The Palaeontographical Society

Research funding

1. The Palaeontographical Research Fund

The Palaeontographical Society awards small financial Grants to assist palaeontological research (travel, visits to museums, fieldwork, etc.) within the Society’s remit of describing the fossil fauna and flora of the British Isles.

It is intended that two awards will normally be made in each year to a value of around £500 each, although the exact amount and the number of awards may vary at the discretion of the Council. No definite age limit or other restriction is applied, although preference will be given to applicants at the start of their careers or those without alternative sources of funding. The award is open to both amateur and professional palaeontologists, but preference will be given to members of the Society engaged in the production of a monographic piece of work.

 

How to apply

Applications should be submitted electronically to one of the Co-Secretaries, Drs Sarah Long (S.Long@nhm.ac.uk) and Paul Barrett (P.Barrett@nhm.ac.uk). The application should comprise a short CV (including details of publications, appointments and distinctions: no longer than three sides of A4), an account of research aims and objectives (5,000 characters maximum), and a breakdown of the proposed expenditure. Each application should be accompanied by the name and contact details of an appropriate scientific referee. Failure to provide a complete application will result in disqualification. 

 

Timetable

Applications must be received by the 28th February 2010 and successful applicants will be informed shortly after the Annual General Meeting of Council in April.

 

Requirements

On completion of the work, successful candidates must produce a short report (500-1000 words) for the Palaeontographical Society Newsletter and website, and will be expected to submit receipts for expenditure encurred. Applicants are also asked to consider publication of their research results in the Palaeontographical Society’s monograph series.

 

 

2. The Bulman Fund

The Bulman Fund exists to help in the preparation of illustrations for monographs of the Society that have been accepted and are in an advanced stage of preparation.  Small grants of up to £300 are available to offset the costs of line drawings or other illustrations deemed essential for the monograph being prepared.  Authors wishing to apply for this fund should contact the secretary.

Research reports

2008 Research Grant Reports

1. Systematics of British Upper Silurian trilobites

Andrew J. Storey

 

School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham

Descriptions of trilobites from the Silurian of Britain have been ongoing since the seventeenth century, but more recent publications have focussed on the Llandovery and Wenlock series. To date around 31 genera and 43 species have been recognised from the British Upper Silurian, but many have not been studied in over 35 years and are in need of systematic revision. My research project aims to extend previous studies by formally documenting British Upper Silurian trilobite taxa and establishing their affinities. Descriptions are primarily based on collections amassed by my supervisors and this has been supplemented by field work. Substantial collections exist in various museums in Britain also, and comprise some of the largest Silurian trilobite collections in the world. Funding from the Palaeontographical Society has allowed me to study trilobite collections at the British Geological Survey (Keyworth), National Museum of Wales (Cardiff), Sedgwick Museum (Cambridge), Oxford University Museum, National History Museum, and Ludlow Museum. The study of figured and unfigured material from museums around the UK has provided new data aiding both the identification and documentation of British Upper Silurian faunas.

Work is proceeding on the systematics and palaeobiology of British Upper Silurian trilobites, and is largely based on the description of trilobites that commonly occur in platform facies. The Ludlow Elton Group, is one example, and includes several taxa including Dalmanites, Raphiophorus, Calymene, Exallaspis, a phacopid, and an encrinurid. A comparison with the type material of Forbes (1848) and Whittard (1938) has confirmed the presence of Raphiophorus parvulus and Exallaspis coronata in the Middle and Upper Elton formations. Several well preserved specimens at Ludlow Museum, Salop may also allow Calymene and the encrinurid to be identified to species-level for the first time. Dalmanites myops, D. caudatus and D. nexilis are, to date, the only recognised dalmanitids occurring in the Elton Group. It is likely, however, that specimens formerly assigned to one of the first two species, in fact represent different taxa. A comparison of type material at the NHM with material from the Elton Group is ongoing and may yield additional species. Material collected from the Bringewood and Leintwardine formations is also being compared with museum collections and will provide additional data on the taxa concerned.

