Fossil ‘treasure trove’ found in British Geological Survey vaults

The British Geological Survey is home to more than three million fossils collected over two centuries and catalogued with enormous precision. However, as generations of curators have come and gone, a few collections have lain forgotten and their significance has gradually passed out of memory. Six months ago, I pulled opened some drawers marked ‘unregistered fossil plants’ in one of the Survey's windowless vaults in Keyworth, in central England. What I found inside made my jaw drop. Contained within were hundreds of beautiful thin sections of fossil wood dating from the early nineteenth century. The collection was assembled by botanist Joseph Hooker (Darwin's best friend) while he was briefly employed by the Survey in 1846. The material includes some of the first thin sections ever made by William Nicol, the pioneer of petrography, in the late 1820s, as well as specimens picked up by Darwin and Hooker on their round‐the‐world voyages in the 1830s and 1840s. The collection is particularly interesting in the way it sheds light on the vibrant and sometimes murky world of early nineteenth century science. This is the story of these fascinating fossils.     

Joggins,Nova Scotia

Joggins is a famous fossil locality in Nova Scotia, Canada. Hewn by some of the world's highest tides on the Bay of Fundy, these crumbling cliffs shed light on the life and environments of the Carboniferous Coal Age, 315 million years ago. The site has been a magnet for geologists since the early nineteenth century. Charles Lyell described it as the world's best coal‐bearing section and together with his colleague, William Dawson, reported amazing fossil forests and a rich terrestrial fauna. Since that golden age, the rate of new fossil discoveries has hardly diminished and in recognition of its importance, the Joggins Fossil Cliffs was awarded UNESCO World Heritage Status in 2008. Even after many years of study, it remains a tremendous thrill for us to explore this ‘classic locality’ in far‐flung Nova Scotia. Each winter storm, rock fall, and tide brings with it the tantalizing possibility of new fossils and new scientific insights. In this article we share something of our excitement for Joggins and provide an up to date field guide for those wishing to unlock its secrets.     

The Isle of Portland,Dorset, England

The Isle of Portland is one of the jewels in the crown of the ‘Jurassic Coast’ of Dorset, southern England. Thomas Hardy aptly described this limestone peninsula as the ‘Gibraltar of Wessex’, and used its stone quarries as the backdrop for one of his novels (The Well‐Beloved). Quarries then, as now, work the world‐famous Portland Stone—a Jurassic oolitic limestone—from which St Paul's Cathedral and many other well‐known buildings are constructed. Rocks exposed in the numerous disused quarries scattered across the isle, together with exposures in spectacular sea‐cliffs, paint a vivid picture of life and environments, ～150 million years ago. In addition to Jurassic patch‐reefs, coastal sabhkas, fossil forests and dinosaur footprints found in the bedrock, more recent geological phenomena include two Quaternary raised beaches, solution caves filled with vertebrates, and massive coastal landslips. The aim of this article is to provide a field guide for those wishing to explore the geology of this little‐known region for themselves.     

Is Darwin's ‘Abominable Mystery’ still a mystery today?

Darwin described the Cretaceous diversification and subsequent rapid rise of flowering plants (angiosperms) as an “abominable mystery”: how could they have achieved worldwide ecological dominance by early Paleogene times when the oldest angiosperm fossils are only Cretaceous in age? However, recent phylogenetic and palaeobiogeographical analyses have suggested a much earlier, perhaps Triassic origin for the stem angiosperms. We suggest that the fossil record is accurately reflecting the rapid diversification of the crown angiosperms that molecular data suggests occurred in Cretaceous–early Palaeogene times, and which coincides with similar explosive diversifications that occurred in other parts of the terrestrial biota including insects, birds and mammals. Early, stem angiosperms are poorly represented in the fossil record for a combination of taphonomic and ecological reasons. We conclude that the reported evidence shows that the Darwin's “mystery” is in fact no mystery and confirms that it merely requires an appropriate reading of the fossil record.     

