Ernst Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach was born on 12 June 1871 in Nuremberg, Bavaria, into an aristocratic family. He studied paleontology at the University of Munich under Karl Alfred von Zittel, after first pursuing medicine.[1]
Stromer led expeditions to Egypt's Bahariya Oasis in the early 1910s, and in 1915 -- working from fossils shipped to him by collector Richard Markgraf -- described Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, the first known remains of the dinosaur. He went on to describe several other African dinosaurs, including Aegyptosaurus, Bahariasaurus, and Carcharodontosaurus, along with the giant crocodilian Stomatosuchus.[1]
As an outspoken critic of Nazism, Stromer was forced into retirement in 1937, and two of his three sons were killed serving on the Eastern Front. In April 1944, Allied bombing of Munich destroyed the Bavarian State Collection of Palaeontology, including the only known Spinosaurus and Aegyptosaurus skeletons -- today's researchers rely only on Stromer's surviving photographs and notes. He died on 18 December 1952 in Erlangen, West Germany.[1]