Mammoth Badge in Gold

Rudolf Richter (1881 to 1957)

was managing director of the Senckenbergische Naturforschenden Gesellschaft and the Senckenberg Museum of Nature since 1932. He headed the Geological Institute until 1952, but remained at the head of the museum's geological-palaeontological department until his death in 1957.

Rudolf Richter's contributions to palaeontology were so enormous in his early years that the award of the mammoth badge in 1951 was an almost overdue distinction of the Paläontologische Gesellschaft.

Rudolf Richter, who is always quoted in Senckenberg writings as "Rud. Richter" and not as "R. Richter" as is usually the case, founded the Actuo Palaeontology and for this purpose founded the Senckenberg Institute for Marine Research in Wilhelmshaven in an old horse stable. With his own studies in the Wadden Sea and those carried out by his scientists, he made pioneering contributions to the understanding of the geological processes and the causes of embedding, fossil conservation and habitat reconstruction that are so important for palaeontology. With his work on the corals of the Devonian, trilobites and many other invertebrate organisms, he also established constructional and functional morphological approaches, thus paving the way for palaeontology to go beyond mere form descriptions and systematics to understand the fossils in their habitats and lifestyles.

Rudolf Richter is certainly a worthy bearer of the Mammoth Badge in Gold, this special award which is given by the Paläontologische Gesellschaft.