Joachim T. Haug
Workgroup Biosystematic Documentation
University of Ulm
Helmholtzstrasse 20
D-89081 Ulm
Germany

Joachim T. Haug studied biology in Wuerzburg, Germany, for six years. He worked on the ecology and socio-biology of different hymenopterans, also in his diploma thesis about fitness effects induced by training in the European beewolf Philanthus triangulum. Additionally, he took courses in palecology, invertebrate palaeontology and micropalaeontology. After graduating he went to the University of Ulm, Germany, together with his wife Carolin to start his PhD project on ‘Orsten’ fossils. These phosphatic fossils are three-dimensionally preserved and occur worldwide in Cambrian and Ordovician strata. The specimens do not exceed two millimetres in length, but even minute structures like setae or ocelli are very well preserved. Joachim reconstructed the ontogeny of several ‘Orsten’ arthropods and presented his reconstructions as 3D models in publications and on conferences to the scientific audience. Besides his PhD project, which he finished in 2009, he also works on fossils from the lithographic limestones of Solnhofen and Lebanon, especially on the crustaceans. Very kind private collectors gave him their specimens, which he then documented in great detail to finally create a ‘virtual specimen’. As ontogeny and phylogeny are Joachim’s main research interests, he is trying to explore the influence of heterochronic events throughout arthropod evolution.