
Jens Franzen

Jens Lorenz Franzen (27 April 1937 – 21 November 2018) was a German paleontologist. He was the head of Paleoanthropology and Quaternary at Naturmuseum Senckenberg in Frankfurt and participated in fossil excavation in Germany. He worked with scientific excavations and discovered many previously unknown fossil mammal species.
Career.
Franzen was born in Bremen in 1937.
From 1968 to 1969 Franzen was a research assistant at the Geological-Paleontological Institute of the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg and was a research assistant from 1969 to 1970. From 1973 to 1984, Franzen protested with other members of the scientific community against a landfill near the Messel pit in Darmstadt.
In 1987, Franzen worked as a scientific advisor in Messel. From 1977 to 2000, he was curator and head of paleoanthropology at the Senckenberg research institute in Frankfurt am Main from 1982 to 1999 and led the head of the quaternary paleontology department in 2000. He was the First Chairman of the Science Committee of the Senckenberg Research Institute from 1992 to 2000 and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Senckenberg Natural Science Society. He retired September 2000 and volunteered at the Senckenberg Research Institute as well as the Geosciences Department of the Natural History Museum in Basel.
In 1998 he won the Friedrich von Alberti Prize for his studies in human history as well as his research and conservation of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Messel pit. In 2009 he was one of the authors of the first description of the fossil primate "Darwinius".
Studies.
Franzen dealt with paleogenic equidae, the primates from Messel, as well as the Eocene mammals from Eckfeld during the late Miocene. He studied the mammalian chronology of the European Eocene and Upper Miocene.
Franzen participated in the excavation at a fossil site near Darmstadt in Hesse. Franzen also carried out paleontological and paleoanthropological studies in Morocco (1971), Libya (1972), Greece (1963, 1975) and Mexico (1991–1992).
Franzen was a member of numerous societies including the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Paleontological Society, Upper Rhine Geological Association, Natural Research Society Freiburg, Archaeological Society of Hesse, Messel Museum Association and the Dinotherium-Museum Eppelsheim Association.
Death.
Franzen died on 21 November 2018 in Freiburg im Breisgau.
Honors.
Several fossil species have been named in honor of Franzen. In the field of the genera and subgenera Franzenium ng ( Casanovas-Cladellas & Santafé-Llopis, 1989) and Franzenitherium n.subg. ( Remy, JA, 1992). In addition, the newly discovered species Palaeotherium franzeni n.sp. ( Casanovas-Cladellas, 1980), Masillabune franzeni n.sp. Erfurt & Haubold, 1989, Neochelys franzeni n.sp. ( Schleich, 1993) and Tachypteron franzeni n.sp. ( Stork, Sigé & Habersetzer, 2002)