The following is my translation of an article called: Paläontologische Umschau (Schwäbische Plesiosaurier und ostafrikanische Dinosaurier) nach Vorträgen von Prof. Dr. E Fraas, zusammengestellt von Dr. K Floericke. It appeared in a German popular science magazine, Kosmos Handweiser für Naturfreunde 1909, Heft 1, Seiten 1-5. Some of the information is naturally out of date. I'm not aware of any previous translation.
Trevor Dykes.

Paleontological review (Swabian plesiosaurs and East African dinosaurs) according to reports of Prof Dr E Fraas, presented by Dr K Floericke
It has been known for a long time that the Jurassic Formation of Swabia is an extremely rich source of fossils for paleontologists, and their treasures have included such remarkable examples that, as a happy circumstance of fate, interest has been high enough to ensure that geological researchers were available at Württemberg, and so there has never been a lack of suitable men capable of scientifically processing the discoveries in an appropriate manner. The name Fraas, both of the father Oscar and son Eberhard, is of high repute in this regard and the latter, the present curator of the geological and paleontological collections of the Stuttgart Naturalienkabinett, has recently succeeded in gaining some superb paleontological specimens with which to extend the wonderful Fatherland collection in Württemberg still further, and this had formerly been the work of his father and other predecessors. (Information about earlier discoveries can be read about in the article: Wüstenreise einer Geologen in Ägypten von Prof Dr E Fraas in Volume 3, Issue 9 of Kosmos).

The reptile world of the Swabian Jurassic Formation has long been known for the excellent completeness and beauty of Ichthyosaurus, better specimens of which could hardly be hoped for. The preservation of these pre-Diluvium beings is sometimes so good, that not only can one see the precise appearance of their bodies, one can also reach conclusions about their lifestyle. We find ichthyosaurs with skin impressions and also females carrying either their own young within their bodies or perhaps those who had been swallowed. And the number of available specimens is now so high that jokingly, but not inappropriately, the Ichthyosaurus has been named 'the Swabian pet'.

In contrast, remains of the related plesiosaurs have always been very rare, and only consisted of isolated bones from spines or feet until, in the year of 1893, the famous preparator, Bernhard Huff, had the luck of bringing an almost complete skeleton to light from Holzmaden but, due to a lack of funds, this went to Berlin rather than staying in the area, and there it was more closely researched by a geologist, Dames, and described as Plesiosaurus guilelmi imperatoris. As Professor Fraas emotionally put it in one of his recent addresses, upon which these lines have been based, he can never go past this glorious specimen in the Berlin Museum without closing his eyes, as his loss is so heartfelt that this treasure from the ancient Swabian Jurassic sea is not housed in Stuttgart. In a remarkable and unexpected way, this wish has been fulfilled in the past year as, not only did the Wüttemberg collection gain plenty of new material from the Triassic of Swabia, the Jurassic of Africa and the Tertiary of Egypt, but it also simultaneously received two plesiosaurs from Holzmaden, and these are exceptionally fine and well preserved. Scientifically speaking, the interest with this is that both these valuable items, which have recently provided a fine exhibit for the Stuttgart Naturalienkabinett, involve two separate species of the widespread family of plesiosaurs, each apparently from the most extreme grades. No fewer than 26 species have been reported from the English Liassic, although many of these are based on poor and difficult to diagnose remnants, but all seem to fit comfortably between both Swabian examples. One of this pair lay in the so called Stinkstein, a very hard stratum from the upper Liassic shales, and this made freeing it from the steel hard matrix especially difficult. Normally, one does not attempt to prepare finds such as this from the rock as the effort is not worthwhile, and the fragile bones break. However, with such an exceptional find, there could naturally not be such an uncourageous reluctance, and the skill of Hauff actually succeeded, after nine months of arduous work, in bringing this Plesiosaurus to sight and, in such an excellent condition, it can be termed the best preserved Plesiosaurus in the world. It was the stomach side which was exposed and, in line with experience, that is both best suited for withstanding such efforts and, in the case of Plesiosaurus it also provides the diagnostic details. The circumstances were much more favourable with the second specimen from the Liassic shale, as it was embedded in much softer rock. This second example is shown on its side in what looks like a swimming position, and it belongs to the same species as the Berlin specimen excepting for it being significantly larger with a body length of 340cm, while the Berlin one measures 280cm. However, as the mode of the bones and various other features clearly indicate we are dealing here with a younger animal when it comes to the Berlin Plesiosaurus and a full grown adult with the Stuttgart specimen, we may assume that, despite the differential in size, both cases belong to the same species, that is Plesiosaurus guihelmi imperatoris.

The first found and arduously salvaged specimen from the Stinkstein looks significantly different. While it is only slightly longer (344cm), it nevertheless appears to be much more massive, and the build of its back make it look more gigantic. It has been named Plesiosaurus victor in honour of Herr Victor Fraas, the brother of Professor Fraas, who provided much of the money required to purchase this fine piece. While Ples. gui. imp. is a smaller and graceful creature, due namely to its long neck and small head, Ples. victor had a much plumper, heavier, so to say a pre-Diluvium appearance.

The most obvious features of the stomach region are the large, plate-like bones of the compressed breast area, which correspond to the also plate-like developed hips, and the wondrous confusion of false ribs between the two, so called stomach ribs similar to those of fish, a basket-like structure. This was obviously for protection against collisions with stormy sea waves. The structure of the extremities also speaks for a lengthy stay in the sea as they have developed into proper paddles, and obviously served as rowing organs, while the ribbed tail had the function of a rudder. In some respects the skull is reminiscent of a lizard, but it is proportionately very small and flat and armed with sharp teeth, which sat in their alveolae as with crocodiles of the present day. The nature of this dentition shows that plesiosaurs were not plant-eaters but rather predators, and they must have mainly lived off fish and squids from the Jurassic sea. The neck of these remarkable animals was uncommonly long, consisting of between 24-41 vertebrae and yet it would have been relatively immobile. We should not imagine that Plesiosaurus could perform snake-like movements like those of a swan. That would already be impossible due to the character of the neck vertebrae which, excepting for the first two, have short ribs on their keels as the neck bones become very thin due to hollows, and these allow them to fit tightly against each other as if they were flat plates. The long neck was especially suited for fetching all kinds of small animals from out of the soft floor in coastal areas, or for sudden whip-like attacks on prey. It may also be that the length of the neck allowed the animal to keep its head above the breaking waves. As Professor Fraas reported, the life and activities of the African Schlangenhalsvögel ('darters'), snake-necked birds of the great African lakes, provide us with a living and visible image perhaps reminiscent of plesiosaurs, when it comes to how these fabled animals might have moved and dived in the Jurassic sea of ancient Swabia.

It is interesting to compare plesiosaurs with the contemporary, but very distantly related ichthyosaurs, as this shows the creative energy of nature can often simultaneously use very different methods to reach the self same objectives. Both animals evolved from land dwellers and had to adapt to being aquatic, and this end was reached by entirely different routes. With the Ichthyosaurus, which externally compares with our extant dolphins, we see the most magnificent principle of a torpedo, whereas Plesiosaurus is more like a flat boat. If the first may have shot through the waves like an arrow, then the latter appears slower and more massive, more suited to resisting the crashing waves of the coastal zone so as to move in that area. And just as the basic build of Ichthyosaurus is still maintained by today's dolphin, so the present also provides a refuge for an animal whose construction strongly reminds us of the Plesiosaurus, namely the marine turtle. Protection against the power of the waves is provided by the rib cage and stomach ribs of Plesiosaurus, whereas the marine turtle achieves the same with the armour on its underside.

Although science has not yet managed to identify stem-forms for the Ichthyosaurus among terrestrial animals, and make the still silent branches accessible for natural historians, more progress has been possible in this regard for the Plesiosaurus; we do know animals from the Muschelkalk Formation which obviously stand in a close relationship to the plesiosaur, namely the nothosaurs, creatures which may have lived predominantly on land, but which already showed strong adaptations for aquatic conditions. And small, completely terrestrial nosticosaurs, found in Lettenhöhle Cave near Hornegg, which may have been pygmies in comparison to the Plesiosaurus with their lengths of 25-30cm, but nevertheless seem anatomically and morphologically directly connected with nothosaurs. We are also here in the fortunate position of being able to follow a transition from terrestrial lifestyles to aquatic animals in various developmental stages; the phenomenon, that aquatic residents in the endless ocean develop themselves into true giants when compared to their ancestors, is rather too common in nature to be accepted as something that is exceptional. It is to be expected that the Jurassic of Swabia will provide more highly interesting fossils in the future, and that not only the fantasy, but strict science will appreciate an ever richer haul of remarkable animal figures lived in the Jurassic sea of Swabia.

During the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, we find a vast development of the reptile world not just in the ocean, but also on the main land that was populated by reptiles of a size and form which is unique. Prime among these are the 'terrible lizards' or dinosaurs with their fantastic forms and, sometimes, truly gigantic sizes. The Upper Jurassic of Wyoming has provided Diplodocus, known from a complete skeleton* of 22m in length, while bones and skeletal remains of Brontosaurus indicate an animal of over 30m long. As well as the widely known discovery sites of England and North America, we now have a new and important locality in the south of our East African province, which has been discovered and investigated by Prof. Fraas in recent years.

(* The wonderfully produced replica of this skeleton, a present for Kaiser Wilhelm from Carnegie, is displayed in the Lichthof of the Museum of Naturkunde in Berlin, and the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt also possesses a large part of a skeleton.)

As this academic recently reported in the Berlin Gesellschaft für Erdkunde, he discovered a great quantity of prehistoric giant animals on the Mbemkuru River but, unfortunately, at a time when his health was weakened by dysentery and he was otherwise insufficiently equipped for a large expedition. Furthermore, all ground in the area was covered by a healthy growth of bush, and could only be made accessible in places when cleared by burning; but that made it apparent that parts were so rich with such piles of bones, that this locality is on a par with the famous locations in North America. Although only cursory investigations were possible, there can be no doubt that this newly discovered Fundstätte promises science a very rewarding booty over the forthcoming decades, and some of these fable creatures will be previously unknown or only poorly known, thus providing new information on prehistory, but only when it is possible to systematically and thoroughly investigate and secure the remains, and to bring them to European museums. In order to aid an understanding about these giant bones, it would be best to state that, for example, a single upper thigh bone presently on display in Stuttgart reaches a length of 1.4m and a mass of three hundredweight, and there are vertebrae as large as those from the giant Diplodocus and Brontosaurus. The individual bones of this Upper Cretaceous formation, taken as a whole, are reminiscent of North American localities and are very well preserved although, unfortunately, finds from the surface have been badly damaged by weathering, and that makes searching for good skeletons sometimes very difficult. As Fraas assumed that still complete skeletons could be found in at least deeper layers of the ground, he carried out an excavation on a promising looking slope, and a partial articulated skeleton was soon discovered, part of which was delivered to Stuttgart. A scientific examination concluded this belonged to a new group of huge dinosaurs which were named Gigantosaurus. Fraas differentiates between a larger form, G. africanus, and a more compact one, G. robustus.

Additional Note
Optimism concerning the locality in what is now Tanzania proved entirely justified. The Tendaguru expeditions ran from 1909-1913 and produced oodles of fine dinos. Some of the harvest had to wait a short while for processing. For example, remains of a Jurassic mammal originally named Staffia were first described nine decades later in 1999. Rather than Cretaceous, as stated in the above article, the age is now known to be be Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian). Furthermore, Gigantosaurus is now known as Barosaurus. Some further information on Tendaguru is available at:
Tendaguru.
Seeing as that's one of my own articles, it leans heavily towards the mammals from the fauna.

An index of more of my translations of old Kosmos articles can be found at:

Kosmos Translations Archive

A number of Mesozoic (and post-Mesozoic) location summaries can be found at Localities.