The spectacular fossils of the ‘water margin’: the Cambrian biota of Chengjiang,Yunnan, China

Shi Nai'an's fourteenth century Chinese epic ‘Water Margin’ tells of the release of 36 heavenly spirits and 72 baleful stars from their captivity beneath a tablet of stone at Mount Longhu in Jiangxi Province. They are reincarnated as the 108 heroes of the Liangshan marsh in Shandong Province, who rise against an unjust world. The virtuous exploits of the ‘108’ were brought to life through the cathode‐ray screens of 1970s television sets, as the TV series The Water Margin introduced heroes like Lin Chong battling his evil nemesis Gao Qiu. Far to the west of Jiangxi Province and several hundred years after the Water Margin during the summer of 1984, a young scientist from Nanjing was working amongst the hills and lakes of southern Yunnan Province. He too overturned a stone slab, releasing from their half‐billion year captivity a cornucopia of new Chinese legends. His name was Xianguang Hou and he had made one of the most momentous fossil discoveries in history, uncovering the exceptionally preserved marine fossils of the Chengjiang biota from the ancient water margin of Cambrian seas.     

From clergymen to computers—the advent of virtual palaeontology

Palaeontology was established as a science in the Victorian era, yet has roots that stretch deeper into the recesses of history. More than 2000 years ago, the Greek philosopher Aristotle deduced that fossil sea shells were once living organisms, and around 500 ad Xenophanes used fossils to argue that many areas of land must have previously been submarine. In 1027, the Persian scholar Avicenna suggested that organisms were fossilized by petrifying fluids; this theory was accepted by most natural philosophers up until the eighteenth century Enlightenment, and even beyond. The late 1700s were notable for the work of Georges Cuvier who established the reality of extinction. This, coupled with advances in the recognition of faunal successions made by the canal engineer William Smith, laid the framework for the discipline that would become known as palaeontology. As the nineteenth century progressed, the scientific community became increasingly well organized. Most fossil workers were gentleman scientists and members of the clergy, who self‐funded their studies in a new and exciting field. Many of the techniques used to study fossils today were developed during this ‘classical’ period. Perhaps the most fundamental of these is to expose a fossil by splitting the rock housing it, and then conduct investigations based upon the exposed surface ( Fig. 1 ). This approach has served the science well in the last two centuries, having been pivotal to innumerable advances in our understanding of the history of life. Nevertheless, there are many cases where splitting a rock in this way results in incomplete data recovery; those where the fossils are not flattened, but are preserved in three‐dimensions. Even the ephemeral soft‐tissues of organisms are occasionally preserved in a three‐dimensional state, for example in the Herefordshire, La Voulte Sûr Rhone and Orsten ‘Fossil Lagerstätten’ (sites of exceptional fossil preservation). These rare and precious deposits provide a wealth of information about the history of life on Earth, and are perhaps our most important resource in the quest to understand the palaeobiology of extinct organisms. With the aid of twenty‐first century technology, we can now make the most of these opportunities through the field of ‘virtual palaeontology’—computer‐aided visualization of fossils.

Figure 1 Open in figure viewer PowerPoint A split nodule showing the fossil within, in this case a cockroachoid insect. Fossil 4 cm long (From Garwood & Sutton, in press ).     

Zircon—Earth's timekeeper

One of the earliest written references to zircon is from Lydgate's edition of Aesop's Fables from c.1400 where a zircon was found ‘hid in the dunghill’. Since the humble surroundings of this early record, zircon has become a popular and important mineral. The name zircon is believed to have derived from the Persian words ‘zar’ and ‘gun’ meaning gold and colour respectively. During the Middle Ages, it was believed that wearing zircon jewellery was a cure against insomnia and protected against disease. In more modern times, zircon has found uses in industrial processes and is a key mineral for geologists investigating the geological history of the Earth. It can incorporate uranium which undergoes radioactive decay to lead at a constant rate. By measuring the ratios of uranium and lead isotopes, geologists can calculate the age at which zircons formed. Physical and chemical durability makes zircon able to survive for long periods of geological time and record information about hallmark geological events in Earth history, including early crustal formation, mountain‐building events and mass extinctions. Indeed, the oldest known material on the planet is a zircon from Jack Hills in Western Australia, dated at 4.4 billion years old, a mere 0.15 billion years after the formation of the Earth. This remarkable durability has also led to zircon finding commercial applications in high‐temperature industrial processes, such as brick foundries, while its chemical inertness makes it a potential material for testing the impact of the radioactive products of nuclear waste on mineral structures.     

