Sonntag, 8. November 2009

My story about the fall of the Berlin wall '89 and paleontology

Perhaps I belong to the last generation that has at least some memories of the fall of the Berlin wall and German reunification, two events which formed turning points in the collapse of the socialist camp before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1992.

I was nine in autumn 1989, living with my family in one of the high-rise appartment blocks so typical for the new eastern boroughs of Berlin, capital of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). My playgrounds were situated in an often concrete-sealed Pleistocene landscape and the closest outcrop of older rock was the limestone quarry of Rüdersdorf whose Middle Triassic marine strata are exposed above a salt dome due to halokinesis (salt tectonics). I didn't care about that in 1989 because I was not yet on the side of paleontology.

Paleontology and the GDR. Perhaps my chance to be in physical contact with fossils was limited but at least the Berlin Museum of Natural History with its Archaeopteryx and its exhbition of Tendaguru dinosaurs was on the right side of the wall (...so I have no real excuse). Furthermore, eastern Germany has a couple of own paleontological landmarks: marine invertebrates from the Cretaceous chalk cliffs of the Baltic sea, insect inclusions in Baltic amber, tetrapods and rich floras from the Carboniferous to Permian basins of the Variscan orogen (including the Lagerstätte Bromacker/Tambach in Thuringia), the Permian Coppershale with its palaeoniscid fish and Coelurosauravus, the Eocene Geiseltal site (the east German equivalent to Messel), to name a few. Not to forget: large areas with sediments deposited in the Triassic Germanic Basin - fossils from these strata include Keuper dinosaurs such as plateosaurs and the theropod Liliensternus.

Paleontology and the theory of evolution were part of the GDR highschool curriculum and evolution was accepted as a fact in the Marxist world view - perhaps ever since Friedrich Engels' 1876 publication "The contribution of work to the hominisation of ape" ("Der Anteil der Arbeit an der Menschwerdung des Affen"). If there was a particular reason for me not to come in close contact with paleontology (apart from being too young) it was perhaps because dinosaurs and fossil animals were not as much a media event as they were at other times and places. There were some popular books on paleontology - however these were not always easily available - some with the beautiful reconstructions of Czech paleo-artist and book illustrator Zdenek Burian, but I only realized that later...

Talking to my old lecturers who were college students during GDR times it becomes clear that being a professional paleontologist was a rare exception. There were perhaps even fewer scientist positions at museums and universities than today and the number of geology students (from which most German paleontologists recruited) was restricted, adjusted to the probable needs of the state's exploration programs and lignite mining. (There is this story of a graduate who got an A+ in the economical geology exam and who was afterwards "warmly recommended" not to proceed with paleontology or basic research but with a field more suitable to serve his socialistic fatherland...).

November 1989- October 1990

When the opening of the Berlin wall for visitors from the East was announced on the 9th of November 1989, my parents were not too hasty about going on a visit to Westberlin themselves. Nobody knew whether there would be an unpeaceful escalation or what measures the GDR or Soviet government would take in order to bring the situation under control. About two weeks later we had our first trip to the "Independent Political Unit Westberlin". I remember that it was already dark - we were at some institution to pick up the "welcome money" ("Begrüßungsgeld", 100 DEMs per head granted by the BRD government) and went to one of those Karstadt shopping malls. I recall that my parents payed about 6 DEMs for a bag of selected gummy bears for me (which was quite a lot).

I suppose a lot of memories about the time of transition circle around the fulfilment of material wishes after the currency union in July 1990. Rather than the class enemy the West was percieved as a consumerist wonderland by many easterners and dreams associated with living in the western world were not only about personal freedom and the free development of the individual but even more about consumption and the wealth of an affluent society. (That there would we be persistent structural problems in the economies of the former GDR provinces was not yet foreseeable.)

My great-aunt and great-uncle were living in Westberlin and I was to stay at their house for a weekend during the summer of 1990. In the bookshelves of their (already adult) sons I discovered two colourful children's books - one about dinosaurs and another one about prehistoric mammals. And that was the beginning of my durable engagement with paleontology.

When the GDR was made a part of the Federal Republic of Germany on the 3rd of October 1990 almost everything in the former GDR states underwent a rapid change - including the universities and geoscience research landscape. New geological institutes - such as those of Halle, Leipzig, and Jena were opened (or re-opened) while some of the old employers, such as the Wismut company and the lignite mining, declined in their importance or perished. Researchers had to get accustomed to international publishing rather than writing unpublished (sometimes closed) reports and German articles in local journals as they did before.

Early 1990s

1991 was the 150th anniversary of the group "Dinosauria" and a lot of popular books on the topic were published. No longer cut off from the western stream of books and publications dinomania among children was clearly on the rise, even before Jurassic Park. To single one out: The German edition of "Dinosaurs - a global view" by Czerkas & Czerkas appeared in 1991 and was a triumph in paleo-artistry, featuring legendary paintings by Doug Henderson, Mark Hallet, and John Sibbick (... I suppose I don't need to tell you that). Got it as a Christmas present in 1991 and I daresay it motivated my deeper und durable involvement with fossil animals. From that time on paleontology was always close to the surface of my consciousness, not really challenged by other fields of knowledge (at least it seems so in retrospect).

Was the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the socialist camp a triggerer for more paleo-enthusiasm in the East? I would confirm this at least for the eastern states of Germany.

Samstag, 7. November 2009

"The forester is shooting the MG"

...a mnemonic trick in order to recall that forsterite is the Mg-rich endmember of the mineral olivine (Mg,Fe)2[SiO4].

