Othenio Lothar Franz Anton Louis Abel (20 June 1875 – 4 July 1946) was an Austrian paleontologist and evolutionary biologist.

Together with Louis Dollo, he was the founder of "paleobiology" and studied the life and environment of fossilized organisms.

As the journalist Klaus Taschwer publicized in 2012, Abel was responsible for the founding of a secret group of 18 professors that sought to frustrate the research and careers of left-wing and Jewish scientists.

When such attacks began to be directed at Catholic and international students as well, Abel, now the university rector, was forced into early retirement by the Austrofascist board.

The new regime honored him with the newly created post of "Honorary Senator" of the university - an honour that was rescinded after the Second World War, in 1945.

A letter of recommendation for the Goethe Prize points out how Abel had always "fought in the first line" against the "Judaification" of the university.