Abraham Gottlob Werner: History and folk‐history

The Neptunist‐Vulcanist controversy has distorted the reputations of both James Hutton and Abraham Gottlob Werner. Among English‐speaking geologists, Hutton is often presented as the Father of Modern Geology, whereas Werner's views are seen as ‘palpably absurd’. Both men made major contributions to geology, but they were men of their age, the second half of the eighteenth century, and remote in their general ideas from those current since Lyell's day in the mid‐nineteenth. Werner was greatly admired by some of his ablest contemporaries, and their admiration becomes inexplicable if we regard his views as ‘palpably absurd’. Historical research in the last few years, reviewed here, is able to show how Werner's views arose and why they seemed persuasive at the time. Some examples of Neptunist observations in Australia in the 1820's are given to show the application and later modification of the theory.     

The hunt for Precambrian fossils: An abbreviated genealogy of the science

In 1859, in his great work On the Origin of Species, Darwin repeatedly raised what he regarded to be the most serious problem facing his theory of evolution – the lack of fossils predating the rise of shelly invertebrates that marks the beginning of the Cambrian Period of geological time (550 Ma), an “inexplicable” absence that could be “truly urged as a valid argument” against his all-embracing synthesis. This missing early fossil record posed a major dilemma, for Darwin's theory demanded firm linkage from the less advanced to the more evolved, from primitive microbes to protozoans to the rich faunas of the basal Phanerozoic for which no fossil evidence was known. For more than 100 years, the history of Precambrian life stood out as one of the greatest unsolved problems in natural science. In recent decades, however, understanding of life's early evolution has changed markedly as the documented fossil record has been extended seven-fold to some 3500 Ma, an age more than three-quarters that of the planet. This long-sought solution to Darwin's dilemma was set in motion by a small vanguard of workers who blazed the trail in the 1950s and 1960s, just as their course was charted by a few prescient pioneers of the previous century. All workers today, including the 28 participants in the recently held World Summit on Ancient Microscopic Fossils, have roots that can be traced to the pathfinders of a half-century ago.     

Geology ‘far from the madding crowd’, along the northern border of Vietnam

To the north of Hanoi, about a day's drive by car, lies Ha Giang Province, the northernmost region of Vietnam. Ha Giang is remote from the hustle and bustle of daily life, and beyond its eponymous provincial capital towards the border with China, mountains rise quickly to Quan Ba, ‘Heaven's Gate’. The mountains form an uneven landscape of steep‐sided karst rising from deep river‐cut gorges and form a formidable barrier on the northern frontier of Vietnam. Beyond ‘Heaven's Gate’ lies the little travelled region of Dong Van, with its majestic mountains of Palaeozoic strata rising precipitously to the sky. Here, a century ago, the French geologists Henri Mansuy and Jacques Deprat documented early finds of fossils from lower Palaeozoic strata on the border with China.     

Species as the basic units in evolution and biodiversity: Recognition of species in the Recent and geological past as exemplified by larger foraminifera

Methods for species recognition and delimitation based solely on morphological characters are presented. Species can be described as pools of contemporarily interconnected genotypes possessing their own history leading to evolutionary lines. Interconnection in genotypes is expressed by homogeneous phenotypes, but not in a one to one relation. The proof of interconnection by phenotypic homogeneity must be based on the four criteria ‘shape homogeneity’, ‘ontogenetic cohesion’, ‘homogeneous ecological niches’ and ‘evolutionary continuity’. While in all eukaryotes, three of the four – homogeneities in shape and ecological niches, ontogenetic cohesion – can be checked both in living individuals and fossil forms, the detection of birth (speciation), lifetime and death (ending) of a species, factors that determine an evolutionary line, is only possible in organisms with a fossil record. Speciation can be grouped in split-off and split-up processes. Split-off processes where a daughter species derives from a mother species are easier to recognize than split-up processes where several species originate more or less contemporaneously within a geological time interval. This makes it difficult to delimitate species when they are in a reticulate speciation process in which hybridization between subspecies is a common feature. In contrast to evolutionary continuity, homogeneities in shape and ecological niches as well as ontogenetic cohesion are more difficult to recognize in fossil species due to low specimen numbers, incomplete preservation caused by taphonomic processes and the fragmentary representation of fossil environments in the sedimentary strata, hindering the acquisition of gradients. Nevertheless, the four criteria enable the recognition of species without molecular–genetic investigations. Only the combination of these criteria makes identification of species in the fossil record possible.     

