Friedrich August von Quenstedt

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Friedrich August von Quenstedt (July 10, 1809–December 21, 1889), was a German geologist and palaeontologist.

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[edit] Life

Von Quenstedt was born at Eisleben in Saxony, and educated at the Humboldt University of Berlin. After a period as assistant in the mineralogical museum, he was appointed associate professor (1837) and then professor (1841) of mineralogy and geognosy at the University of Tübingen, a post which he occupied until his death. The museum at Tübingen owed its establishment to him.

[edit] Work

His earlier work related chiefly to crystallography and mineralogy, on which subjects he published text-books that were widely used. However, he also became distinguished for his researches on palaeontology, and especially for those on the fossils of the Jurassic system.

In 1845, he devised a trinominal system of nomenclature for Jurassic ammonites, which has caused some difficulty for later taxonomists[1]. He investigated series of ammonite fossils which appeared to represent the coiled and uncoiled forms of similar shells, and considered that they arose as 'pathological' forms. He also wrote several articles on pterodactyls.

Two genera were named in his honour: the bivalve mollusc genus Quenstedtia Morris & Lycett 1854 and the (homonymous) coelenterate genus Quenstedtia Rominger 1876.

The mineral quenstedtite was named in his honour by G. Linck in 1888.

[edit] Chief publications

His chief publications were:

  • Method der Krystallographie (1840)
  • Das Flözgebirge Wurttembergs (1843)
  • Petrefactenkunde Deutschlands (7 vols. and atlases, 1846-84)
  • Die Cephalopoden (1846-49)
  • Handbuch der Petrefactenkunde (2 vols., 1852, 2nd ed. 1867, 3rd ed. 1882-85)
  • Der Jura (2 vols, 1858)
  • Handbuch der Mineralogie (1855, 3rd ed. 1877)
  • Die Ammoniten des Schwäbischen Jura (1883-84).

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ J.H. Callomon, D. T. Donovan, & M. K. Howarth "F. A. Quenstedt's Trinominal Nomenclature of Jurassic Ammonites" Palaeontology 47 (4) 1063 (2004)

[edit] Other references

Obituary by WT Blandford, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xlvi., 1890.


This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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