Scientific projects at the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe

Permo-Triassic

The chronological correlation of marine and continental Permian and Lower Triassic deposits causes problems until today. The goal of the project is the definition of the Permo-Triassic Boundary of the marine deposits of the...More >>

Non-marine carbonates

The aim of this project is the development of a genetic classification of non-marine carbonate formations, which should be used as a foundation for the classification of standard carbonate types. On the basis of various worldwide...More >>

Permo-Carboniferous of the Saale Basin

The continental Permo-Carboniferous is one of the most important geological periods for the German industry, due to its sedimentological composition (sandstones, coals and salts). The development of depositional models for the...More >>

Paläontology

Palaeobiogeography of southern Patagonia during the late Cretaceous and Paleogene: a key for the understanding of the evolution of Antarctic faunas and floras

The objective of our work in the Chilean part of Patagonia is to reconstruct the evolution of marine and terrestrial ecosystems around the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary and the triggers that caused mass extinctions and global...More >>

Fossils of the Korbach Fissure

During the 90s the SMNK together with the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. (USA) conducted excavation campaigns in the Late Permian Korbach Fissure (Northern Hesse State) for several years. These excavations were...More >>

Excavation Project: Dwarf Hippo Pleistocene Crete

The Pleistocene fauna of Crete is a unique mixture between European and African faunal elements, amongst these mammals that only inhabited Crete. One of these endemic animals is the dwarf hippo Hippopotamus creutzburgi. The...More >>

Reconstruction of the dicynodont Diictodon

Internal anatomy of therapsid skulls (Forerunners of Mammals)

The oldest mammals are known from the Late Triassic and evolved from a group of more primitive land-living vertebrates, the therapsids. Because therapsids were already particularly mammal-like, they are essential for the...More >>

A new concentration lagerstätte for marine vertebrates of Tithonian (Uppermost Jurassic) age in southern Coahuila, Mexico

During our research work in NE Mexico on Late Jurassic sediments containing well preserved vertebrate and invertebrate fossils (e.g., at Aramberri, Nuevo León), we discovered a locality where remnants of marine reptiles of ?Early...More >>

Botany

Zunderschwamm auf einem Buchenstamm am Ufer des Wildsees

Mykologische Inventarisierung des Bannwalds Wilder See (Nordschwarzwald)

Im Rahmen eines durch das Regierungspräsidium Karlsruhe (2013) und den Nationalpark Schwarzwald (seit 2014) finanzierten Kooperationsprojekts zwischen der Arbeitsgruppe Pilze im Naturwissenschaftlichen Verein Karlsruhe e. V....More >>

Fallowland project (Offenhaltungsversuche) of Baden-Württemberg

The Fallowland project of Baden-Württemberg is addressing the question how species-rich agricultural land can be kept open and species-rich using minimum (financial, personal, and technical) effort, which is done by comparing...More >>

Flora und vegetation of abandoned clay pits and of urban areas

Succession research allows us to witness how species communities emerge and are replaced again. Initial »settlers« arrive where – by natural processes or human impact – open soil, wounded bark, blank rock surface (… or also...More >>

Barcoding of rust fungi in Germany

In the GBOL-Project (GBOL - German Barcode of Life) the animals, fungi and plants of Germany are recorded with their DNA Barcodes. In the first three-year phase the rust-fungi (Pucciniales) comprising ca. 500 German species will...More >>

Die Großpilzflora des Ballungsraums Karlsruhe und ihre Veränderung

In dem zweijährigen Forschungsvorhaben wird weltweit erstmalig und exemplarisch für andere Ballungsräume in SW-Deutschland die Großpilzflora (Basidiomycota/Ständerpilze, Morchellaceae/Morchel-Verwandte) des Stadtkreises Karlsruhe...More >>

Zoology

Taxonomie und Phylogenie der asiatischen Schlankkräuselspinnen

Die in Südostasien verbreiteten Spinnen aus der Familie der Psechridae (Schlankkräuselspinnen) waren bis 2009 taxonomisch nur mangelhaft bearbeitet und daher schwierig zu charakterisieren und zu identifizieren. Im Rahmen eines...More >>

Semantic enrichment and mobilization of data in distributed repositories for taxonomy and ecology

Solving a Gordian knot in the taxonomy of neotropical jumping spiders and trait-based ecological habitat assessment with spider assemblagesMore >>

BiNHum - Biodiversity Network of the Humboldt-Ring

Access and format of existing digital object data, alignment of established database systems and development of a joint data portal.More >>

Amazon Spiders and Butterflies

An International Museum Fellowship of the German Federal Cultural Foundation allows us to reactivate an earlier cooperation between our museum and the Brazilian National Research Institution for Amazonia (INPA) in Manaus.More >>

Digitizing the zoological collections

The fast development of information technology, database systems and the use of the Internet strongly facilitate the digitization and mobilisation of biological data, e.g. on the voucher specimens of museum collections and...More >>

Entomology