Maxberg specimen
Encyclopedia
The Maxberg specimen is a fossil
of the prehistoric bird Archaeopteryx
, discovered in 1956 in Germany
. It takes its name from the Maxberg Museum
, where it was exhibited for a number of years.
The Archaeopteryx specimen is, as of 2011, one of only ten body fossils ever found, but has been missing since the death of its last known owner, Eduard Opitsch
, in 1991. It is conventionally referred to as the third specimen.
between Solnhofen
and Langenaltheim
, Bavaria
, eight decades after the previous discovery in 1874/1875, the Berlin specimen. The workers however did not recognise the significance of the find, mistaking it for an unimportant crayfish
, Mecochirus longimanatus, and the pieces remained stored in a hut for the following two years.
In 1958, Eduard Opitsch, owner of the quarry, allowed the fossil to be taken away by visiting geologist
Klaus Fesefeldt who believed it was some vertebrate and sent it to the University of Erlangen where paleontologist Professor Florian Heller identified it correctly and further prepared it. Opitsch, described by contemporaries as having had a difficult personality, attempted to sell the specimen to the highest bidder remarking: "if such things are found only once every hundred years, nothing will be given away for free". The Freie Universität Berlin offered 30,000 Deutschmark; in response the Bavarian institutions tried to preserve the specimen for their own Bundesland by outbidding them. In negotiations with Princess Therese zu Oettingen-Spielberg of the Bayerische Staatssamlung für Paläontologie und Geologie Opitsch, though never demanding an exact amount, had already vaguely indicated a price of about 40,000 DM. The BSP was willing to pay this but hesitant to compensate for the fact that any sum would be taxed at 40% as company profits. The tax collectors did not allow an exemption to be made for this special case. As a result an irritated Opitsch in August 1965 suddenly broke off negotiations and declined all further offers.
For a number of years, the find was displayed at the local Maxberg Museum
. In 1974 Opitsch allowed high-quality casts to be made on the occasion of an exhibition by the Senckenberg Museum
dedicated to Archaeopteryx, but immediately afterwards he removed it from public display altogether. Instead, he stored it in his private residence in near-by Pappenheim
declining access to the specimen to all scientists. He rejected a proposal to further prepare the slabs. Opitsch had become more defensive about the fossil after in 1973 another exemplar had been announced, the Eichstätt specimen, which was much more complete and also transpired to have already been discovered in 1951, five years before the Maxberg. He felt that the large attention for this new specimen was intended to deprecate his own. Attempts were made to gain permission to show the specimen in exhibitions, but Opitsch always refused the requests. In 1984 Peter Wellnhofer
, a renowned expert on Archaeopteryx, attempted to gather together all specimens and experts on the subject in Eichstätt
but Opitsch ignored his request and the conference proceeded without the Maxberg specimen — the London and Berlin specimens however were absent too, the former because seen as too valuable by the British Museum of Natural History, the latter as it was about to be displayed in a surprise exhibition in Tokyo
, together with a visit of the Berlin Brachiosaurus
to Japan
.
When Eduard Opitsch died in February 1991, the Maxberg specimen was not found in his house by his only heir, a nephew entering the building a few weeks after the death of his uncle who was the sole inhabitant. Witnesses claim to have seen the specimen stored under his bed shortly before he died. Opitsch's marble headstone at the cemetery of Langenaltheim depicts a gilded engraving modelled after the specimen, which led to the rumour that he had taken it to his grave. Another theory is that the specimen was sold secretly. The case of the lost specimen was even investigated by the Bavarian police after the heir reported it stolen in July 1991, but no further evidence of its whereabouts was found. Raimund Albersdörfer, a German fossil dealer who was involved in the 2009 purchase of the long-missing Daiting Specimen, believes, as do others, that the specimen is not lost but rather in private possession and will resurface eventually. As a result of all this the specimen has no official inventory number.
The disappearance of the Maxberg specimen has led to renewed calls to protect fossil finds by law. The laws in this regard would be a matter of the federal states
in Germany. Bavaria, to this date, is the only Bundesland having no laws protecting such finds. However, the federal government has declared the Maxberg specimen a national cultural heritage, national wertvolles Kulturgut, in 1995, meaning it cannot be exported without permission.
