HALLE: The Palaeontological Collection of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Halle (Saale)

Abstract

This contribution starts with a short overview of the long and varied history of the Palaeontological Collection of Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. In the early twentieth Century, it was Johannes Walther who reorganized geosciences in Halle and gave geoscientific collections, including the Palaeontological Collection, a stable base for future developments. For political reasons, the year 1967 was a turning point for the department and the collections. But in 1990, with the formation of the Department of Geological Sciences and Geiseltal Museum, the course for the future could be set. Comparing the Palaeontological Collection with other comparable university collections in Germany, its scientific importance can be evaluated as being of much importance. Concentrating one’s attention on some important collection parts and a few outstanding specimens, the focus of the palaeontological stock is on strata of the coal bearing Upper Carboniferous, the Permian copper shale, the Lower and Middle Triassic, the Cretaceous, Palaeogene, Neogene and Pleistocene of Central Germany. From outside Sachsen-Anhalt (Saxony Anhalt) the collections from Solnhofen/Eichstätt and Bad Boll/Holzmaden are remarkable. Amongst many others, the two taxa Xenusion auerswaldae from the Lower Cambrian and Limulus decheni from the Eocene are highlights of the collection. Currently, the Palaeontological Collection is intensely used in lectures and in science. The huge scientific collections are available for scientists, and in recent years were used for diverse revisions of special fossil groups. To advance registration of the vast fossil stock on a present-day basis, 3D digitalization and visualization of specimens by means of laser scanning and photogrammetric methods has been started.