Mitteilungen der Kommission für Quartärforschung

Ajdovska jama near Krsko in Slovenia is a small passage cave that arouses great scientific interest for several reasons. A number of archaeological excavations have shown that the cave contains both Upper Pleistocene and early Holocene sediments, as well as Palaeolithic finds and faunal remains. During the first excavations carried out by Srecko Brodar in 1938, significant Upper Pleistocene finds were made. These were given to the museum in Celje, but were destroyed during World War II. An...

The sediment profile of the former clay pit Würzburger at Wels/Aschet is among the most famous paleoclimate archives of the Traun-Enns-Platte (Upper Austria), a type-region for the understanding of Alpine glaciation. Using modern scientific methods, the 12 m thick sequence of loess and paleosols was re-investigated in the course of a project funded by the Commission of Quaternary Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The investigations were focused on chronostratigraphic correlations...

The Botanical Institute of Innsbruck University has an extensive collelction of plant seeds. Based on this collection of morphology and ultra-structure of numerous seeds from different plant families were investigated using SEM. So far more than 6.000 detailed microphotographies are available and provide useful information for botanical systematics, ultrastructural, palaeobotancial and archaebotanical studies. The second volume of the present seed atlas encompasses the legume (Fabaceae) and...

Over 100 ursid remains have been retrieved from the Early Pleistocene cave fillings of the Hollitzer quarry near Deutsch-Altenburg (Lower Austria). Apart from isolated teeth and postcranial (skeleton) elements, there are also one in situ forelimb and an almost complete natural endocast of a brain (“fossil brain”), which enable otherwise impossible comparative studies. The ursid remains belong to a primitive representative of the brown bear group. The discoveries at Deutsch-Altenburg are also of...

Ein interdisziplinäres Forschungsprojekt des Bundesforschungs- und Ausbildungszentrums für Wald, Naturgefahren und Landschaft (BFW) in Kooperation mit den Instituten für Geographie und Botanik der Universität Innsbruck und der Kommission für Quartärforschung der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Projektleitung und Koordination: Roland Luzian, Institut für Naturgefahren und Waldgrenzregionen des BFW, Innsbruck. 1. Einleitung: R. LUZIAN und P. PINDUR Projektskizze; das...

Die vorliegende Festschrift für den Wiener Universitätsprofessor für Paläontologie, Gernot Raber, enthält 21 wissenschaftliche Beiträge von Forscherkollegen, Schülern und Weggefährten der akademischen Laufbahn Rabeders. Zusammengestellt von Doris Nagel decken die Beiträge ein weites Spektrum paläontologischer Fragen ab.

The “IGBP Global Change in the Past Project” of the Austrian Academy of Sciences is intended inter alia to record the changes in both the geosphere and the biosphere in the eastern alps resulting from cyclic climatic variations in the ice age. It was an obvious solution, as a model for future developments following the Holocene, to examine the transition from the last interglacial to the Würm and the significant climate fluctuations in the early Würm. The investigations of the position...

Grundzüge der spät- und postglazialen Klimageschichte des Salzkammergutes (Österreich) aufgrund palynologischer Untersuchungen von See- und Moorprofilen

In order to facilitate paleobotanical investigations Professor S. Bortenschlager of the Department of Botany of the University of Innsbruck (Austria) suggested the compilation of a comprehensive seed atlas. The seeds used for SEM studies were taken from the seed collection of the Department of Botany of the University of Innsbruck. Seeds display a range of different features which SEM can make visible. A key entirely based on such SEM details was elaborated for species determination.