In 2009, the value of a high-quality Archaeopteryx specimen was estimated to be in excess of three million Euro
.
and UV-pictures made by the photographic institute of Wilhelm Stürmer. The specimen consists of a slab and counterslab, mainly showing a torso with some feather impressions, lacking both head and tail. The roentgen pictures proved that parts of the skeleton still remained hidden inside the stone. The fossil was studied for a time by researchers before Opitsch removed it from public exhibition, among them John Ostrom
.
It was determined by a geologist that the quarry that produced the Maxberg specimen had also produced the London specimen, which was found almost one hundred years earlier, in 1861. However, the Maxberg example was found almost seven metres lower than the London one.
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
of the prehistoric bird Archaeopteryx
Archaeopteryx
Archaeopteryx , sometimes referred to by its German name Urvogel , is a genus of theropod dinosaur that is closely related to birds. The name derives from the Ancient Greek meaning "ancient", and , meaning "feather" or "wing"...
, discovered in 1956 in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. It takes its name from the Maxberg Museum
Maxberg Museum
The Maxberg Museum is a German museum situated in Mörnsheim in the natural park of Altmuhtal, near Solnhofen. It was founded by Alphons L. Zehntner in 1929....
, where it was exhibited for a number of years.
The Archaeopteryx specimen is, as of 2011, one of only ten body fossils ever found, but has been missing since the death of its last known owner, Eduard Opitsch
Eduard Opitsch
Eduard Opitsch was a German quarry owner whose name is associated to a specimen of the prehistoric bird Archaeopteryx, the Maxberg specimen....
, in 1991. It is conventionally referred to as the third specimen.
History
The Maxberg specimen was discovered in 1956 by two workers, Ernst Fleisch and Karl Hinterholzinger, in a quarryQuarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...
between Solnhofen
Solnhofen
Solnhofen is a municipality in the district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen in the region of Franconia in the Land of Bavaria in Germany. It lies within the Altmühl valley....
and Langenaltheim
Langenaltheim
Langenaltheim is a municipality in the Middle Franconian district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen in Germany....
, Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, eight decades after the previous discovery in 1874/1875, the Berlin specimen. The workers however did not recognise the significance of the find, mistaking it for an unimportant crayfish
Decapoda
The decapods or Decapoda are an order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, including many familiar groups, such as crayfish, crabs, lobsters, prawns and shrimp. Most decapods are scavengers. It is estimated that the order contains nearly 15,000 species in around 2,700 genera, with...
, Mecochirus longimanatus, and the pieces remained stored in a hut for the following two years.
In 1958, Eduard Opitsch, owner of the quarry, allowed the fossil to be taken away by visiting geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
Klaus Fesefeldt who believed it was some vertebrate and sent it to the University of Erlangen where paleontologist Professor Florian Heller identified it correctly and further prepared it. Opitsch, described by contemporaries as having had a difficult personality, attempted to sell the specimen to the highest bidder remarking: "if such things are found only once every hundred years, nothing will be given away for free". The Freie Universität Berlin offered 30,000 Deutschmark; in response the Bavarian institutions tried to preserve the specimen for their own Bundesland by outbidding them. In negotiations with Princess Therese zu Oettingen-Spielberg of the Bayerische Staatssamlung für Paläontologie und Geologie Opitsch, though never demanding an exact amount, had already vaguely indicated a price of about 40,000 DM. The BSP was willing to pay this but hesitant to compensate for the fact that any sum would be taxed at 40% as company profits. The tax collectors did not allow an exemption to be made for this special case. As a result an irritated Opitsch in August 1965 suddenly broke off negotiations and declined all further offers.
For a number of years, the find was displayed at the local Maxberg Museum
Maxberg Museum
The Maxberg Museum is a German museum situated in Mörnsheim in the natural park of Altmuhtal, near Solnhofen. It was founded by Alphons L. Zehntner in 1929....
