Josephine Franke
(Sie/Ihr)

Doctoral Researcher

• Dynamics of Nature

• Evolutionary Diversity Dynamics

-I am part of the Paleobotany Working Group and am working as a doctoral student in the DFG project “Towards a holistic reconstruction of the ‘Baltic Amber Forest’ – Angiosperm diversity and its paleoecological implications.” -My research project focuses on the reconstruction of the so-called Baltic Amber Forest of the late Eocene. I am examining inclusions of flowering plants (flowers and fruits) in Baltic amber in order to draw conclusions about the past ecosystem based on plant diversity and composition. Newer technologies such as X-ray microscopy (microCT and synchrotron) now offer the possibility of looking inside the inclusions and making internal structures visible, which allows for a better taxonomic classification. Once the plant inclusions have been identified, comparison with their closest living relatives allows conclusions to be drawn about the habitat structure or even the climatic conditions of the ecosystem at that time. In addition, this expands our understanding of the evolution of flowering plants and our knowledge of their distribution patterns over time.