# Eberhard Fraas

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German scientist, geologist and paleontologist

Eberhard Fraas in 1915 by [Ernst Stromer](/source/Ernst_Stromer)

**Eberhard Fraas** (26 June 1862 – 6 March 1915) was a [German](/source/German_Empire) scientist, [geologist](/source/Geologist) and [paleontologist](/source/Paleontologist). He worked as a [curator](/source/Curator) at the [Stuttgarter Naturaliensammlung](/source/Museum_am_Rosenstein) and discovered the [dinosaurs](/source/Dinosaur) of the [Tendaguru](/source/Tendaguru) formation in then [German East Africa](/source/German_East_Africa) (now [Tanzania](/source/Tanzania)). The dinosaur *[Efraasia](/source/Efraasia)* is named after him.

## Life

Eberhard Fraas was born in [Stuttgart](/source/Stuttgart), [Kingdom of Württemberg](/source/Kingdom_of_W%C3%BCrttemberg), the son of [Oscar Fraas](/source/Oscar_Fraas) (1824–1897), a curator and professor at the geological and paleontological department of the [Württemberg](/source/W%C3%BCrttemberg) Royal Natural Cabinet. After attending the Gymnasium, he studied at [Leipzig University](/source/Leipzig_University) with [Hermann Credner](/source/Carl_Hermann_Credner) and [Ferdinand Zirkel](/source/Ferdinand_Zirkel), and later at the [Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München](/source/Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit%C3%A4t_M%C3%BCnchen) under [Karl Alfred von Zittel](/source/Karl_Alfred_von_Zittel), [August Rothpletz](/source/August_Rothpletz) (1853−1918) and [Paul Groth](/source/Paul_Heinrich_von_Groth). Here, he received his Ph.D. in 1886 with a dissertation about [Jurassic](/source/Jurassic) [starfish](/source/Starfish). His geological work enabled him to publish the first coherent account about the history of the [Alps](/source/Alps).

In July 1888, he received his [Habilitation](/source/Habilitation) (second Ph.D.) from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and in 1891 became an assistant at the [State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart](/source/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](/source/Swabia). Many of these were published in co-operation with Wilhelm Branco (who would later change his name to [Wilhelm von Branca](/source/Wilhelm_von_Branca)). Fraas was also curator of [Friedrich Alfred Krupp](/source/Friedrich_Alfred_Krupp)'s mineral collections, and taught him from 1898 to his death in 1902.

Trips to [Spain](/source/Spain), [Sardinia](/source/Sardinia), [Italy](/source/Italy), the [Balkans](/source/Balkans), the west of North America (1901), [Egypt](/source/Egypt) and [Syria](/source/Syria) (1897 and 1906) and finally to [German East Africa](/source/German_East_Africa) (1907) broadened his view and filled the museum with new acquisitions.

His discovery of [dinosaurs](/source/Dinosaur) in East Africa would spawn many expeditions to the [Tendaguru](/source/Tendaguru), first by the Berlin [Museum für Naturkunde](/source/Museum_f%C3%BCr_Naturkunde), and by British institutions once the Germans had lost control of the colony after [World War I](/source/World_War_I).

Fraas died unexpectedly on 6 March 1915 in Stuttgart from [dysentery](/source/Dysentery) which he had caught while in East Africa.

## Legacy

Fraas is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of West Asian lizard, *[Parvilacerta fraasii](/source/Fraas's_lizard)*.[1]

## 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. [Online verfügbar. Universität Frankfurt.](https://web.archive.org/web/20110719105922/http://edocs.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/volltexte/2009/13985/)

## Literature

- Werner Quenstedt (1961). ["Fraas, Eberhard"](https://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/0001/bsb00016321/images/index.html?seite=323). *[Neue Deutsche Biographie](/source/Neue_Deutsche_Biographie)* (in German). Vol. 5. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 307–308.

- 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

- [Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart](https://web.archive.org/web/20000823174107/http://www.naturkundemuseum-bw.de/stuttgart/)

- [Richard Markgraf, Fraas' fossil collector:](http://markgraf.kritzkratz.net/index.html) (in German)

- [Compsognathus](http://www.copyrightexpired.com/earlyimage/prehistoriclifebeforekt/compsognathus_sciam_1893_fraas_1915.html) by Eberhard Fraas (1862–1915) from Scientific American 1893 United States

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). *The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles*. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-4214-0135-5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-4214-0135-5). ("Fraas", p. 93).

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Eberhard Fraas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eberhard_Fraas) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eberhard_Fraas?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.