Albert Oppel

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Carl Albert Oppel (1831–1865) was a German paleontologist. He was born in Hohenheim, Württemberg, and studied at the University of Tübingen, earning his Ph.D. in 1853. Between 1856 and 1858 he published a work on Jurassic formations in Europe.

In 1858 he joined the Palaeontological Museum in Munich as an assistant, and in 1860 he became Professor of Palaeontology at the University of Munich. A year later he became director of the Palaeontological Collection. One of his important later works was Paläontologische Mittheilungen aus dem Museum des Königlichen Bayerischen Staates (1862–1865). He died on 23 December 1865 at the age of 34.

Oppel made major contributions to fossil study and the geology of the Jurassic period. He helped found zone stratigraphy and developed the use of index fossils, a term he created. He defined the Tithonian stage, a time near the end of the Jurassic near its boundary with the Cretaceous. He held the Chair of Paleontology at the University of Munich.

The wrinkle ridge Dorsum Oppel on the Moon is named after him, and the fossil prawn genus Albertoppelia also bears his name.