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Ernst Conrad Hassencamp
Ernst Conrad Hassencamp was a German pharmacist, fossil collector, geologist, and paleontologist.
He was born on October 16, 1824, in Frankenberg. He studied pharmacy in Marburg and Würzburg and received his license to practice in 1846. In 1847, he took over the pharmacy in Weyhers. While studying, he also explored the geology of the Rhine region, focusing on fossils found in the spoil heaps of the lignite mines in Sieblos and Bischofsheim. Because of this work, a university in Russia offered him a position, but he turned it down. In 1863, he relinquished his pharmacy in Weyhers due to a heart condition and moved to Fulda, where he resided as a pensioner and became an active member of the local Society for Natural History. He published many articles in the society's journals and in those of the Physical-Medical Society in Würzburg, where he had been a member since 1850. His publications covered topics such as lignite deposits in the Rhine, occurrences of augite and hornblende in the Rhine, shell limestone of the Rhine, zeolites, the relative age of the volcanic rocks of the Rhön, geology and fossils of the Tertiary period in the Rhine (including shells), and fossil insects of the Rhine.
Several fossils have been named after him. His collection was given to the Geological-Paleontological Institute in Würzburg, which is now part of the Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology.
He died on June 28, 1881, in Fulda.