The pedigree and influence of fossil collections from the Falkland Islands: From Charles Darwin to continental drift

The Falkland Islands are typical of remote territories in that their early geological exploration was piecemeal and opportunistic. Whilst the resulting fossil collections (dominantly a Devonian fauna of the Malvinokaffric realm) remain the basis for modern interpretations, published accounts misrepresent their extent and provenance. Charles Darwin first discovered fossils during his 1833 visit aboard HMS Beagle, with subsequent British collections acquired in 1842 and 1876, respectively, by the Erebus and Terror and Challenger expeditions and in 1903 by the Scotia expedition. Darwin's collection, and much of the other material, is now held by The Natural History Museum, London (NHM) but some Darwin specimens were assimilated into other collections whilst at least one NHM ‘Darwin’ specimen was not collected by him. There may also be some uncertainty as to the origin of the Scotia collection, now held in Edinburgh by National Museums Scotland, in relation to a contemporary Swedish collection now held in Stockholm. The NHM holdings were supplemented by a number of enigmatic donations from private individuals and then by fossils collected during the first ‘official’ geological survey of the islands in 1920–1922. Meanwhile a large collection was built up in New York through collaboration in 1909 with a local collector – the Governor's wife! The regional associations of the fossils established the African heritage of Falklands geology, and thereby contributed to an understanding of continental drift as the mechanism for the fragmentation of the Gondwana supercontinent. The Falkland Islands are now regarded as a rotated microplate created during the break-up.     

Biosedimentary record of postglacial coastal dynamics: high‐resolution sequence stratigraphy from the northern Tuscan coast (Italy)

Integrating analysis of the benthic palaeoecological record with multivariate ordination techniques represents a powerful synergy able to provide an improved characterization of coastal depositional facies in a sequence stratigraphical perspective. Through quantitative analysis of benthic foraminifer, ostracod and mollusc associations from the postglacial succession of Core M3 (Arno coastal plain, Tuscany, Italy), and application of detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) to the mollusc sub‐data set, we offer a refined picture of stratigraphical variations in faunal content from a paralic depositional setting, and reconstruct the palaeoenvironmental gradients that account for such variations. Despite distinct ecological behaviours, and taphonomic and sedimentological constraints, a strong ecological control on meio‐ and macrofaunal biofacies and taxa turnover is documented across the study succession. Amongst all possible mechanisms that may play a role in ‘shaping’ fossil distribution, the ecological signal driven by salinity represents the most prominent factor controlling the composition of fossil associations in the cored succession. Molluscs can even provide outstanding quantitative estimates of palaeosalinity along the sampled core. When plotted stratigraphically, the three fossil sub‐data sets show consistent patterns of vertical evolution that enable prompt identification of the key surfaces for sequence stratigraphical interpretation in otherwise lithologically indistinguishable deposits. The concomitant maximum richness of species with strong marine affinity, paralleled by the highest DCA salinity estimates, allows recognition of the maximum flooding zone, dated to ～7.7 cal. ka BP, within a homogeneous succession of outer lagoon clays. These clays are sandwiched between early transgressive, swamp to inner lagoon deposits and overlying prograding coastal?alluvial plain facies.     

