Research questions

Our research on Recent and extinct life is primarily concerned with questions about biological diversity and on the causes of the morphological and genetic disparity of earth’s organisms. Our scientists are studying the origin and causes of earth’s biological diversity, trying to unravel the mechanisms and driving forces of evolution. These aims will also be reflected in the new exhibition „Evolution in Action“, scheduled to open mid July 2007. No other discipline of science has influenced our perception of the world more than evolutionary biology during the last century.

Within biology, evolutionary theory is indeed the most fundamental and powerful construct of thought. Evolutionary theory as based on the ideas of the British naturalist Charles Darwin thus represents one of the most influential intellectual revolutions.

The early history of earth is also studied by the mineralogists and geologists of the Museum für Naturkunde, who focus on the evolution of the solar system and the impact of meteorites on earth. The development of animal and plant life over time as well as the origin and loss of major habitats is the domain of the palaeontologists. Our systematists and zoologists explore not only biodiversity but also the mechanisms of evolution in selected animal groups; for this purpose they use so called natural laboratories such as the Hawaiian Islands or the freshwater lakes of East Africa and Southeast Asia.