Facts of this kind are the topic of the basic rock classification seminar I got as a TA this winter semester.

Recognizing rocks (and the rockforming minerals therein) is a core competence of geoscientists - perhaps like anatomy for a medicine or biology student - and thus all first semesters in the geology/mineralogy, geophysics/geoinformatics, geoecology, and mining engineering bachelor programs of our faculty recieve a practical introduction putting them in physical contact with the solid constituents of the earth.

This is informally referred to as "rubble course" ("Schotterkurs") or "scratch-and-bite-course" ("Kratz-und-beiß-Kurs").

With 250 first semester students this year I had the (bad) luck that there were two spare courses... something to blame on my lack of advance (positive side); something that paralyses my research work because now I have an excuse (negative side).

After all not every paleontologist can distinguish ortho- and clinopyroxenes...

Samstag, 17. Oktober 2009

Madygen News 2009

Expedition. This year's two month expedition to Madygen, Kyrgyzstan, ends in about a week. Rather than merely assembling more fossils the task for 2009 was to carry out further observations concerning the facies architecture and fine stratigraphy of the Madygen Formation - in fact to solve the evolution of the Madygen depositional environment throughout the time comprised by the Triassic sequence of the Madygen SW outcrop area.

Since the ways of communication between Germany and the Kyrgyz outback are difficult I didn't get much of an opportunity yet to talk to Madygen project leader Sebastian Voigt (my de facto chief who is still in the field). But from what I've heard the paleoenvironment is now well explained and some furthergoing approaches, e.g. comparing the conditions of Madygen to those of the other (few) terrestrial lagerstätten of the Triassic, are now feasible.

Symposia contributions and papers

- on the flora:

Moisan, P., H. Kerp, S. Voigt, C. Pott & M. Buchwitz (2009): Cycadophyte foliage from the Triassic Madygen Formation, SW Kyrgyzstan Central Asia. Terra Nova 2009/3:81-82. [Abstract Volume of Annual Meeting of the German Paleontological Society in Bonn] ... the respective paper is soon to come.

- on kazacharthran body and trace fossils: ... still in the review process.

- on fish:

Kogan, I., K. Schönberger, J. Fischer, S. Voigt & M. Buchwitz (2009): A nearly complete Saurichthys specimen from the Triassic of Madygen (Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia). Terra Nova 2009/3: 63-64.

A first note on this find will published at the end of 2009 in Freiberger Forschungshefte.

SVP poster on egg capsules and teeth of hybodont sharks, which have been discovered in 2008: Fischer, J., S. Voigt, M. Buchwitz & J.W. Schneider (2009): The selachian fauna from the non-marine Middle to Late Triassic Madygen Formation (Kyrgyzstan, Middle Asia): preliminary results. JVP 29 (3, suppl.): 95A-96A.

- on chroniosuchians:

Buchwitz, M. & S. Voigt (2009): Locomotion aspects of a chroniosuchid carapace. In: D. Schwarz-Wings, O. Wings & F. Sattler (eds.): 7th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Vertebrate Paleontologis - Abstract Volume. Aachen, 2009, p.14.

Buchwitz, M. & S. Voigt (2009): Phylogenetic and functional implications of the chroniosuchian osteoderm morphology. Terra Nova 2009/3: 25.

I'm trying hard to finish these manuscripts just now. The first description of the new chroniosuchid species, focussing on the skull features, is 'in press'.

- about the thing that must not be named:

Buchwitz, M., S. Voigt & J. Fischer (2009): Dorsal appendages of You-know-what reconsidered: aspects of development and the link to the evolution of filamentous integumentary structures. JVP 29 (3, suppl.): 72A.

...there is another longer manuscript putting some effort into the detailed description/documentation and a discussion of some rather modest model (... but I cannot really tell yet whether an 'accept' is feasible in the near future).

- on the depositional environment of the Lagerstätte Madygen and its tetrapod localities:

Voigt, S., M. Buchwitz, J. Fischer, P. Moisan & I. Kogan (2009): Lagerstätte Madygen - outstanding window to a continental Triassic ecosystem. JVP 29 (3, suppl.): 196A.

Buchwitz, M., S. Voigt, J. Hentschke & P. Moisan (2009): The Triassic Madygen Formation (Kyrgyzstan, Middle Asia) features a new tetrapod locality. Terra Nova 2009/3: 25-26.

...the latter poster introduces some (real) archosaur finds from 2008.

Sonntag, 4. Oktober 2009

Questionnaire for Geobloggers
(incl. Paleobloggers)

http://geoblogs.stratigraphy.net/survey/

The organisator is my former study colleage Lutz Geißler (now M.Sc. in geology), who is at the German forefront of publicising geoscience - with his web portals geoberg.de, geonetzwerk.org, and with his postcard/ poster/ online campaign "Wir sind überall." ("We are everythere!" - referring to the role geoscience plays in daily life/ for the satisfaction of basic needs).

Mittwoch, 30. September 2009

SVP meeting reminiscences

My first SVP meeting was a bit of an eye opener for me:

Microtomography and 3D imaging, molecular paleobiology, advanced phylogenetical and biogeographical approaches, bone and tooth histology and microstructures, morphometrics, biomechanical modelling, any kind of studies on living functional/ ecological/ developmental analogues of fossil beings (actuopaleontology) - that's where the pot of gold is hidden.

... as a former geologist it gives me a certain urge to come to terms with what I should have learned about biology but only got briefly or autodidactically yet.

Apparently world is not as easy and small as it seems when you work as an isolated scholar for too long a time.