The seagrass skeletal assemblage from modern to fossil and from tropical to temperate: Insight from Maldivian and Mediterranean examples

Seagrasses are marine angiosperms that form extensive submarine meadows in the photic zone where carbonate producing biota dwell as epiphytes on the leaves or as infaunal forms, and act as prolific carbonate sediment factories. Because seagrasses have a low preservation potential and records of exceptionally well‐preserved and plant material from marine settings are rare, these palaeoenvironments are difficult to identify in the rock record. Consequently, sedimentological and palaeontological proxies are the main indicators of the presence of seagrass‐dominated ecosystems. This work investigates the skeletal assemblage of Modern (Maldivian and western Mediterranean) and fossil (Eocene; Apula and Oman carbonate platforms and Oligocene; Malta platform) seagrass examples to characterize the skeletal assemblage of modern and fossil seagrasses. Two main types of grains, calcareous algae and foraminifera, constitute around 50% of the bioclastic sediment in both tropical Maldivian and temperate Mediterranean scenarios. However, in the tropical setting they are represented by green algae (Halimeda), while in the Mediterranean they are represented by corallinacean red algae. In contrast, in the Eocene examples, the foraminifera are the most conspicuous group and the green algae are also abundant. The opposite occurs in the Maltese Chattian, which is dominated by coralline algae (mean 42%), although the foraminifera are still abundant. It is suggested to use the term foralgal to identify the seagrass skeletal assemblage. To discriminate between red algae and green algae dominance, the introduction of the prefixes ‘GA’ (green algae) and ‘RA’ (red algae) is proposed. The investigated examples provide evidence that the green algae–foralgal assemblage is typical of tropical, not excessively dense seagrass meadows, characterized by a well‐illuminated substrate to support the development and calcification of the Halimeda thallus. Contrarily, the red algae‐foralgal assemblage is typical of high density tropical to subtropical seagrass meadows which create very dense oligophotic conditions on the sea floor or in temperate settings where Halimeda cannot calcify.     

First boganiine beetle in mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar (Coleoptera: Boganiidae)

Cretoboganium gei gen. et sp. nov., a new amber inclusion of the cucujoid family Boganiidae is described and figured based on a well-preserved adult from the mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber (Hukawng Valley, northern Myanmar), some 99 million years ago. Based on the presence of a pair of pronotal callosities, Cretoboganium can be firmly placed in the extant subfamily Boganiinae, a small group currently comprising two small austral genera. Our discovery represents the first fossil record for Boganiinae. It also demonstrates another example that an apparently austral group may have its sister group occurred in today’s northern hemisphere. Together with the other fossil boganiid known from the Middle Jurassic of China, the finding suggests that Boganiidae is an ancient and relict group. Moreover, the present biogeographic distribution of Boganiinae is indicative of an earlier origin of this subfamily, which likely originated before the breakup of the Gondwanan supercontinent.     

Cretaceous sauropod diversity and taxonomic succession in South America

The South American sauropod dinosaurs fossil record is one of the world's most relevant for their abundance (51 taxa) and biogeographical implications. Their historical biogeography was influenced by the continental fragmentation of Gondwana. The scenery of biogeographic and stratigraphic distributions can provide new insight into the causes of the evolution of the sauropods in South America. One of the most important events of the sauropods evolution is the progressive replacement of Diplodocimorpha by the Titanosauriformes during the early Late Cretaceous. The fluctuation of the sea levels is frequently related to the diversity of sauropods, but it is necessary to take into account the geological context in each continent. During the Maastrichthian, a global sea level drop has been described; in contrast, in South America there was a significant rise in sea level (named ‘Atlantic transgression’) which is confirmed by sedimentary sequences and the fossil record of marine vertebrates. This process occurred during the Maastrichtian, when the hadrosaurs arrived from North America. The titanosaurs were amazingly diverse during the Late Cretaceous, both in size and morphology, but they declined prior to their final extinction in the Cretaceous/Paleocene boundary (65.5Yrs).     

Macrofloral biostratigraphy of the Newent Coalfield,Gloucestershire

Boreholes recently drilled by the British Geological Survey provide the first extensive collection of fossil plants from the Newent Coalfield, Gloucestershire. They belong to the Lobatopteris vestita Biozone, indicating a late Westphalian D age. The Newent sequence is thus homotaxial with part of the Forest of Dean Coalfield, and supports the view of Wills (1956) that there was a ‘strait’ extending across St George's Land during the late Westphalian.     

