) is lacking, greatly limiting their biostratigraphic potential. This paper presents the systematic paleontology of silicified microfossils from upper Doushantuo Formation (Member III) chert nodules at three sections in the Yangtze Gorges area. More than 90 species of microfossils are described, including 66 named taxa of acanthomorphs, seven named taxa of sphaeromorphs, 12 taxa of cyanobacterial filaments and coccoids, four taxa of algal thalli, and two species of tubular microfossils. Several acritarch species, includingAppendisphaera clavan. sp.,Mengeosphaera grandispinan. sp.,M. stegosauriformisn. sp.,Leiosphaeridia, and possiblySinosphaera rupina, are shown to be multicellular organisms, consistent with the proposition that some Ediacaran acritarchs may be diapause eggs of early animals. This study supports the view that theTianzhushania spinosaacanthomorph biozone is unique to the lower Doushantuo Formation in South China (and perhaps its equivalent in northern India) and that Ediacaran acanthomorph assemblages from Australia, Siberia, and East European Platform are younger than theTianzhushania spinosabiozone. It is proposed that the first occurrence ofHocosphaeridium anozos, a species with easily recognizable morphology and wide taphonomic and geographic distributions, be used to define the second Doushantuo acanthomorph biozone succeeding theTianzhushania spinosabiozone. New taxa described in this paper include three new genera (Bispinosphaeran. gen.;Yushengian. gen.; andGranitunican. gen.) and 40 new species:Appendisphaera?brevispinan. sp.,A. clavan. sp.,A.?hemisphaerican. sp.,A. longispinan. sp.,A. setosan. sp.,Bispinosphaera peregrinan. gen. n. sp.,Crinita paucispinosan. sp.,Ericiasphaera densispinan. sp.,Hocosphaeridium dilatatumn. sp.,Knollisphaeridium denticulatumn. sp.,K. longilatumn. sp.,K. obtusumn. sp.,K. parvumn. sp.,Mengeosphaera angustan. sp.,M. bellulan. sp.,M.cf.bellulan. sp.,M. constrictan. sp.,M.?cuspidatan. sp.,M.?gracilisn. sp.,M. grandispinan. sp.,M. latibasisn. sp.,M. miniman. sp.,M. spicatan. sp.,M. spinulan. sp.,M. stegosauriformisn. sp.,M. triangularisn. sp.,M. uniformisn. sp.,Sinosphaera asteriformisn. sp.,Tanarium acusn. sp.,T. elegansn. sp.,T. longitubularen. sp.,T.?minimumn. sp.,T. obesumn. sp.,T. variumn. sp.,Urasphaera fungiformisn. sp.,U. nuptan. sp.,Yushengia ramispinan. gen. n. sp.,Granitunica mcfaddeniaen. gen. n. sp.,Osculosphaera arcelliformisn. sp., andO. membraniferan. sp.

scholarly journals Patterns of Dental Evolution in Early Eocene Anaptomorphine Primates (Omomyidae) from the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming

1987 ◽  
Vol 61 (S23) ◽  
pp. 1-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Bown ◽  
Kenneth D. Rose
Keyword(s):  
Morphologic Change ◽  
Bighorn Basin ◽  
Early Eocene ◽  
Punctuated Equilibria ◽  
Diagnostic Characters ◽  
Systematic Paleontology ◽  
Gradual Evolution ◽  
Basal Group ◽  
Dental Evolution ◽  
A Minor

