Elsevier

Brain Research Bulletin

Volume 48, Issue 4, 1 March 1999, Pages 351-361
Brain Research Bulletin

History of Neuroscience
The gospel of the fossil brain: Tilly Edinger and the science of paleoneurology

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0361-9230(98)00174-9Get rights and content

Abstract

Tilly Edinger (1897–1967) was a vertebrate paleontologist interested in the evolution of the central nervous system. By combining methods and insights gained from comparative neuroanatomy and paleontology, she almost single-handedly founded modern paleoneurology in the 1920s while working at the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt am Main. Edinger’s early research was mostly descriptive and conducted within the theoretical framework of brain evolution formulated by O. C. Marsh in the late 19th century. Nevertheless, she became immediately known in 1929 after publishing an extensive review on “fossil brains.” Reconstructing evolutionary history from the fossil record instead of from the comparative analysis of living forms allowed her to identify the sequence of neural innovations within several mammalian lineages. Anti-Jewish terrorism forced Edinger to leave Nazi Germany in 1939. After finding refuge first in England, she continued her career at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. There she documented the occurrence of gross neural correlates of specialized behavior in several vertebrate lineages, and identified parallel evolution in mammalian sulcation patterns. Her insight that neural innovations need not be “correlated” with either non-neural innovations or with evolutionary “success” led her to reject Marsh’s theory of progressive increase in brain size over time and other “anthropocentric” understandings of brain evolution. Edinger’s research, her insistence on a stratigraphic and evolutionary framework for interpretation, and her massive compilations of paleoneurological literature established her as the leading definer, practitioner, and chronicler of her field.

Introduction

Paleoneurology studies the brain and nervous system of fossil animals, in particular of fossil vertebrates. Its chief objective is to define trends in the evolutionary development of the various nervous systems. Initially, the study of “fossil brains” meant the mere collection and description of accidental finds of natural brain casts, that is, the fossilized sediments filling the endocrania (and spinal canals) of extinct animals. These can reflect characteristic features of external brain anatomy in great detail.

Modern paleoneurology was founded almost single-handedly by Ottilie (“Tilly”) Edinger in Germany in the 1920s. She was one of the first to systematically investigate, compare, and summarize fossil brain data from the various collections in Europe and North America. She realized that insights into brain evolution could be extended considerably by focusing on animal groups whose lineages were already well-established from independent stratigraphic work, by taking artificial brain casts from existing museum specimens, and by utilizing established methods of comparative anatomy. Tilly Edinger’s successful work in Germany came to an abrupt end in 1938 when she was expelled from her museum in Frankfurt am Main because she was of Jewish descent. She was forced to look for a position abroad and found refuge first in England and then at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology in the United States.

We begin with a summary of Edinger’s family background and her early training in Frankfurt. We then describe her initial career and work at the Frankfurt Senckenberg Museum, emphasizing the scientific themes that remained important to her throughout her life. Next, we give an account of the events that led to Edinger’s forced emigration and exile. The final sections discuss her quick adjustment to life as an émigré (and later naturalized) scientist in the United States, her seminal contributions to the establishment of paleoneurology as a distinct field of inquiry, and her international recognition as spokeswoman for the entire discipline.

Section snippets

Early biography

Tilly Edinger was the third and youngest child born (November 13, 1897) into a well-to-do Jewish family in Frankfurt am Main. Her father, Ludwig Edinger (1855–1918), was a physician and pioneer comparative neurologist; in 1914 he became the first Chair of Neurology in Germany, at the newly founded University of Frankfurt. Her mother, Anna Goldschmidt (1863–1929), was a leading social advocate and activist in Frankfurt 39, 50. Education in the Edinger family was first at home by governess

Early career in Frankfurt am Main (1921–38)

After her graduation from Frankfurt University in 1921, Edinger worked as an assistant in the Geological Institute of Frankfurt University and the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History. She was named Curator (“Sektionärin”) of Fossil Vertebrates at the Senckenberg in 1927. Both positions were unpaid, but allowed her free rein to extend her paleontological education. She may have started with no particular career goal in mind (her mother apparently called vertebrate paleontology her “hobby”),

Forced emigration and exile

During the 1930s, Edinger’s personal and scientific life was progressively constrained by the anti-Jewish decrees and finally the terror initiated by the Nazi regime. The influence of the new rules on Edinger’s professional life was slower than on many other persons of Jewish descent because the Senckenberg was a private institution, and her position there was unsalaried. Nevertheless, in 1937 she heard from the Munich vertebrate paleontologist Ferdinand Broili (1974–46) that she could no

A new intellectual environment and career at the MCZ

Almost immediately after her arrival, Edinger was given the title Research Associate in Paleontology by Harvard University. She found a tiny apartment within several hundred yards of the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ), and began her new life as a salaried paleontologist. Among her assigned jobs at Harvard was assistance with the massive Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates exclusive of North America [62], on which she worked with Romer, Nelda Wright, and Richard von Frank for nearly 20

Evolution of the horse brain

Edinger’s major project during most of her first decade in the United States was the description and analysis of equid brain evolution. First proposed as a challenge to American paleontologists by Edinger in her 1929 review, this project was thrown back into her lap by George Gaylord Simpson “the moment we met” [22]. Her first abstract of work in progress appeared in 1941 [19], and her correspondence during the 1940s contains repeated references to the difficulties of obtaining suitable

Serving the scientific community and final years

Very soon after her arrival in the United States, Edinger was present at the Cambridge, Massachusetts organizational meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (December 1940), which grew out of the Vertebrate Paleontology Section of the Paleontological Society. For many years she was an active contributor at annual meetings and a frequent contributor to the society’s news bulletin. Many of her contributions were travelogues of her visits to foreign museums for access to specimens, and

Sources cited

    GAPU

    Department of Geosciences Archives, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

    HARV

    Harvard University Archives, Pusey Library, Cambridge, MA

    LBI

    Leo Baeck Institute, New York, NY

    MCZH

    Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Special Collections, Cambridge, MA

    NIBR

    Netherlands Institute for Brain Research, C. U. Ariëns Kappers Archive, The Netherlands

    SNG

    Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft, Archiv, Frankfurt am Main

    WELL

    Wellesley College Archives, Wellesley, MA

Acknowledgements

We thank Wilma Slaight (Wellesley College Archives), Daniela Homuth-Trombino (Wellesley College), Rolf Kohring (Freie Universitat, Berlin), Gerald Kreft (Edinger-Institut, J.W. Goethe-Universitat, Frankfurt), Dana Fisher (Special Collections, MCZ Library, Cambridge), Mary Ann Turner (Yale Peabody Museum, New Haven), Konrad Klemmer (Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt), Donald Baird (Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh), the Leo Baeck Institute (New York), the Harvard University Archives

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