Objects of palaeontological but also historical importance: Researchers have gained non-destructive insights into 46 containers with colonial finds that are around 110 years old. The previously unopened bamboo drums and specially filled boxes come from the Tendaguru expedition in the former colony of German East Africa. The computed tomography images revealed dinosaur fossils that could be of interest for more detailed investigations. In addition, the study again clarifies the procedures of German paleontologists in the problematic colonial era.
Between 1909 and 1913, a total of 230 tons of finds were towed to the coast of present-day Tanzania and shipped to Germany: the effort involved in the so-called Tendaguru expedition was enormous. The project was organized in what was then the colony of German East Africa by the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MfN). To this day, the sometimes spectacular dinosaur fossils from the Tendaguru expedition are the showpieces of the museum. Surprisingly, the find material has still not been fully evaluated. Because you simply couldn't cope with the enormous deliveries. To this day, find containers in their original packaging are stored in the museum archive. It consists of six wooden boxes and 40 drums specially made at the time with a "corset" made of bamboo sticks.
"Special" archive material screened
"Until now, there has been a great deal of uncertainty as to how to deal with this material, since the physical preparation takes a lot of time and one does not want to destroy historical contemporary documents," says lead author Daniela Schwarz from the MfN. So the paleontologist and her colleagues decided to carefully "x-ray" the objects. In addition, veterinary computer tomographs from the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin were used, which are normally used to look inside the bodies of large animals. The researchers then pushed the drums and boxes into these devices. “We knew the types of dinosaurs to expect from this quarry and the packaging methods have already been described. But it was very exciting for all of us to finally know what exactly is in the remaining bamboo drums without having to open them all at once," says Schwarz.
As the team reports, the virtual preparation revealed many individual bones that can be assigned to the so-called gazelle dinosaur Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki. Some fossils of the "spiked dinosaur" Kentrosaurus also emerged, as well as bones derived from long-necked dinosaurs - sauropods. In this way, the researchers were able to create a prioritization list that should help in deciding which material might be worth paleontological preparation. "Several aspects were important in the virtual development of this material: on the one hand, we wanted to make the fossil material from Tendaguru virtually available to everyone, and on the other hand it was important to define priorities for the preparation. This should also make it easier to decide what should be preserved in its original state as a valuable testimony to this historic expedition under colonial conditions,” says Schwarz.
Dino fossils with context
The study also clarified again which methods the paleontologists used around 110 years ago as part of the Tendaguru expedition. In addition to whole rocks with possible contents, bone finds were also embedded in lumps of clay and placed in the transport containers. In addition, smaller bones were collected in tin cans in the area of the discovery site. These objects were then placed in the specially made bamboo drums and savannah grass served as the filling material. Much of the work was done by local laborers, and the containers were then hauled to shore by columns of porters, a journey that took several days.
This in turn directs attention to a sensitive topic that the Berlin Natural History Museum is currently working on intensively: the critical examination of the procedures in the era of German colonial rule in Africa. "The work is part of a large interdisciplinary scientific program in which the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin is consistently dealing with its colonial past," writes the MfN.
Source: Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in the Forschungsverbund Berlin eV, specialist article: Palaeontologia Electronica, doi: 10.26879/1231