Curriculum vitae

Date of birth : 12/29/1974

October 1994 to September 1996 study of biology at the University of Leipzig

from October 2000 Humboldt-University, Berlin (with special focus on zoology - morphology, phylogenetics -, physiology of the sensory organs and molecular biology)

Janury '03 to March '04 Student job at the collection project of the Herrmann von Helmholtz Center of the Humboldt-University, Berlin

September 2003 Diploma in Biology (Title: Fine structure of the book lungs of scorpions and the derived terrestrialization of Arachnids)

Other skills:

Self-taught acquisition of photographic skills

Further specialization in macrophotography (primarily insects and spiders)

Stereo-macrophotography of insects and spiders

Histological methods of preparation, light microscopy, preparation for, and application of, scanning electron microscopy

Evolution of the book lungs in Arachnida (Chelicerata) - these respiratory organs are probably derived from book gills of early chelicerates living in aquatic conditions. Morphological features of arachnids are comparable to the plate like appendages of horseshoe crabs (Xiphosura).

Two lines - scorpions and tetrapulmonate arachnids (spiders, whip spiders and whip scorpions) - have possibly terrestrialized independent from each other. Fossil evidences support a close relation of scorpions to the extinct Eurypterida (aquatic).

Similar anatomical features of the book lungs of Recent arachnids (both the scorpions and the tetrapulmonate arachnids) support the terrestrialization of a common ancestor in the stem line of Arachnida.

The phylogeny of Scorpiones considering by SEM-revealed anatomical book lung characters is immediately associated with the resolution of the next relationship of the scorpions. Lungs structures of Buthida (Scorpiones) and Eurypterida resemble each other like the structures of Iurida (Scorpiones) and Tetrapulmonata.

Kamenz C, Dunlop J A & Scholtz G (accepted): Characters in the book lungs of Scorpiones (Chelicerata, Arachnida) revealed by scanning electron microscopy. Zoomorphology 124 (2), 101-109

Kamenz C & Scholtz G (in prep): A single terrestrialization of a common ancestor of Arachnida (Chelicerata) is supported by their book lungs.