Karl Alfred von Zittel

Karl Alfred Ritter von Zittel, known as Karl Alfred von Zittel, was a German paleontologist born September 25, 1839, in Bahlingen, Grand Duchy of Baden, who died January 5, 1904, in Munich, and who is best known for his five-volume reference work Handbuch der Palaeontologie, published between 1876 and 1893 and later summarized in the 1895 Grundzuege der Palaeontologie; he also published a monograph on fossil sponges between 1877 and 1879 and researched Cretaceous bivalve mollusks and the Tithonian geological stage. He served as chief editor of the journal Palaeontographica from 1869 until his death, held professorships of geology and mineralogy at the Polytechnical School in Karlsruhe from 1863 and of paleontology at the University of Munich from 1866, succeeding Albert Oppel, and directed Munich natural history museum from 1880. He published Geschichte der Geologie und Palaeontologie bis Ende des 19 Jahrhunderts in 1899, described as a monumental history of the progress of geological science, served as president of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences from 1899, was elected an international honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1903, and received the Wollaston Medal in 1894.