Investigation into albedo-controlled energy loss during the last glaciation

In recent years, attention has increasingly been paid to the question of the stability of the earth's climate. It has been observed that changes in climate are usually related to changes in the earth's surface. On this question, Liedtke writes ‘A change in climate can lead to considerable landscape changes’ (Liedtke 1990, p. 38). There seems to be some form of interaction between climate and the condition of the earth's surface. If solar radiation is taken to be the primary energy source for the earth's climate, the question arises as to how insolation affects the character of the earth's surface, and vice versa, how does the character of the earth's surface affect the insolation which occurs? Reconstructions of the last great Pleistocene glaciation 18,000 years ago show that the form of the earth's surface at that time was considerably different to its present form. In view of the interaction mentioned above between climate and earth surface, does this suggest a difference between the earth's radiation budget 18,000 years ago and that of today? If, as is widely believed, the area of the earth's surface covered by ice 18,000 years ago was approximately three times the current area (Liedtke 1990, p. 42), this presumably would have had at least some influence on the earth's radiation budget. The ice-covered areas may have modified the radiation budget by means of their high reflexivity. In other words, an albedo-related loss of radiation may have occurred. The results of this investigations show, that the global radiation budget at 18,000 B.P was about 7- -10% less than that of today.     

Fluvial archives as a framework for the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic: patterns of British artefact distribution and potential chronological implications

With the adoption of an ‘expanded chronology’ for the Middle Pleistocene, based on the greater number of warm and cold episodes evident in the marine oxygen isotope record from deep ocean cores, has come the recognition of a meaningful progression of artefact types, something that could not be achieved with reference to the previous ‘compressed chronology’. In Britain, at least, it has been established that Levallois knapping techniques appeared in MIS 9–8, that bout coupé handaxes are indicative of MIS 3 and, rather more tentatively, that assemblages with twisted ovate handaxes in significant numbers represent MIS 11 occupation. Added to these key markers, it is now possible to suggest that further tool types occur preferentially in deposits of particular age: assemblages with significant proportions of cleavers and ‘ficron’ handaxes appear to be correlated with deposits formed at around the time of the MIS 9 interglacial. This newly recognized patterning within the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic record differs markedly from the previous use, in the mid‐20th century, of archaeological typology as a means of dating Pleistocene sequences, which was based on a relative refinement of tool making that is now recognized to be unrelated to age. Indeed, the authors would wish to emphasize that, even with reference to the new scheme presented here, the archaeological record should only be seen as dating evidence ‘of last resort’.     

Ichnodiversity and ichnoabundance: Revealing depositional trends in a confined turbidite system

Ichnological studies are still in their infancy when it comes to the interpretation of deep‐marine deposits. The Eocene–Oligocene turbidite system of the Grès d'Annot Formation in south‐east France is well‐studied sedimentologically, but its trace‐fossil content is poorly known. Here, an integrated ichnological–sedimentological study is presented from the Annot sub‐basin for the first time, which demonstrates its value for interpreting proximal to distal and axial to marginal trends in confined turbidite systems. A comprehensive trace‐fossil data set was collected from seven outcrops situated in the southern part of the basin. These data are presented following a morphology‐based classification scheme to allow easy recognition and characterization of ichnotaxa. Ichnodiversity and the abundance of ichnotaxa are regarded as important parameters in such interpretations. Instead of simply counting ichnotaxa per outcrop or stratigraphic unit, an equation has been developed in which the ‘ichnoabundance’ (new term) of each counted ichnotaxon is calculated. An exponential growth factor is applied to the increase of the frequency of trace fossils, and is assumed in this equation to better reflect the population dynamics of benthic organisms. A comparison of the solution for pre‐turbidite and post‐turbidite trace‐fossil suites seems to be more suitable for revealing regional and stratigraphic trends compared with conventional approaches. Despite varying size and conditions of the studied outcrops, the results achieved from the Grès d'Annot Formation can help in the reconstruction of sedimentary processes acting in this confined turbidite basin.