African Dinosaurs Unearthed by Gerhard Maier, Indiana University Press, 拢37.95, ISBN 0253342147 Reviewed by Douglas Palmer
ALL dinosaur fans will have heard of Tendaguru in German East Africa (today鈥檚 Tanzania) and its famous giant sauropod 鈥� Brachiosaurus. Black-and-white photos of the huge skeleton mounted in the Natural History Museum in Berlin have graced popular books on fossils ever since 1937 when it first went on public display.
It was more than 30 years earlier, in 1906, that German mining geologist Benhard Sattler first spotted large bones near Tendaguru. And what most people do not realise is that Berlin鈥檚 giant dinosaur was not alone.
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Gerhard Maier鈥檚 African Dinosaurs Unearthed: the Tendaguru expeditions details exactly how one of the world鈥檚 biggest caches of dinosaur fossils was excavated and recovered. Successive German expeditions in early 20th century dug out the lion鈥檚 share 鈥� 185 tonnes of fossil bones in 824 crates had been taken to Germany by the end of 1911. The expertise and labour of more than 5000 Africans made it all possible. But this is only the beginning of a fascinating story well told by Gerhard Maier, a professional palaeontologist who really knows what he is writing about.
The second part of the saga begins after the first world war, when Arthur Smith Woodward of the then British Museum (Natural History) decided that it was time the Brits got in on the action because all German settlers had been expelled from the territory, which was by then imperial pink.
By 1926, another 17 tonnes of dinosaur bone had been recovered from Tendaguru, this time shipped to London. By 1930 even more had been added.
Maier reckons the British spent about 拢11,000 altogether, comparable to the total cost of the German expeditions, and yet 鈥渙ne of the most obvious differences between the German and British expeditions was that the latter did not publish its scientific results鈥�. Although strapped for cash, the Natural History Museum is even now trying to unpack and conserve its African dinosaurs.
Incidentally, one 20-year-old member of the 1924 British expedition was called Louis Leakey, who subsequently met Hans Reck, a member of the German expeditions, who knew of a particularly interesting locality for fossils called Olduvai Gorge. But that鈥檚 another story.