Work is also progressing on the documentation of an unusual deep-water fauna from the late Wenlock\early Ludlow Coldwell Formation (Tranerth Group), of the Lake District. The most abundant trilobites include Decoroproetus scrobiculatus, Delops nobilis marri, and Struveria howgillensis (Storey & Thomas, 2008). Based on collections in the Sedgwick Museum, and the British Geological Survey, Calymene and Encrinurus are herein known to occur in the Tranearth Group for the first time. A survey of Owens’ (1973) Decoroproetus material at the National Museum of Wales has helped identify additional species in the Coldwell Formation, and this includes Decoroproetus cf. wigwig and Decoroproetus sp. nov.? In addition, a detailed study of the Rickards (1965) collection (Sedgwick Museum) in comparison with Delops obtusicaudatus (Sedgwick Museum, BGS, and NHM) and Delops nobilis nobilis (Oxford) has helped to revise the characters diagnostic of each species along with the genus.  A comparison of existing collections from the Coldwell Formation demonstrates strong similarities with the fauna of the Swedish Colonus Shale (Hede 1915). In particular Delops nobilis marri, and Struveria howgillensis are thought to be conspecific with Dalmanites mobergi and Dalmanites simricus respectively.

Work will continue on the documentation of British Upper Silurian trilobites, and it is anticipated that this will be published in a form of a monograph. The author would like to thank the Palaeontographical Society for funding this research project, and allowing a complete coverage of the British Silurian trilobite fauna. This will complement a similar survey of Gotland, and it is expected that this will allow a more complete understanding of the differences and similarities of trilobite taxa occurring in Britain and Gotland. The study of endemic and shared taxa between these two regions will also allow a better appreciation of the spatial distribution of taxa. This has broader implications for future biogeographic and palaeoenvironmental studies on Silurian trilobites.  

REFERENCES

FORBES, E. 1848, In: PHILLIPS J and SALTER J.W, Palaeontological Appendix to Professor John Phillips’ Memior on the Malvern Hills compared with the Palaeozoic Districts of Abberley etc, Memior of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, no. 2 (1), 331-386, 20, pls.

HEDE, J.E. 1915. Skånes Colonusskiffer, Acta Univ. lund. NF., Avd. 2, 11 (6): 1-65, pls. 1-4.

OWENS, R.M. 1973, British Ordovician and Silurian Proetidae (Trilobita), Monographs of the Palaeontographical Society, 98 pp, 15 pls.

RICKARDS, R.B. 1965, Two new genera of Silurian phacopid trilobites, Palaeontology 7: 541-551, pls. 84, 85.

STOREY, A. J. and THOMAS, A. T. 2008. A deep water trilobite fauna from the British lower Ludlow. In I. Rábano, et al. (eds). Advances in trilobite research. Cuadernos del Museo Geominero, n° 9. Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, Madrid, 375-379 pp.

WHITTARD, W.F. 1938. The Upper Valentian trilobite fauna of Shropshire, Annals and Magazine of Natural History, (11) 1, 85-140, pls. 2-5.

 

2. Redescription of eurypterids assigned to the genus Drepanopterus from the Silurian strata of the Pentland Hills

James C. Lamsdell

4 Hardings Close, Iver Heath, Bucks, SL0 0HL

The eurypterids from the Silurian of the Pentland Hills form part of a unique assemblage of well-preserved fossils formed due to smothering of the seabed by volcanic ash. Seven genera are known from the Eurypterid Bed, including 15% of all known stylonurine (eurypterids with their posterior legs adapted for walking) species. The genus Drepanopterus was erected in 1892, when the fauna was first described, and was the first step in recognising the diversity of eurypterids beyond the genera Eurypterus and Stylonurus. Three species of Drepanopterus (D. pentlandicus, D. bembycoides and D. lobatus) are reported from the site, however renewed taxonomic interest in the genus suggested that some of these may be synonymous with Nanahughmilleria conica and may represent a distinct, hitherto unrecognised genus.

