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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
Projects
Radiation of freshwater snails in Sri Lanka
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
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Dinosaur research
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
Imaginaries of power
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
The genesis of world knowledge
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
Functional morphology
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
At the end of the archipelago
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
The fate of the natural history collections
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
Diversity of terrestrial and freshwater snails
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
Analysing the changes
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
Adaptive Radiation
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
Systematics, reproductive biology and biogeography
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
Biogeography and evolutionary systematics
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
Radiation in flux
Management: Prof. Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht
Publications
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2025/4
Das stille Sterben der Natur. Wie wir die Artenvielfalt und uns selbst retten.
2024/12
Trapped in a glacial refugium: Phylogeography of the freshwater snail Melanopsis mingrelica (Mollusca, Gastropoda) in the Caucasus biodiversity hotspot
Zoologica scripta
2024/10
Prevalence and distribution of trematodes hosted by Bithynia siamensis in Southern Thailand
Parasitology research, 10, 123
2024/7
Adelbert von Chamisso. Der Vielbegabte.
Mare: die Zeitschrift der Meere, 164
2024/3
Waves of wild viruses. How we help zoonotic infectious diseases to spark pandemics
2
2024/2
Taxonomie: Die Arithmetik der Artenvielfalt
Spektrum der Wissenschaft, 2, 24
2024/2
Historische Expedition: Bering und Steller – Aufbruch nach Alaska
Global Ecology and Biogeography
2024/2
Taxonomie: Die Arithmetik der Artenvielfalt.
Spektrum der Wissenschaft, 2024, 2
2024/1
Vom Naturhistorischen Museum zum Evolutioneum. Odyssee der naturkundlichen Sammlungen der Universität Hamburg
4
2023/12
Der „Reiz eines neuen Weltdramas“ – Adelbert von Chamissos Nature Writing zwischen Romantik und Naturforschung.
1
2023/11
Das Ende der Evolution. Wie die Vernichtung der Arten unser Überleben bedroht. (gekürzte, kompakte und illustrierte Taschenbuchausgabe)
2023/11
Das Ende der Evolution. Wie die Vernichtung der Arten unser Überleben bedroht. (gekürzte, kompakte und illustrierte Taschenbuchausgabe)
2023/9
Freshwater pulmonate snails and their potential role as trematode intermediate host in a cercarial dermatitis outbreak in Southern Thailand
Evolutionary Systematics, 2, 7
2023/5
Dichter, Naturkundler und Welterforscher. Adelbert von Chamisso und die Suche nach der Nordostpassage.
2023/5
On the end of evolution – Humankind and the annihilation of species
Zoologica scripta, 3, 52
2023/5
Dichter, Naturkundler, Welterforscher: Adelbert von Chamisso und die Suche nach der Nordostpassage.
2023/4
Adelbert von Chamisso: Die Tagebücher der Weltreise 1815–1818 Edition der handschriftlichen Bücher aus dem Nachlass. Teil 1: Text. Teil 2: Kommentar
2023/4
Authentische Natur unterwegs – Naturkunde in Chamissos Tagebüchern der Rurik-Reise, 1815–1818
2023/4
Zoologisches Glossar
2023/4
New species from a ‘lost world’: Sulawesidrobia (Caenogastropoda, Tateidae) from ancient Lake Matano, Sulawesi, Indonesia
European Journal of Taxonomy, 864
2023/4
Authentische Natur unterwegs – Naturkunde in Chamissos Tagebüchern der Rurik-Reise, 1815–1818.
2023/4
Adelbert von Chamisso: Die Tagebücher der Weltreise 1815–1818. Teil 1: Text.
2023/4
Adelbert von Chamisso: Die Tagebücher der Weltreise 1815–1818. Teil 2: Kommentar.
2023/3
Vom Ende der Evolution. Der Mensch und die Vernichtung der Arten
2023/3
A global approach for natural history museum collections
Science, 6638, 379
2023/3
Vom Ende der Evolution. Der Mensch und die Vernichtung der Arten
2023/2
Osteo-pathological analysis provides evidence for a survived historical ship strike in a Southern Hemisphere fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus)
PloS one, 2, 18
2022/12
Ideengeschichte: Carl von Carlowitz – Die Erfindung der Nachhaltigkeit
Global Ecology and Biogeography, 12, 2022
2022/11
A misinterpreted disjunction: the phylogenetic relationships of the North African land snail Gyrostomella (Gastropoda: Stylommatophora: Helicidae)
Zoological journal of the Linnean Society, 4, 194
2022/11
Die Rache des Pangolin. Von wild gewordenen Pandemien und dem Schutz der Artenvielfalt
2025
2024
2023
2022
Employees
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 ScientistPhone: +49 40 238317 595
E-mail: m.glaubrecht@leibniz-lib.deDr. Emanuel Tschopp
Bridging Professorship Animal Biodiversity Scientist, guestPhone: +49 40 238317-710
E-mail: e.tschopp@leibniz-lib.de