Ernst Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach (12 June 1871 in Nürnberg – 18 December 1952 in Erlangen) was a German paleontologist. He is best remembered for his expedition to Egypt, during which the first known remains of Spinosaurus were discovered. He described the following Cretaceous dinosaurs from Egypt: Aegyptosaurus, Bahariasaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and the enigmatic theropod, Spinosaurus aegyptiacus. Stromer also described the giant crocodilian, Stomatosuchus. The fossil bird genus Stromeria (now included in the genus Eremopezus) and the sauropod Paralititan stromeri were named in his honor (by Kálmán Lambrecht in 1929 and Smith et al. 2001, respectively). The majority of his fossil discoveries were destroyed during World War II, and only photographs of some specimens remain. Biography Ernst Stromer had an aristocratic standing in German society (the "Freiherr" in his name roughly equals "baron" in English); his father had been the mayor in his home city of Nuremberg, and his ancestors had been lawyers, courtiers, scientists, architects, and other leaders. Stromer had quite some distaste towards the Nazi party. Ernst Stromer was married to Elisabeth Rennebaum (1886-1977) in 1920 and had three sons (Ulman, Wolfgang, and Gerhart), all of whom served in the German army during World War II . Two died during the conflict, while the third, Wolfgang, was taken prisoner by the Soviets and was believed to have died, until he was returned to Germany in 1950. Egypt Expedition Arrival On 7 November 1910, Stromer arrived in Alexandria, Egypt, aboard the Norddeutscher Lloyd steamship Cleopatra. After a two day setback imposed by a temporary quarantine, the expedition set out by train to arrive in Cairo the next day. After checking into the hotel in Cairo, Stromer found a letter of welcome waiting for him at the post office from the director of the Geological Survey of Egypt. Stromer visited the office of George Steindorff, a reputable German Egyptologist, as a matter of courtesy and to plan the future expedition. On 14 November, Stromer went to meet with John Ball, the founder of the Desert Survey Department of the Geological Survey of Egypt. In that year, the survey had published the first topographic map of Egypt, and was finishing a geological map that was to be published in 1911. Both sources were invaluable to Stromer, now planning his upcoming expedition to Bahariya, an area of the Western Desert that was little known. Richard Markgraf, a German guide who lived South of