All of the Pentland Hills material is held at the collections centre of the National Museums of Scotland, and in July 2009 I spent a week there studying the rather well-preserved specimens. It soon became readily apparent that ‘D’. bembycoides and ‘D’. lobatus did not belong in Drepanopterus sensu stricto, and that ‘N’. conica was no Nanahughmilleria! The three were certainly co-generic, however, and possessed an intriguing set of characters, including a pediform appendage VI with a modified podomere 7a (a structure normally only seen on swimming paddles). In order to fully resolve the affinities of this new genus I travelled to the Senckenberg museum in Frankfurt, Germany, and visited the private collection of Markus Poschmann to study two little-known eurypterid genera, Moselopterus and Vinetopterus. These too have a pediform appendage VI with 7a, and also share characteristics such as serrate posterior margins to the postabdominal segments, an oval metastoma with anterior notch and anterior ‘ears’ on the coxa of appendage VI.

This information points to Moselopterus, Vinetopterus and the new genus being very closely related. Rather than being stylonurines, they resolve instead at the base of the Eurypterina (swimming forms), a poorly-understood phase of eurypterid evolution. Vinetopterus and the new genus are the most primitive Eurypterina known, probably belonging in a family separate to Moselopterus. The redescription of the Pentland species will offer insight into the plesiomorphic character states within the Eurypterina and (by comparison with basal stylonurines) the Eurypterida as a whole, along with the environment and mode of life that basal eurypterids occupied and may help resolve the identity of the eurypterid ancestor.

Now that the initial study is complete, the results are being written up in the form of a monograph, consisting of a redescription of all known specimens of ‘D.’ bembycoides, ‘D.’ lobatus, and ‘N.’conica and a discussion on the relationships and character acquisition of the basal Eurypterina, to be submitted as a Palaeontographical Society Monograph by the end of the July 2010. My visits to Scotland and Germany have also led to a number of ancillary discoveries also being prepared for publication, including a new genus of carcinosomatid from the Pentland Hills and a redescription of Moselopterus. All this research would not have been possible without the generous support of the Palaeontolographical Society.

 

3. Sheinwoodian chitinozoans and acritarchs from the Welsh borders

Dr Anthony Butcher

 

School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Portsmouth

 

 

 

The Sheinwoodian succession of Wales and the Welsh Borderland has been shown to yield well-preserved chitinozoans and acritarchs (e.g. Dorning and Harvey 1999; Mullins and Loydell 2001), and several deeper-water localities within this area that have received relatively little or no study have the potential to yield excellent palynomorph assemblages. The early Sheinwoodian is a particularly interesting interval within the Silurian as both the Ireviken Event on Gotland and a large global positive δ¹³C isotope excursion coincide during this time (see Munnecke et al. 2003; Loydell 2007).

Detailed palynological analysis from such deeper-water localities in Wales and the Welsh Borderland will potentially allow for the recognition and characterization of these important early Sheinwoodian global events.

Progress

In order to fulfil the aims above, fieldwork (funded by a Palaeontographical Society Research Grant) was undertaken to collect samples from a quarry in Wales.  A 12.2 m section was logged, and samples were collected every 5 cm for palynological processing - such high resolution sampling was conducted in order to ensure the recognition of the global Sheinwoodian events if represented within the strata. Initial sample processing, using a hydrochloric/hydrofluoric acid technique, has yielded well-preserved chitinozoan and acritarch specimens.  Detailed taxonomic analysis of the chitinozoan specimens will allow for biostratigraphical correlation of the strata, while morphological and abundance analyses of the acritarchs may show correlation with the early Sheinwoodian carbon isotope excursion (e.g. see techniques of Stricanne et al. 2006).

