Pterodactylus arningi Reck, 1931

Stoecker, Holger & Ohl, Michael, 2024, Taxonomies at Tendaguru: How the Berlin Dinosaurs Got Their Names, Deconstructing Dinosaurs: The History of the German Tendaguru Expedition and Its Finds, 1906 – 2023, Brill, pp. 233-254 : 8

Pterodactylus arningi Reck, 1931

The genus name of this small flying reptile derives from the Greek πτεροδάΚτυλος / pterodáktulos and means “winged finger.” The name alludes to the fact that the animal’s wing membrane stretched over its highly elongated fourth fingers to its hind limbs. According to paleontologists David Unwin and Oliver Rauhut, the type specimen—a single finger bone—cannot be assigned to any specific taxon within Pterosauria and must be considered a nomen dubium, a questionable name. 96

The specific name is dedicated to Wilhelm Arning, a German doctor, colonial politician and travel writer. After completing his medical studies, Arning served for four years (1892–1896) as a doctor with the colonial army of German East Africa (Kaiserliche Schutztruppe). He subsequently practiced as an ophthalmologist in Göttingen and Hanover. In 1903, Arning co-founded the Lindi Prospecting Company (Lindi-Schürfgesellschaft m.b.H., initially headquartered in Koblenz and later in Berlin) and was appointed one of its two managing directors. On January 16, 1904, the company received a five-year concession from the Imperial Chancellery to prospect for minerals in southern German East Africa. 97 In April of the same year, Arning led a geological expedition to search for mineral deposits in the hinterlands of Lindi (located in the south of the colony). 98 In January 1907, Arning ran on the National Liberal Party ticket in the German national elections. These were dubbed the “Hottentot elections,” as they had been called during a political crisis concerning colonial wars in German South West Africa and German East Africa. Arning won the seat and remained in the Reichstag until 1912. He was also a member of the Prussian Landtag from 1908 to 1918. 99

When, in early 1907, Arning received news about the discovery of fossils at Tendaguru from Bernhard Sattler, the prospector working the Lindi Prospecting Company concession, he immediately passed the information on to the Reichtag’s Budget Committee and to the Commission for the Geographical Exploration of the German Protectorates (Kommission für die landeskundliche Erforschung der deutschen Schutzgebiete, an advisory body to the Imperial Colonial Office). This brought the issue to the attention of colonial policy makers and set in motion preparations for an expedition to conduct a dig in the area (see “Minerals and the Maji Maji War,” pp. 17–30). Arning himself supported pro-colonial positions within the Reichstag, and in his speeches repeatedly stressed the potential benefits of the colonies for the German Empire. In one such speech, he referred to the Tendaguru dinosaur finds in this context: “… the bones of mighty dinosaurs …, mightier than any unearthed in America …. Imagine all the other [good] things that await us in the colonies!” 100 In 1914, Arning was traveling through German East Africa when World War I broke out. He joined the colonial army and served as a doctor until 1917, when he was captured by the British. He was released in 1920. The same thing happened to Hans Reck, the last leader of Berlin’s Tendaguru excavations and the describer of Pterodactylus arningi . This shared experience—perhaps even a personal acquaintanceship that stemmed from this time—may have accounted for Reck’s dedication. At the time that Reck published his description of Pterodactylus arningi in 1931, Arning was working as director of the German Colonial Academy (Deutsche Kolonialschule, an institution that turned out German colonial farmers and ranchers). 101 Reck mentioned this in his dedication: “I have dedicated this new species in grateful remembrance to Dr. W. Arning, currently the director of the Colonial Academy in Witzenhausen, in honor of his services to German East Africa, and in particular, to the large dig there at Tendaguru.” 102

Figures

Fig. 14.1, left A page from the field notes of Werner Janensch listing the provisional names given to dinosaur skeletons during the dig. (Tendaguru-Expedition 8.2, Pal. Mus. S II, HBSB, MfN, Bl. 33v.)