Ferdinand Broili (11 April 1874 in Mühlbach – 30 April 1946 in Mühlbach) was a German

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

. He studied natural sciences at the universities of

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg is ...

and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, where his influences were

Karl von Zittel Karl Alfred Ritter von Zittel (25 September 1839 – 5 January 1904) was a German palaeontologist best known for his ''Handbuch der Palaeontologie'' (1876–1880). Biography Karl Alfred von Zittel was born in Bahlingen in the Grand Duchy ...

and

August Rothpletz Friedrich August Rothpletz (28 April 1853, in Neustadt an der Haardt – 27 January 1918, in Oberstdorf) was a German geologist and paleontologist. Biography From 1875 to 1880 he conducted geological mapping in Saxony as part of the ''Sächsisch ...

.Prof. F Broili / Obituary
Nature 158, 16-17 (06 July 1946) , doi:10.1038/158016b0 In 1899 he received his doctorate from Munich with a dissertation on ''

Eryops megacephalus ''Eryops'' (; from Greek , , 'drawn-out' + , , 'face', because most of its skull was in front of its eyes) is a genus of extinct, amphibious temnospondyls. It contains the single species , the fossils of which are found mainly in early Permian (a ...

'', titled ''Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis von Eryops megacephalus''. In 1903 he obtained his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

, and in 1908 became an associate professor at the university. In 1919 he was appointed director of the ''Staatssammlung fur Palaontologie und historische Geologie'' ("State Collection for Paleontology and Historical Geology") in Munich. In 1901 he traveled to the Texas Red Beds, where with

Charles Hazelius Sternberg Charles Hazelius Sternberg (June 15, 1850 – July 20, 1943) was an American fossil collector and paleontologist. He was active in both fields from 1876 to 1928, and collected fossils for Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel C. Marsh, and for the ...

, he collected and studied fossil vertebrates of the

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleoz ...

period. Later on in his career, he carried out significant investigations of

pterosaur Pterosaurs (; from Greek ''pteron'' and ''sauros'', meaning "wing lizard") is an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order, Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 to ...

fossils from the Solnhofen limestone of Bavaria. In the 1930s, with Joachim Schröder, he published a 28 volume series on vertebrates of the Karoo Formation of South Africa (''Beobachtungen an Wirbeltieren der Karroo Formation''; 1934–37). The Permian amphibian genus ''

Broiliellus ''Broiliellus'' is an extinct genus of dissorophoid temnospondyl within the family Dissorophidae. ''Broiliellus'' is most closely related to the genus ''Dissorophus'', and both have been placed in the subfamily Dissorophinae. ''Broiliellus'' is k ...

'' commemorates his name.

Selected works

* ''Permische stegocephalen und reptilien aus Texas'', 1904 – Permian

stegocephalia Stegocephali (often spelled Stegocephalia) is a group containing all four-limbed vertebrates. It is equivalent to a broad definition of Tetrapoda: under this broad definition, the term "tetrapod" applies to any animal descended from the first ve ...

ns and reptiles of Texas.
''Grundzüge der Paläontologie''
(by Karl von Zittel, new edition by Broili, 1910–11). * ''Zur Osteologie des Schädels von Placodus'', 1912 – The osteology of the skull of ''

Placodus ''Placodus'' (meaning 'flat tooth') was a genus of marine reptiles belonging to the order Placodontia, which swam in the shallow seas of the middle Triassic period (c. 240 million years ago). Fossils of ''Placodus'' have been found in Central Eur ...

''. * ''Die permischen Brachiopoden von Timor'', 1916 – The Permian

brachiopod Brachiopods (), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of trochozoan animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, w ...

s of

Timor Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is East Timor–Indonesia border, divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western p ...

. * ''Permische brachiopoden von Rotti'', 1922 – The Permian brachiopods of

Rote Island Rote Island ( id, Pulau Rote, also spelled ''Roti'') is an island of Indonesia, part of the East Nusa Tenggara province of the Lesser Sunda Islands. According to legend, this island got its name accidentally when a lost Portuguese sailor arrived ...

. * ''Zur geologie des Vogelkop'', 1924 – The geology of

Vogelkop The Bird's Head Peninsula ( Indonesian: ''Kepala Burung'', nl, Vogelkop) or Doberai Peninsula (''Semenanjung Doberai''), is a large peninsula that makes up the northwest portion of the island of New Guinea, comprising the Indonesian provinces ...

. * ''Ein neuer Fund von Pleurosaurus aus dem Malm Frankens'', 1926 – A new discovery of

pleurosaurus ''Pleurosaurus'' (meaning "side lizard") is an extinct genus of diapsid reptiles belonging to the group Sphenodontia, extinct relatives of the modern tuatara. ''Pleurosaurus'' fossils were discovered in the Solnhofen Limestone of Bavaria, Germ ...

from the

Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 163.5 ± 1.0 to 145.0 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata.Owen 1987. In European lithostratigraphy, the name ...

Franconia Franconia (german: Franken, ; Franconian dialect: ''Franggn'' ; bar, Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian dialect (German: ''Fränkisch''). The three administrative regions of Lower, Middle and Upper Fr ...

. * ''Mixosauridae von Timor'', 1931 – Mixosauridae of Timor. * ''Zur Osteologie des Kopfes von Cynognathus'', 1934 – The

osteology Osteology () is the scientific study of bones, practised by osteologists. A subdiscipline of anatomy, anthropology, and paleontology, osteology is the detailed study of the structure of bones, skeletal elements, teeth, microbone morphology, funct ...

of the skull of ''

Cynognathus ''Cynognathus'' is an extinct genus of large-bodied cynodontian therapsids that lived in the Middle Triassic. It is known from a single species, ''Cynognathus crateronotus''. ''Cynognathus'' was a long predator closely related to mammals and ha ...

''.OCLC Classify
published works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Broili, Ferdinand 1874 births 1946 deaths People from Bad Neustadt an der Saale Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich faculty German paleontologists