. In 1974 Opitsch allowed high-quality casts to be made on the occasion of an exhibition by the Senckenberg Museum
Senckenberg Museum
The Naturmuseum Senckenberg in Frankfurt is the second largest museum of natural history in Germany. It is particularly popular with children, who enjoy the extensive collection of dinosaur skeletons: Senckenberg boasts the largest exhibition of large dinosaurs in Europe. One particular treasure is...
dedicated to Archaeopteryx, but immediately afterwards he removed it from public display altogether. Instead, he stored it in his private residence in near-by Pappenheim
Pappenheim
Pappenheim is a town in the Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen district, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the river Altmühl, 11 km south of Weißenburg in Bayern.- Notable people :The architect and professor Eduard Mezger was born in Pappenheim....
declining access to the specimen to all scientists. He rejected a proposal to further prepare the slabs. Opitsch had become more defensive about the fossil after in 1973 another exemplar had been announced, the Eichstätt specimen, which was much more complete and also transpired to have already been discovered in 1951, five years before the Maxberg. He felt that the large attention for this new specimen was intended to deprecate his own. Attempts were made to gain permission to show the specimen in exhibitions, but Opitsch always refused the requests. In 1984 Peter Wellnhofer
Peter Wellnhofer
Peter Wellnhofer is a German paleontologist at the "Bayerische Staatssammlung fur Paläontologie" in Munich. He is best known for his work on the various fossil specimens of Archaeopteryx or "Urvogel", the first known bird...
, a renowned expert on Archaeopteryx, attempted to gather together all specimens and experts on the subject in Eichstätt
Eichstätt
Eichstätt is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the District of Eichstätt. It is located along the Altmühl River, at , and had a population of 13,078 in 2002. It is home to the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, the lone Catholic university in Germany. The...
but Opitsch ignored his request and the conference proceeded without the Maxberg specimen — the London and Berlin specimens however were absent too, the former because seen as too valuable by the British Museum of Natural History, the latter as it was about to be displayed in a surprise exhibition in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, together with a visit of the Berlin Brachiosaurus
Giraffatitan
Giraffatitan, meaning "giraffe titan", is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the late Jurassic Period . It was originally named as an African species of Brachiosaurus...
to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
When Eduard Opitsch died in February 1991, the Maxberg specimen was not found in his house by his only heir, a nephew entering the building a few weeks after the death of his uncle who was the sole inhabitant. Witnesses claim to have seen the specimen stored under his bed shortly before he died. Opitsch's marble headstone at the cemetery of Langenaltheim depicts a gilded engraving modelled after the specimen, which led to the rumour that he had taken it to his grave. Another theory is that the specimen was sold secretly. The case of the lost specimen was even investigated by the Bavarian police after the heir reported it stolen in July 1991, but no further evidence of its whereabouts was found. Raimund Albersdörfer, a German fossil dealer who was involved in the 2009 purchase of the long-missing Daiting Specimen, believes, as do others, that the specimen is not lost but rather in private possession and will resurface eventually. As a result of all this the specimen has no official inventory number.
The disappearance of the Maxberg specimen has led to renewed calls to protect fossil finds by law. The laws in this regard would be a matter of the federal states
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
in Germany. Bavaria, to this date, is the only Bundesland having no laws protecting such finds. However, the federal government has declared the Maxberg specimen a national cultural heritage, national wertvolles Kulturgut, in 1995, meaning it cannot be exported without permission.
In 2009, the value of a high-quality Archaeopteryx specimen was estimated to be in excess of three million Euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
.
Specimen
The Maxberg specimen, like all Archaeopteryx exemplars except the so-called "Daiting", shows body feathers. The specimen was formally described in 1959 by Florian Heller. Heller had roentgenX-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
and UV-pictures made by the photographic institute of Wilhelm Stürmer. The specimen consists of a slab and counterslab, mainly showing a torso with some feather impressions, lacking both head and tail. The roentgen pictures proved that parts of the skeleton still remained hidden inside the stone. The fossil was studied for a time by researchers before Opitsch removed it from public exhibition, among them John Ostrom
John Ostrom
John H. Ostrom was an American paleontologist who revolutionized modern understanding of dinosaurs in the 1960s, when he demonstrated that dinosaurs are more like big non-flying birds than they are like lizards , an idea first proposed by Thomas Henry Huxley in the 1860s, but which had garnered...
.
It was determined by a geologist that the quarry that produced the Maxberg specimen had also produced the London specimen, which was found almost one hundred years earlier, in 1861. However, the Maxberg example was found almost seven metres lower than the London one.
Further reading
Dingus, L., Rowe, T. (1997) The mistaken extinction,W.H. Freeman and Company, New York, ISBN 0-7167-2944-XExternal links
- All About Archaeopteryx from talk.originsTalk.originstalk.origins is a moderated Usenet discussion forum concerning the origins of life, and evolution...