Walter Georg Kühne

Walter Georg Kühne was a German paleontologist, known as a "legendary explorer of Mesozoic mammals". He graduated in March 1930 from reform boarding school Schule am Meer on the island of Juist in Prussia. In 1958 he founded the Institute for Paleontology of the Free University of Berlin. His studies focused specifically on mesozoic microfaunae, seeking to bring to light the history of the oldest mammals, which until the 1960s was almost unknown. Before him, findings of species of small size in the continental Mesozoic deposits had been mostly random. His efforts were concentrated more in excavations in lignite mines which he considered as preferred deposits for the remains of terrestrial vertebrates. Thanks to his efforts new species could be described that were interpreted as the most primitive mammals as Morganucodon and Kuehneotherium, as well the proto-mammal Oligokyphus.