EDINGER, JOHANNA GABRIELLE OTTILIE (TILLY)

(b. Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 13 November 1897;d. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 27 May 1967)

vertebrate paleontology.

Edinger was the youngest of four children of Ludwig and Anna Goldschmidt Edinger. Her father, one of the leading neuroanatomists of his time, created the neurological institute that bears his name at the University of Frankfurt. Her mother, who came from a family of bankers, was highly esteemed for her work in social welfare.

From 1916 to 1918 Edinger studied psychology, zoology, and geology in Heidelberg and then in Munich. After returning to Frankfurt, she devoted herself to zoology, as well as geology and paleontology, under the guidance of Friedrich Drevermann, who decisively influenced her interest in the biological interpretation of fossils. In the fall of 1921 Edinger received her doctorate with a work on Nothosaurus. In the same year she described the endocast of the cranial cavity of a nothosaur—a highly consequential research that determined her future scientific pursuits. These were a natural consequence of the scientific talent she inherited from her father but were not the result of his influence, for he died young and was opposed to university education for women.Serving as part-time assistant to Drevermann and enjoying financial independence, Edinger was able to devote herself to the study of fossil brains. In 1927 she became unpaid curator of the natural history museum of Senckenberg.

Edinger undertook the methodical collection of literature on fossil brains. In 1929 her “Die fossilen Gehirne” appeared, a piece that laid the foundations of paleoneurology. It was characterized by George G.Simpson as an invaluable review that served as a basis for continuing and systematizing research on brain casts and as an indication of gaps in current knowledge. Edinger’s most meaningful subsequent work while in Frankfurt involved the brains of Sirenia (1933), the first evidence of an admittedly incomplete series of brains deriving from a long time span.

At the same time this work appeared, Hitler was coming to power. Edinger, of Jewish extraction, nonetheless refused to emigrate, and Rudolf Richter then director of the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt, protected her. By 1938, however, her situation had become dire, and it was a matter of having to emigrate. Alfred S.Romer, director of the museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, offered her the possibility of working for him. In May 1939 she fled to London, where she found a position as a translator. She reached Cambridge in 1940, supported initially by the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars. Subsequently she received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation (1943–1944) and the American Association of University Women (1950–1951). In the years 1944 and 1945 she taught at Wellesley College, until her hearing loss made it impossible. She became a U.S citizen in 1945.

The enormous amount of material in the museums of the United States was available for Edinger’s paleoneurological research. In 1948 she published the classic study Evolution of the Horse Brain. In it she demonstrated that the progression in brain structure, as in other organs, does not proceed at a constant rate within a given family: instead, the rate varies over time. Edinger also showed that the evolution of the brain can be researched only with the aid of fossils. This monograph was responsible for the extraordinarily rapid development of paleoneurology in subsequent decades.

Edinger’s interests extended far beyond fossil brains. With three other authors she published bibliography of Fossil vertebrates Exclusive of North America (1509–1927) in 1961. She hoped to complete her life’s work with a new edition of “Die fossilen Gehirne.” In the meantime, however, paleoneurology had grown so much that such an edition would have taken years. She therefore concentrated on completing and publishing a bibliography in thatfield: she did not, however. live to see it issued. On 26 May 1967 she was involved in a traffic accident and died the following day. Fortunately, her bibliography was later put in order and published.

After World War II, Edinger’s scientific accomplishments brought her honorary doctorates from Wellesley College (1950) and the University of Giessen (1957) and an honorary medical doctorate from the University of Frankfurt am Main (1964). In this period Edinger renewed old ties, above all with Frankfurt, She made a vital contribution to bringing German paleontologists out of their postwar isolation. Edinger’s congenital hearing loss, which began early in life and grew worse with age, resulted in her being substantially isolated from her environment. To many she was precisely the opposite. Temperamental, often stubborn, she was always warmhearted, lovable, and nimble of mind.

In her memory, friends established the Tilly Edinger Fund at the museum of Comparative Zoology Harvard University, The fund supports the writing of books in vertebrate paleontology.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works. A bibliography of Edinger’s works is included with the article by Hofer(see below). Among her writings are “Ueber Nothosaurs” (1921), her dissertation: “Ueber Nothosaurus. 1. Eine Steinkern der Schädelhöhle,” in Senckenbergiana, 3 (1921), 121–129; “Ueber Nothosaurus. II. Zur Gaumenfrage,” ibid., 193–205;“Ueber Nothosaurus. III. Ein Schädelfund im Keuper,” ibid., 4 (1922). 37–42:“Die fossilen Gehirne,” in Ergebnisse der Anatomie, 28 (1929).I-249;“Ueber Gehirne tertiärer Sirena Aegyptens und Mitteleuropas sowie der rezenten Seekühe. Ergebnisse der Forschungsreise Prof. E. Stromer in den Wüsten Aegyptens. V. Wirbeltiere,” in Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Abteilung, n.s 20 (1933). I-36;Evolution of the Horse Brain, Memoirs of the Geological Society of America, no.25 (1948);bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates Exclusive of North America 1509–1927, 2 vols. (1962), with A. S. Romer, N. E. Wright, and R. von Frank; and Paleoneurology 1804–1966. An Annotated Bibliography (New York, 1975), with foreword by Bryan Patterson.

II. Secondary Literature. Stephen Jay Gould, “Edinger, Tilly,” in Notable America Women (1980); H.Hofer, “In Memoriam Tilly Edinger.” in Morphologisches Jahrbuch, 113 (1969), 303–317. with bibliography and portrait;Bryan Patterson, in Ergebnisse der Anatomie, 49 (1975), 7–11; A. S. Romer. “Tilly Edinger. 189–71967,” in News Bulletin of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists. 81 (1967).51–53. with portrait; and Heinz Tobien, “Tilly Edingert, 13.11.1897–27.5.1967,” in Paläontologische Zeitschrift, 42 (1968), 1–2.

Emil Kuhn-Schnyder