Walter Georg Kühne (February 26, 1911 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

– March 16, 1991 ibid.) was a German paleontologist, known as a "legendary explorer of

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretace ...

mammals". He graduated in March 1930 from reform boarding school ''

Schule am Meer Schule am Meer, Engl. ''School by the Sea'', Hebrew בית ספר ליד הים, also known as ''S.a.M.'' or ''SaM'', was a private, holistically oriented coed progressive boarding school on the East Frisian island of Juist in the Free Stat ...

'' on the island of

Juist Juist () ( nds, Juist) is an island and municipality in the district of Aurich in Lower Saxony in Germany. The island is one of seven East Frisian Islands at the edge of the Lower Saxon Wadden Sea in the southern North Sea. It is located between ...

in Prussia. In 1958 he founded the Institute for Paleontology of the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

. His studies focused specifically on mesozoic microfauna, seeking to bring to light the history of the oldest mammals, which until the 1960s was almost unknown. Before him, findings of species of small size in the continental Mesozoic deposits had been mostly random. His efforts were concentrated more in excavations in lignite mines which he considered as preferred deposits for the remains of terrestrial vertebrates. Thanks to his efforts new species could be described that were interpreted as the most primitive mammals as

Morganucodon ''Morganucodon'' ("Glamorgan tooth") is an early mammaliaform genus that lived from the Late Triassic to the Middle Jurassic. It first appeared about 205 million years ago. Unlike many other early mammaliaforms, ''Morganucodon'' is well represent ...

and

Kuehneotherium ''Kuehneotherium'' is an early mammaliaform genus, previously considered a holothere, that lived during the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic Epochs and is characterized by reversed-triangle pattern of molar cusps. Although many fossils have been f ...

, as well the proto-mammal

Oligokyphus ''Oligokyphus'' ("few cusps") is an extinct genus of advanced herbivorous cynodonts of the late Triassic to early Jurassic periods. Originally considered to be an early mammal, it is now classified as a Mammaliamorph (nearly a mammal) because ''O ...

. He was the first to discover the immense paleontological heritage of the famous Guimarota lignite mine in Portugal to start methodological, accurate excavations in the area.

. W.Crompton tells the story of a German refugee named Walter Kuhne, who at the start of World War II walked into Cambridge University with teeth from a borderline mammal. "I know where to discover early mammals," he told the British paleontologist F. R. Parrington. Parrington was impressed enough to offer him £5 (about $35 then) for every additional tooth he brought to the university.William J. Cromie, "Oldest mammal is found", ''Harvard Gazette'', May 24, 2001
/ref>

References

*Rolf Kohring, "Walter Georg Kühne, 1911-1991" ''News Bulletin of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology'' volume 153(1991) pages 46–47. * *Much of this page is a translation from the Italian Wikipedia entry for the subject. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuhne, Walter Georg 1911 births 1991 deaths German paleontologists