Lost Photos of Spinosaurus

["Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

http://news-info.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/5981.html

April 3, 2006 -- The researcher who discovered Paralititan stromeri, one 
of the most massive animals ever to walk the Earth, now is 
"picture-positive" about another dinosaur fossil find by a famous German 
researcher, Ernst Stromer.
...
Enter Josh Smith, Ph.D., assistant professor of earth and planetary 
sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Writing 
in a recent issue of the Journal of Paleontology, Smith reports the 
rediscovery of two photographs of the holotype of Spinosaurus aegyptiacus 
as it was reposited in the Palaontologische Staatssammlung Munchen prior 
to 1944, and later presumably lost in the Allied bombing.

In June, 2000, while researching in Germany, Smith happened upon the 
photographs in the Palaontologische archives of the Museum, after Ernst 
Stromer's son, Wolfgang Stromer, donated them to the museum in 1995.

"These are, to our knowledge, the only surviving photographs of this, the 
one irrefutable specimen of S. aegyptiacus, which, prior to the initial 
print releases, has only been represented by Stromer's drawings," said 
Smith. "This is a significant find from the perspective of the history of 
paleontology."
...