Wilhelm Dames

Wilhelm Barnim Dames (9 June 1843, in Stolp – 22 December 1898, in Berlin) was a German paleontologist of the Berlin University, who described the first complete specimen of the early bird Archaeopteryx in 1894.

He studied at the universities of Berlin and Breslau, where he was a student of Ferdinand von Roemer.

In 1874 he obtained his habilitation, and in 1891 succeeded Heinrich Ernst Beyrich as a full professor of geology and paleontology at the University of Berlin.

[3] In 1894 he published Über Zeuglodonten aus Ägypten und die Beziehungen der Archaeoceten zu den übrigen Cetaceen ("On Zeuglodontes from Egypt and the relationship of Archaeoceti to the other cetaceans").

[4] A Devonian brachiopod coming from an outcrop in Lower Silesia Dames had studied[5] was named in his honour Kyrtatrypa barnimi.