The subfamily Anaptomorphinae contains the oldest and most generalized members of the tarsier-like primates and is the basal group of the extinct family Omomyidae. The best and most continuous record of anaptomorphine history is from rocks of early Eocene (Wasatchian) age in the Bighorn Basin of northwest Wyoming where eight genera and 14 species are recognized. Three of these species are new (Teilhardina crassidens, Tetonius matthewi, Absarokius metoecus), and four other new species are described from elsewhere (Tetonius mckennai, Absarokius gazini, A. australis, Strigorhysis huerfanensis). Teilhardina tenuicula and Absarokius nocerai are new combined forms. Absarokius noctivagus is considered to be a synonym of A. abbotti, and Mckennamorphus is a synonym of Pseudotetonius.The evolution of dental characters in three principal morphologic clades of anaptomorphines from the Bighorn Basin is documented with the aid of numerous new specimens (75% of the sample is new) and with precise stratigraphic data. These major clades are Teilhardina–Anemorhysis, Tetonius–Pseudotetonius, and Absarokius. In each of these clades, evolution appears to have occurred gradually. In the first two clades it was mainly anagenetic, although each one included a minor branching event. In Absarokius, evolution was instead characterized by cladogenesis followed by continued (and continual) anagenetic change in each of the new lines. Anagenetic gradual evolution produced the new genus Pseudotetonius (from Tetonius) and possibly Anemorhysis (from Teilhardina). Similarly, the Absarokius metoecus lineage probably gave rise to late Wasatchian–early Bridgerian Strigorhysis. Evolution from Tetonius to Pseudotetonius has been clarified by establishment of five arbitrary stages of evolution (Tetonius–Pseudotetonius intermediates). Estimates of relative proportions of time represented by paleosols in different parts of the Willwood section suggest that cladogenetic speciation in Absarokius was almost certainly more rapid than anagenesis in Tetonius–Pseudotetonius.Anagenetic character evolution and speciation in the anaptomorphine primates was typified first by increase, then decrease in variability, which resulted in measurable apomorphic morphologic change. Cumulation of changes of this sort created more extensive differences of importance at the species and genus levels. Introduction of changing character states and their tempo was staggered temporally, and new characters (and new taxa) are least separable from their antecedent states when they first appear. This evidence is in sharp contrast to predictions of the punctuated equilibria model of evolution. Because the emergence of diagnostic characters occurs gradually (in evolutionary terms) and not all at once (in temporal terms), and because diagnostic characters are the essence of the diagnosis (and thereby taxonomy), the implications of gradual evolution for both systematic paleontology and biostratigraphy are profound. Stasis exists in the evolution of individual characters over certain periods, but this study offers no evidence supporting either organismic stasis or even stasis in the dental evolution of the Anaptomorphinae over a period of about 4.8 million years.

Callovian–Oxfordian bivalves from central Saudi Arabia: Systematic paleontology and paleobiogeography

2017 ◽  
Vol 130 ◽  
pp. 60-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Zakhera ◽  
Magdy El-Hedeny ◽  
Ahmed El-Sabbagh ◽  
Saleh Al Farraj
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Systematic Paleontology

Shell and operculum taphonomy of the bithyniid gastropodGabbiellain the Pleistocene Turkana Basin, North Kenya

2013 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-90
Author(s):  
Henning Scholz ◽  
Matthias Glaubrecht
Keyword(s):  
Relative Abundance ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Mesh Size ◽  
Koobi Fora ◽  
Morphological Comparison ◽  
Northern Kenya ◽  
Turkana Basin ◽  
Systematic Paleontology ◽  
Preservation Potential ◽  
Mollusk Assemblages

Shells and opercula of bithyniid gastropods assigned toGabbiellaare found in high abundance in the Pleistocene upper Burgi and KBS Members of the Koobi Fora Formation, Turkana Basin, northern Kenya. The systematic paleontology of the Turkana BasinGabbiellais revised herein based on morphological comparison with the opercula of other Recent African bithyniids. The fossils from the upper Burgi and KBS Members are here assigned toGabbiella roseaMandahl-Barth, 1968, a species not known from the Turkana fossil record before, but extant in this lake today. A sampling and taphonomic bias is identified which influences the relative abundance ofGabbiellashells and opercula, as a mesh size of 0.63 mm or less is necessary to capture all opercula preserved in the sediments. Accordingly, opercula were found to be significantly more abundant than shells, indicating a different preservation potential of shells and opercula, as the calcitic operculum is more robust than the aragonitic shell. In contrast to previous arguments that most shellbeds in the Turkana Basin sequence represent undisturbed life assemblages, a taphonomic bias is clearly evident reducing the fidelity of the Turkana Basin mollusk assemblages.

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