Leif Moritz

Millipedes (Diplopoda) are among the first terrestrial animals and play an important role in terrestrial ecosystems as destructors. I am interested in the morphology of diplopods and the evolution of different features within this group and in arthropods in general. I use different methods (µCT, light microscopy, histology, SEM) to compare recent and fossil representatives of all major diplopod taxa (16 orders) and their relatives (Pauropoda, Symphyla, Chilopoda). Furthermore, I study the defense mechanism of millipedes as well as the Cretaceous centipedes fauna preserved in Burmese amber.

PUBLICATIONS

• Moritz L, Koch M (2020) No Tömösváry organ in flat backed millipedes (Diplopoda, Polydesmida). In: Korsós Z, Dányi L (Eds) Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Myriapodology, Budapest, Hungary. ZooKeys 930: 103–115.
• Moritz L, Wesener T (2019) The first known fossils of the Platydesmida—an extant American genus in Cretaceous amber from Myanmar (Diplopoda: Platydesmida: Andrognathidae). Organisms Diversity & Evolution, 19 (3): 423-433.
• Stoev P, Moritz L, Wesener T (2019) Dwarfs under dinosaur legs: a new millipede of the order Callipodida (Diplopoda) from Cretaceous amber of Burma. ZooKeys 841: 79-96.
• Wesener T, Behr N, Moritz L (2019) The first record of the dwarf pill millipede Geoglomeris subterranea Verhoeff, 1908 in western Germany (Diplopoda, Glomerida) and the associated Myriapoda fauna of the Quirrenbach (Siebengebirge, NRW). Bulletin of the British Myriapod & Isopod Group, 31: 9–15.
• Moritz L, Wesener T (2018) Symphylella patrickmuelleri sp. nov. (Myriapoda: Symphyla): The oldest known Symphyla and first fossil record of Scolopendrellidae from Cretaceous Burmese amber. Cretaceous Research 84: 258-263.
• Moritz L, Wesener T, Koch M (2018) An apparently non-swinging tentorium in the Diplopoda (Myriapoda): comparative morphology of the tentorial complex in giant pill-millipedes (Sphaerotheriida). Zookeys 741: 77-91.