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How species are connected and how biodiversity develops through evolution
How do species develop and how many actually exist? Alongside research fields such as climate change and environmental change, biodiversity and evolutionary research is one of the most important scientific fields of our time.
It combines biosystematic and evolutionary biology approaches: Both are intended to help understand how species and biodiversity develop over time in order to draw conclusions for the future of the earth's ecosystems.
Various research projects are currently being conducted in Hamburg, particularly on questions of evolutionary systematics, phylogeny and historical biogeography, especially of freshwater snails (limnic gastropods). The specimens studied come from Thailand and Africa, for example.
In our research, we combine classical methods with the latest approaches in molecular genetics: by sequencing mainly mitochondrial markers, we are able to uncover relationships and thus reconstruct the evolutionary history of the species.
From the largest dinosaurs on earth to the history of science
However, the focus of research is not only on small snails, but also on the largest animals that have ever lived: Long-necked dinosaurs (sauropods). They died out 66 million years ago - their fossils can now be found on all continents, in North America for example in the Morrison Formation.
Several fossils of animals of different ages come from there, which are also being analysed in Hamburg. The aim is to answer questions such as: Did the young animals live differently from the adult dinosaurs? And how were they able to feed and reach such gigantic body sizes?
Another area of research in the Department of Biodiversity is the scientific-historical contextualisation of natural history collections. We are primarily concerned with the zoological collection at the LIB, but also with the genesis of collections and the history of ideas in evolutionary theory.
International cooperation and teaching in Hamburg
For research into limnic gastropods, there have been several collaborations with institutions and universities in Thailand, Indonesia and Australia.
These include the Indonesian Academy of Sciences (Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia; LIPI), the Department of Biology at Silpakorn University in Nakhon Pathom near Bangkok in Thailand and, in Australia, the Museum and Art Gallery Northern Territory in Darwin and the Australian Museum in Sydney.
In addition to research, the department is involved in teaching at the University of Hamburg in the field of animal biodiversity and evolutionary systematics. Various theses ranging from Bachelor of Science to doctoral theses can be completed here.
Contact person
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- Scientific Project Manager New Museum
Phone: +49 40 238317 595
E-Mail: matthias.glaubrecht@uni-hamburg.de
Projects
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Radiation of freshwater snails in Sri Lanka
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
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Dinosaur research
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
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Imaginaries of power
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
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The genesis of world knowledge
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
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Functional morphology
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
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At the end of the archipelago
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
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The fate of the natural history collections
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
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Diversity of terrestrial and freshwater snails
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
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Analysing the changes
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
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Adaptive Radiation
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
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Systematics, reproductive biology and biogeography
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
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Biogeography and evolutionary systematics
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
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Radiation in flux
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
Publications
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2025/11
Evolutionary Systematics of Two Co‐Occurring Paludomid Freshwater Gastropods in Thailand (Cerithioidea: Paludomidae)
Zoologica scripta
2025/07
Dental microwear texture analysis reveals behavioural, ecological and habitat signals in Late Jurassic sauropod dinosaur faunas
Nature Ecology & Evolution
2025/04
Buch:Das stille Sterben der Natur. Wie wir die Artenvielfalt und uns selbst retten. München: C. Bertelsmann Verlag.
2025/03
‘On the end of evolution – Humankind and the annihilation of species’ - Teil einer virtuellen Ausgabe des Journals (abrufbar über https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1111/(ISSN)1463-6409.top-accessed-2023-2024).
2024/12
Trapped in a glacial refugium: Phylogeography of the freshwater snail Melanopsis mingrelica (Mollusca, Gastropoda) in the Caucasus biodiversity hotspot
Zoologica scripta
2024/07
Adelbert von Chamisso. Der Vielbegabte.
Mare: die Zeitschrift der Meere, 164
2024/02
Taxonomie: Die Arithmetik der Artenvielfalt.
Spektrum der Wissenschaft, 2024, 2
2024/02
Historische Expedition: Bering und Steller – Aufbruch nach Alaska. Global Ecology and Biogeography : 124-136.
Global Ecology and Biogeography
2023/11
Buch: Das Ende der Evolution. Wie die Vernichtung der Arten unser Überleben bedroht. (gekürzte, kompakte und illustrierte Taschenbuchausgabe). München: Penguin Verlag.
2023/04
Buch: Adelbert von Chamisso: Die Tagebücher der Weltreise 1815–1818. Teil 2: Kommentar. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Verlag.
2023/04
Buch: Adelbert von Chamisso: Die Tagebücher der Weltreise 1815–1818. Teil 1: Text. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Verlag.
2023/04
Authentische Natur unterwegs – Naturkunde in Chamissos Tagebüchern der Rurik-Reise, 1815–1818.
2023/03
Vom Ende der Evolution. Der Mensch und die Vernichtung der Arten
2022/12
Ideengeschichte: Carl von Carlowitz – Die Erfindung der Nachhaltigkeit
Global Ecology and Biogeography, 12, 2022
2022/08
Zoonosen: Wild gewordene Viren.
P.-M.-History, 8, 2022
2022/03
Sterben die Menschen aus, Matthias Glaubrecht?
2022/02
Vom Verschwinden der Arten und dem drohenden Ende der Evolution
2021/10
Die Krise des Lebens und das Ende der Evolution – Vom globalen Verlust der Biodiversität im Anthropozän
2021/05
Buch: Eskapaden der Evolution. Von Menschen, Schimpansen und anderen Kapriolen der Natur. Stuttgart: Hirzel Verlag.
2021/04
Buch: Das Ende der Evolution. Der Mensch und die Vernichtung der Arten. (Taschenbuch-Ausgabe: April 2021 - Pantheon, München). München: C. Bertelsmann Verlag.
2021/01
Humboldts Wissenschaft. Oder: Die Systematisierung und Dynamisierung der Natur.
62
2020/11
Amalies Taipan
2020/06
Biogeographie und Biodiversität.
2020/05
»Un peu de géographie des animaux«. Die Anfänge der Biogeographie als ‚Humboldtian Science‘
2020/04
Demografische Katastrophen der Menschheit
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
Employees
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Dr. Simon Bober
Bridging Professorship Animal Biodiversity Postdoctoral researcherPhone: +49 40 238317-711
E-mail: simon.bober@uni-hamburg.deProf. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
Project New Natural History Museum HH Bridging Professorship Animal Biodiversity ScientistPhone: +49 40 238317 595
E-mail: matthias.glaubrecht@uni-hamburg.de/leibniz-lib.de/fileadmin/user_upload/home/Bilder/LIB/Ueber_das_LIB/Mitarbeitende/Hamburg/Tschopp-Emanuel_Paran-Pour.jpg%3F1763631578)
Dr. Emanuel Tschopp
Bridging Professorship Animal Biodiversity Scientist, guestPhone: +49 40 238317-710
E-mail: e.tschopp@leibniz-lib.de