Richard Markgraf (13 March 1869 – January or February 1916) was a German Bohemian

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of foss ...

. He is best remembered for his expeditions to

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...

, which discovered the first known remains of many extinct fossil reptiles, such as ''

Aegyptosaurus ''Aegyptosaurus'' (meaning 'Egypt's lizard') is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Africa, around 95 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous Period ( Cenomanian faunal stage). Discovery and naming The holotype (19 ...

'' and ''

Spinosaurus ''Spinosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of spinosaurid dinosaur that lived in what now is North Africa during the Cenomanian to upper Turonian stages of the Late Cretaceous period, about 99 to 93.5 million years ago. The genus was known first ...

''.

Biography

Richard Markgraf was born in

Přísečnice Přísečnice (german: Preßnitz) was a mining town in what is today the municipality of Kryštofovy Hamry in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It was located in the Ore Mountains. Name The town may have got its name from th ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

(now the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. Th ...

) on 13 March 1869 and he became a bricklayer before joining one of the travelling Preßnitz music groups until he eventually ended up impoverished in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo met ...

, Egypt, working as a

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, j ...

in the

Shepheard's Hotel Shepheard's Hotel was the leading hotel in Cairo and one of the most celebrated hotels in the world from the middle of the 19th century until its destruction in 1952 during the Cairo Fire. Five years after the original hotel was destroyed, a new ...

. He eventually met the German palaeontologist

Eberhard Fraas Eberhard Fraas (26 June 1862 – 6 March 1915) was a German scientist, geologist and paleontologist. He worked as a curator at the Stuttgarter Naturaliensammlung and discovered the dinosaurs of the Tendaguru formation in then German East Afri ...

in 1897 who hired him because of his knowledge of

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

and he taught Markgraf the basic techniques of fossil hunting; he subsequently worked as a collector for Fraas. Markgraf eventually met

Ernst Stromer Ernst Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach (12 June 1871 in Nürnberg – 18 December 1952 in Erlangen) was a German paleontologist. He is best remembered for his expedition to Egypt, during which the first known remains of ''Spinosaurus'' w ...

during the winter of 1901–1902 and the two got along very well. Markgraf was Stromer's ''Sammler'', or fossil collector, for 10½ years, and became a close friend of Stromer. Markgraf, however, was often ill by this time. It is unclear whether the cause was

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or deat ...

, intestinal bleeding from

typhoid Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...

, or chronic amebic

dysentery Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complication ...

. It was during the expeditions with Stromer where many of his notable discoveries were made, such as ''

'' during the early 1910s,Stromer, E. (1932a). Ergebnisse der Forschungsreisen Prof. E. Stromers in den Wüsten Ägyptens. II. Wirbeltierreste der Baharîje-Stufe (unterstes Cenoman). 11. Sauropoda. ''Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Abteilung, Neue Folge,'' 10: 1-21. ''

'' in 1912 and '' Bahariasaurus'' in 1911. Because of his discoveries, he was he was awarded the Medal of Merit of the

Royal Order of Württemberg Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ...

in 1904 and also the Bene-Merenti Medal (in

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

) from the

Bavarian Academy of Sciences The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (german: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften) is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowledg ...

in 1902. He also met another

palaeontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

Henry Fairfield Osborn Henry Fairfield Osborn, Sr. (August 8, 1857 – November 6, 1935) was an American paleontologist, geologist and eugenics advocate. He was the president of the American Museum of Natural History for 25 years and a cofounder of the American E ...

, when his 1907 expedition to the

Faiyum Oasis The Faiyum Oasis ( ar, واحة الفيوم ''Waḥet El Fayyum'') is a depression or basin in the desert immediately to the west of the Nile, or just 62 miles south of Cairo in Egypt. The extent of the basin area is estimated at between 1,270 ...

accidentally stumbled across Markgraf while he was collecting fossils for Stromer, and despite a language barrier, Markgraf began to also collect fossils for Osborn for six weeks during this 1907 expedition, which became a success after the discovery of the

Jebel Qatrani Formation The Jebel Qatrani Formation (also Gebel Qatrani) is a palaeontological and geologic formation located in the Faiyum Governorate of central Egypt. Conformably overlying the Qasr el Sagha Formation. It is exposed namely between the Jebel Qat ...

, which is a large

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but ...

fossil deposit within the

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

in 1914, Markgraf lost his main source of income because his fossil collecting was reduced on British soil (he mainly collected in Egypt), leading him to fall back into

poverty Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse < ...

again. He died from an unknown illness in 1916 aged 46; this illness was likely one of the ones that he was suffering from in 1901 when he first met Stromer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Markgraf, Richard 1869 births 1916 deaths Czech paleontologists People from Chomutov District