Richard Margrave

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Richard Markgraf (born March 13, 1869 in Preßnitz , † 1916 ) was an Austrian fossil collector and finder of important mammal and dinosaur fossils.

Richard Margrave

Life

The Markgrafs family came from the former musician town of Preßnitz in the Bohemian Ore Mountains. Richard Markgraf learned the profession of mason, but then joined one of the numerous traveling music groups in Pressnitz. As a traveling musician, Richard Margrave eventually ended up in Egypt , where he remained ill and penniless. Among other things, he earned his meager living as a pianist at the Shepheard Hotel in Cairo.

In 1897, in Cairo, Margrave met the geologist and paleontologist Eberhard Fraas from Stuttgart by chance . He hired Margrave, probably because of his knowledge of Arabic, and took him with him on his research in the Mokattam Mountains near Cairo. There Fraas recognized his colleague's talent for collecting fossils and taught Margrave the necessary basic techniques. From then on, Margrave worked as a collector for Fraas. The State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart owes Markgraf some world-class fossil whale finds, including specimens of Protocetus atavus and Eocetus schweinfurthi .

In 1903 the German palaeontologist Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach undertook his second research trip to Egypt. There he was accompanied to the Mokattam and the Fayum by Richard Margrave, whom he described as a "capable collector" . Margrave worked for Ernst Stromer for more than ten years and accompanied him on his expeditions to Egypt. Over the years a friendship developed between them.

In 1907, under the direction of Henry Fairfield Osborn, the first American paleontological research expedition outside of North America started with the destination Egypt. In the Fayum arrived the American expedition came across Richard Margrave, who had set up in his side valley camp and was commissioned by Ernst Stromer on fossil hunting. Despite language barriers, Markgraf and Osborn came to an agreement and Markgraf was now collecting money for the Americans too. The expedition was a success, and an extensive collection of the remains of Cenozoite mammals was brought together for the American Museum of National History. Osborn's young companion, the paleontologist Walter Willis Granger , left an expedition diary in which the Margrave's success as a collector of rare fossils was also mentioned. Granger also noted a technology developed by Margrave of recovering fossils in the desert. The hard surface of the fossil-bearing soil layer was scratched and loosened. Margrave left the work of uncovering to the wind. This method is still used today.

Early primates

The bundle of finds from 1907 also included the skull of a small primate , which Margrave did not send to the Americans, but to his friend Ernst Stromer. This find was an early human ancestor, which is now kept in the Bavarian State Collection in Munich. Stromer named the new fossil species after Margrave: Moeropithecus markgrafi . Margrave succeeded in finding another primate in 1910: the Libypithecus markgrafi .

Spinosaurus

( Spinosaurus aegyptiacus , skeletal reconstruction)

The most spectacular finds that Margrave made as a fossil collector were the dinosaur fossils from Baharija. In 1912, on behalf of Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach, he came across the remains of one of the largest predatory dinosaurs that ever lived, the Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, in the remote Egyptian oasis . In addition to this outstanding find, he was able to recover fossil bones from three other predatory dinosaur species, the Aegyptosaurus baharensis , Bahariasaurus ingens and Carcharodontosaurus saharicus . The outbreak of the First World War meant for Margrave the loss of his source of income from the fossil trade. He died in 1916 sick and completely impoverished. However, Margrave's last finds from Baharija could only be described by Stromer a few years after his death. As a result of the First World War, the British administration withheld the fossil boxes intended for Stromer in Egypt. Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach only managed to bring the fossils to Germany in 1922. The dinosaur bones, above all the only known fossils of a Spinosaurus so far , were exhibited in the Bavarian State Collection in Munich. They were destroyed in one of the last bombing raids of World War II in 1944. A few photos were the only evidence of the Spinosaurus' existence. In 1999, an American team led by researcher Joshua Smith succeeded in rediscovering the Spinosaurus in Baharija. Another spectacular find by the Americans was a huge herbivorous dinosaur, which was named Paralititan stromeri in honor of Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach .

Honors

Unlike other helpers of science who had to step back from the researchers, Richard Margrave received honors. In 1904 he was awarded the Medal of Merit of the Royal Württemberg Crown Order. In 1902 he received the Bene-Merenti Medal in Silver from the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.

Species named after Margrave

  • Masracetus markgrafi (whale)
  • Eotherium markgrafi (manatee)
  • Libypithecus markgrafi (primate)
  • Moeripithecus markgrafi (primate)
  • Megapterodon markgrafi (predatory mammals)
  • Markgrafia libyca (fish species)

literature

  • Eberhard Fraas: A geologist's trip to the desert in Egypt. In: Kosmos. Handweiser for nature lovers and Zentralblatt for scientific education and collecting. III. Born in Stuttgart 1906.
  • Elmar PJ Heizmann: Through the desert. The Fayum expedition by Eberhard Fraas in 1905. In: From the history of the Stuttgart Natural History Museum. (= Stuttgart Contributions to Natural History - Series C. No. 30). Stuttgart 1991, pp. 65-70.
  • Vincent L Morgan, Spencer G. Loucas: Walter Granger, 1872-1941, paleontologist. In: New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. Bulletin 19, Albuquerque 2002.
  • William Nothdurft, Joshua Smith: The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt. New York 2002.
  • Simons Elwyn: Eocene and Oligocene mammals of the Fayum, Egypt. In: First International Conference on the Geology of the Tethys. Cairo 2005, pp. 439-450.
  • Ernst Stromer: Richard Markgraf and his importance for research into vertebrate paleontology in Egypt. In: Centralblatt für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie. No. 11, Stuttgart 1916, pp. 287-288.

See also

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Margrave, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian fossil collector and paleontologist
DATE OF BIRTH March 13, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Pressnitz
DATE OF DEATH 1916