Hermann Friedrich Emmrich (Meiningen, February 7, 1815 – Meiningen, 24 January 1879) was a German geologist.
Meiningen is a town in the southern part of the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in the region Franconia and has a population of around 24,300 (2019). Meiningen is the capital and the largest town of the Schmalkalden-Meiningen district. From 1680 to 1920, Meiningen was the capital of the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen.
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes the Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, although backgrounds in physics, chemistry, biology, and other sciences are also useful. Field work is an important component of geology, although many subdisciplines incorporate laboratory work.
He received his Ph.D. in philosophy and taught at the Institute of Meiningen (Henfling-Gymnasium Meiningen).
He described the trilobite genera Phacops , Odontopleura and Trinucleus .
Trilobites are a group of extinct marine arachnomorph arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the Atdabanian stage of the Early Cambrian period, and they flourished throughout the lower Paleozoic era before beginning a drawn-out decline to extinction when, during the Devonian, all trilobite orders except the Proetids died out. Trilobites disappeared in the mass extinction at the end of the Permian about 252 million years ago. The trilobites were among the most successful of all early animals, existing in oceans for over 300 million years.
Phacops is a genus of trilobites in the order Phacopida, family Phacopidae, that lived in Europe, northwestern Africa, North and South America and China from the Early until the very end of the Devonian, with a broader time range described from the Late Ordovician. It was a rounded animal, with a globose head and large eyes, and probably fed on detritus. Phacops is often found rolled up, a biological defense mechanism that is widespread among smaller trilobites but further perfected in this genus.
Odontopleura is a genus of spinose odontopleurid trilobite in the family Odontopleuridae, and is the type genus of that family and of Odontopleurida. The various species are found in Upper Ordovician to Middle Devonian marine strata throughout the world. The best studied fossils are of the type species, O. ovata, from the Wenlock-aged Liteň Formation in Loděnice, in Bohemia, Czech Republic, and, southeastern Gotland, of Sweden.
He published Zur Naturgeschichte der Trilobiten (On the natural history of trilobites) in 1839 and Geologischem Geschichte des Alpes (Geological history of the Alps) in 1874. [1]
The trilobite genus Emmrichops was named in his honor.
Emmrichops is a genus of average size trilobite, assigned to the Cyclopygidae family, that lived during the Middle Ordovician (Llanvirn), and have been found in what are today the Czech Republic and in Wales. Like other cyclopygids, it has huge eyes, that occupy almost the entire free cheeks ), six thorax segments and a wide tail shield. Like the other cyclopygids, Emmrichops probably lived hunting plankton in the water column. Only one species, E. planicephala, has been described sofar.
