Gustav Tornier

Gustav Tornier ( Dombrowken (today Dąbrowa Chełmińska, Poland), 9 May 1858 – Berlin, 25 April 1938) was a German zoologist and herpetologist.

Life and career

Tornier was born in the Kingdom of Prussia as the eldest child of Gottlob Adolf Tornier, a member of the Prussian landed gentry in Dombrowken, a small village near Bromberg (now Bydgoszcz) in West Prussia. His father and mother had both died by 1877, leaving the nineteen-year-old Gustav as the master of a house and estate.

The attached commitments kept him from commencing his university studies until the relatively advanced age of twenty-four. Enrolling at the university of Heidelberg in 1882, Tornier took his time, and he did not receive his doctorate for another ten years. In the meantime he wrote a monograph on evolution in support of Wilhelm Roux, ''Der Kampf mit der Nahrung'' ("The battle with/for Food", 1884). In the book, he took an uncompromisingly Darwinist stance, and applied the principles of natural selection and adaptation to the structures and functions of individual organisms.

In 1891 he had already accepted a post as an assistant in the zoological museum of the Friedrich Wilhelm University (now Humboldt University) in Berlin. Initially he occupied himself with preparing anatomical specimens, but from 1893 he also worked in the herpetological department. When its curator, Paul Matschie, took over the mammal collection in 1895, Tornier succeeded him.

In 1902, he became professor of zoology at the university, whilst later also accepting the post of head librarian at the museum (1903), assistant director of the museum (1921), and finally director ''ad interim'' of the museum (1922–1923). In addition, he served as a board member of the Berlin Society of Friends of Natural Science (Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin) from 1907 to 1924, and as such was closely involved with organizing the Tendaguru Expedition (1910-1912), still the largest dinosaur excavation expedition in history.

Tornier retired in October 1923, and died in 1938 in Berlin. He was interred in the Luisenfriedhof-III in Berlin-Charlottenburg.

Research

Tornier's research interests focused on amphibians and reptiles, developmental anatomy, and systematics. He became the leading authority on the reptilian and amphibian fauna of German East Africa.

''Diplodocus''

Perhaps unfairly, Tornier's legacy has mainly been determined by his position in the controversy surrounding the posture of the sauropod dinosaur ''Diplodocus carnegii''. Following the 1899 discovery of the animal in Wyoming, it had traditionally been depicted and mounted in an elephant-like stance. However, In 1909, Oliver P. Hay imagined two ''Diplodocus'', being reptiles after all, with splayed lizard-like limbs on the banks of a river. Hay argued that ''Diplodocus'' had a sprawling, lizard-like gait with widely splayed legs.
Tornier had arrived at the same conclusion and forcefully supported Hay's argument, arguing that the tail couldn't physically have made the curve down to the ground. To solve this issue, he lowered the entire animal.

The hypothesis, at least as far as the position of the legs was concerned, was contested by W. J. Holland, who maintained that a sprawling ''Diplodocus'' would have needed a trench to pull its belly through.

Tornier's acerbic and sometimes sarcastic reply to Holland led to a minor spat, with German authorities (including Kaiser William II himself) coming down on the former's side and even considering re-mounting the Berlin copy of ''Diplodocus'', placed there only a few years before by Holland, in a more "reptilian" fashion. In the end, however, finds of sauropod footprints in the 1930s put Hay and Tornier's theory to rest.

Taxonomy

Tornier's frog, ''Litoria tornieri'', which is an Australian endemic, was named after him, as was a large sauropod dinosaur found around 1910 in the Tendaguru formations of German East Africa, which was renamed'' Tornieria africanus'' (Fraas) after the original name ''Gigantosaurus'' had been found to be occupied.

Also, Tornier is commemorated in the scientific names of two species of African reptiles: a snake, '' Crotaphopeltis tornieri''; and a tortoise, '' Malacochersus tornieri''.

Selected publications

*(1884). ''Der Kampf mit der Nahrung: Ein Beitrag zum Darwinismus''. Berlin: W. Ißleib.
*(1896). ''Die Reptilien und Amphibien Ost-Afrikas''. Berlin: Reimer.
*(1899). "Neues über Chamaeleons ". ''Zoolischer Anzeiger'' 22: 408–414.
*(1899). "Drei Reptilien aus Afrika ". ''Zoologischer Anzeiger'' 22 : 258–261.
*(1900). "Beschreibung eines neuen Chamaeleons ". Z''oologischer Anzeiger'' 23: 21–23.
*(1900). "Neue Liste der Crocodilen, Schildkröten und Eidechsen Deutsch-Ost-Afrikas ". ''Zoologisches Jahrbuch für Systematik'' 13: 579–681.
*(1901). "Die Reptilien und Amphibien der Deutschen Tiefseeexpedition 1898/99 ". ''Zoologischer Anzeiger'' 24: 61–66.
*(1904). "''Bau und Betätigung der Kopflappen und Halsluftsäcke bei Chamäleonen'' ". ''Zoologisches Jahrbuch für Anatomie'' 21: 1–40.
*(1908). “Über Eidechseneier, die von Pflanzen durchwachsen sind / Gibt es bei Wiederkäuern und Pferden ein Zehenatavismus? / Über eine albinotische Ringelnatter und ihr Entstehn.” ''Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin'' 1908, no. 8: 191–201.
*(1909). "Wie war der Diplodocus carnegii wirklich gebaut?" ''Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin'' 1909 (4): 193–209.
*(1909). "Ernstes und lustiges aus Kritiken über meine Diplodocusarbeit / War der Diplodocus Elefantenfüssig?" ''Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin'' 1909 (9): 505–556.
*(1909). “War der Diplodocus Elefantenfüssig.” ''Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin'' 1909, no. 9: 536–56.
*(1909). “III. Reptilia - Amphibia.” In ''Die Süßwasserfauna Deutschlands''. Vol. 1, edited by August Brauer, 65–107. Jena: Gustav Fischer.
*(1910). “Bemerkungen zu dem vorhergehenden Artikel “ Diplodocus und seine Stellung usw. von Fr. Drevermann.”.” ''Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin'': 402–6.
*(1910). “Über und gegen neue Diplodocus-Arbeiten. Teil I: Gegen O. Abels Rekonstruktion des Diplodocus.” ''Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft'' 62: 536–76.
*(1911). “Ueber die Art, wie aussere Einflüsse den Aufbau des Tieres abändern.” ''Verhandlungen der deutschen zoologischen Gesellschaft'' 20/21: 21–91.
*(1912). ''Biologie und Phylogenie der Rieseneidechsen und ihrer Verwandten (mit Demonstrationen)''. Berlin: Self-published.
*(1913). “Reptilia: Paläontologie.” In ''Handwörterbuch Der Naturwissenschaften. 8. Band, Quartärformation - Sekretion'', edited by E. Korschelt, 337–76. Jena: Gustav Fischer.

External links

Online version of Tornier's ''Der Kampf mit der Nahrung: Ein Beitrag zum Darwinismus'' (Berlin: W. Ißleib) (Archive.org)Short biography in German (Chameleons Online)Species named by Tornier in The Reptile Database

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tornier, Gustav
German paleontologists
German herpetologists
19th-century German zoologists
Evolutionary biologists
Scientists from Berlin
Heidelberg University alumni
Humboldt University of Berlin faculty
People from the Province of Prussia
1858 births
1938 deaths
People from Bydgoszcz County
Scientists active at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin
Lamarckism
Members of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina