{{Short description|German scientist, geologist and paleontologist}} [[File:Eberhard_Fraas.jpg|thumb|250px|Eberhard Fraas in 1915 by [[Ernst Stromer]]]] '''Eberhard Fraas''' (26 June 1862 – 6 March 1915) was a [[German Empire|German]] scientist, [[geologist]] and [[paleontologist]]. He worked as a [[curator]] at the [[Museum am Rosenstein|Stuttgarter Naturaliensammlung]] and discovered the [[dinosaur]]s of the [[Tendaguru]] formation in then [[German East Africa]] (now [[Tanzania]]). The dinosaur ''[[Efraasia]]'' is named after him.
== Life == Eberhard Fraas was born in [[Stuttgart]], [[Kingdom of Württemberg]], the son of [[Oscar Fraas]] (1824–1897), a curator and professor at the geological and paleontological department of the [[Württemberg]] Royal Natural Cabinet. After attending the Gymnasium, he studied at [[Leipzig University]] with [[Carl Hermann Credner|Hermann Credner]] and [[Ferdinand Zirkel]], and later at the [[Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München]] under [[Karl Alfred von Zittel]], [[August Rothpletz]] (1853−1918) and [[Paul Heinrich von Groth|Paul Groth]]. Here, he received his Ph.D. in 1886 with a dissertation about [[Jurassic]] [[starfish]]. His geological work enabled him to publish the first coherent account about the history of the [[Alps]].
In July 1888, he received his [[Habilitation]] (second Ph.D.) from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and in 1891 became an assistant at the [[State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart]]. In 1894, he became curator of its geological, paleontological and mineralogical departments. In that capacity, he was responsible for a multitude of geological maps of his native [[Swabia]]. Many of these were published in co-operation with Wilhelm Branco (who would later change his name to [[Wilhelm von Branca]]). Fraas was also curator of [[Friedrich Alfred Krupp]]'s mineral collections, and taught him from 1898 to his death in 1902.
Trips to [[Spain]], [[Sardinia]], [[Italy]], the [[Balkans]], the west of North America (1901), [[Egypt]] and [[Syria]] (1897 and 1906) and finally to [[German East Africa]] (1907) broadened his view and filled the museum with new acquisitions.
His discovery of [[dinosaur]]s in East Africa would spawn many expeditions to the [[Tendaguru]], first by the Berlin [[Museum für Naturkunde]], and by British institutions once the Germans had lost control of the colony after [[World War I]].
Fraas died unexpectedly on 6 March 1915 in Stuttgart from [[dysentery]] which he had caught while in East Africa.
==Legacy== Fraas is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of West Asian lizard, ''[[Fraas's lizard|Parvilacerta fraasii]]''.<ref>Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Fraas", p. 93).</ref>
== Works == * ''Die Asterien des Weissen Jura von Schwaben und Franken : Mit Untersuchungen über die Structur der Echinodermen und das Kalkgerüst der Asterien.'' Palaeontographica 32: 229 – 261, Stuttgart : E. Schweizerbart (Koch), 1886 * ''Die Labyrinthodonten der schwäbischen Trias.'' Palaeontographica 36: 1-158, Stuttgart: E. Schweizerbart (Koch), 1889 * ''Scenerie der Alpen.'' 325 S., Leipzig: Weigel, 1892 * ''Die Triaszeit in Schwaben; Ein Blick in die Urgeschichte an der Hand von R. Blezingers geologischer Pyramide.'' 40 S., Ravensburg: O. Maier, 1900 * ''Die Meer-Crocodilier (Thalattosuchia) des oberen Jura unter specieller Berücksichtigung von Dacosaurus und Geosaurus.'' Palaeontographica 49 (1): 1-71, Stuttgart: E. Schweizerbart, 1902 * ''Führer durch das Königliche Naturalien-Kabinett zu Stuttgart Teil 1: Die geognostische Sammlung Württembergs im Parterre-Saal, zugleich ein Leitfaden für die geologischen Verhältnisse und die vorweltlichen Bewohner unseres Landes.'' 82 S., Stuttgart: E. Schweizerbart, 1903 * ''Neue Zeuglodonten aus dem unteren Mitteleocän vom Mokattam bei Cairo.'' Geologische und Palaeontologische Abhandlungen, N.F. 6 (3): 1-24, Jena: Fischer, 1904 * ''Der Petrefaktensammler: ein Leitfaden zum Sammeln und Bestimmen der Versteinerungen Deutschlands.'' 249, 72 S., Stuttgart: K. G. Lutz, 1910 * Branca, W., Fraas, E.: ''Das vulcanische Ries bei Nördlingen in seiner Bedeutung für Fragen der allgemeinen Geologie.'' Abhandlungen der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin: 1-169 S., 1901 * Branca, W., Fraas, E.: ''Das kryptovulcanische Becken von Steinheim.'' Abhandlungen der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin: 1-64, 1905 * ''Proteroehersis, eine pleurodire Schildkröte aus dem Keuper.'' Jahreshefte des Vereins für Vaterländische Naturkunde in Württemberg, 69, S. 13-90. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110719105922/http://edocs.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/volltexte/2009/13985/ Online verfügbar. Universität Frankfurt.]
== Literature == * {{NDB|5|307|308|Fraas, Eberhard|Werner Quenstedt}} * Stromer, Ernst Freiherr von Reichenbach: Eberhard Fraas. In: ''Centralblatt für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie'' 15 (1915) 12, S. 353-359 (in German) * Walther, J.: Eberhard Fraas. ''Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher und Ärzte''. 87: 334-336, Leipzig : Vogel, 1922 (in German)
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20000823174107/http://www.naturkundemuseum-bw.de/stuttgart/ Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart] *[http://markgraf.kritzkratz.net/index.html Richard Markgraf, Fraas' fossil collector:] (in German) *[http://www.copyrightexpired.com/earlyimage/prehistoriclifebeforekt/compsognathus_sciam_1893_fraas_1915.html Compsognathus] by Eberhard Fraas (1862–1915) from Scientific American 1893 United States
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fraas, Eberhard}} [[Category:1862 births]] [[Category:1915 deaths]] [[Category:Sportspeople from Stuttgart]] [[Category:German paleontologists]] [[Category:People from the Kingdom of Württemberg]] [[Category:Leipzig University alumni]] [[Category:Academic staff of LMU Munich]] [[Category:Deaths from dysentery]]