Palynological processing and analyses of the palynomorphs continues, and it is hoped that the taxonomic analyses will prove to be sufficient for the production of a Palaeontographical Society monograph in the future.  Sincere thanks are extended to the Palaeontographical Society for the award of this Research Grant, for it enabled for the collection of field data to initiate this highly interesting study.

References

Dorning, K. J. & Harvey, C. 1999. Wenlock cyclicity, palynology, and stratigraphy in the Buildwas, Coalbrookdale, and Much Wenlock Limestone formations, Shropshire, England. Bolletino della Società Paleontologica Italiana, 38, 155–166.

Loydell, D. K. 2007. Early Silurian positive δ13C excursions and their relationship to glaciations, sea-level changes and extinction events. Geological Journal, 42, 531–546.

Mullins, G. L. & Loydell, D. K. 2001. Integrated Silurian chitinozoan and graptolite biostratigraphy of the Banwy River section, Wales. Palaeontology, 4, 731–781.

Munnecke, A., Samtleban, C. & Bickert, T. 2003. The Ireviken Event in the lower Silurian of Gotland, Sweden – relation to similar Paleozoic and Proterozoic events. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 195, 99–124.

Stricanne, L., Munnecke, A. and Pross, J.  2006.  Assessing mechanisms of environmental change: Palynological signals across the Late Ludlow (Silurian) positive isotope excursion (δ¹³C, δ¹⁸O) on Gotland, Sweden.  Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 230, 1–31.

 

 

 

 

2007 Research Grant Reports

1. Description of the theropod dinosaur Neovenator salerii from the Wealden (Early Cretaceous) of the Isle of Wight

Stephen Brusatte¹ and Roger Benson²

¹Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, BS8 1RJ
²Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, CB2 3EQ and Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD

Neovenator is known from a handful of specimens, all of which have been recovered from the Lower Cretaceous (Barremian) Wessex Formation on the southwestern coast of the Isle of Wight. Taken together, these specimens comprise the best-known large theropod dinosaur to be found in Europe to date. Furthermore, Neovenator comes from a time (Early Cretaceous) and place (Europe) that is poorly sampled with respect to large carnivorous dinosaurs. Consequently, Neovenator has the potential to provide important systematic, phylogenetic and palaeobiogeographical information. Although the first fossils of this dinosaur were found in the late 1970s, they have only been described briefly in print and are often ignored in broader studies of theropod anatomy and phylogeny.
    In February of 2007, we spent one week at the Dinosaur Isle Museum in Sandown examining the beautifully preserved holotype and referred specimens of Neovenator. A few months later we examined additional material of the holotype that is housed at the NHM in London. Expenses for both of these visits were covered by our Palaeontographical Society research grant. During the following summer we wrote a lengthy description of Neovenator and included a more general discussion on the importance of Neovenator in theropod evolution. In early October this was submitted to the Palaeontographical Society as a potential monograph, and as we write this report we are preparing to resubmit our final corrected version for publication. This will represent one of the first vertebrate monographs to be published by the Society for several decades. We feel privileged to follow in the footsteps of pioneers like Owen, who published their descriptions of fossil vertebrates in the same journal.
    Now that we have completed our monograph we can say many things about the anatomy and general importance of Neovenator. For example, past authors have argued over the exact placement of this theropod, often on the basis of nothing more than the brief published description. We have identified several characters shared with Carcharodontosauridae, a theropod clade that is closely related to the familiar Allosaurus and that includes some of the largest predators to have lived on Earth. Most carcharodontosaurids hail from Gondwana and lived during the mid- to Late Cretaceous. Neovenator suggests that carcharodontosaurids were more geographically widespread before becoming restricted to the south later in their evolution. Also, as a much smaller animal, Neovenator reveals important information on character change during the evolution of its gigantic relatives.
    We are thrilled that our grant has been translated into publication of a monograph so quickly. This work would not have been possible without the support of the Society, as one of us (SB) is a particularly money-stretched graduate student with little institutional support. In closing, we would also like to point out that during our visit to Sandown we heard of a new theropod dinosaur from the Wealden that we are currently describing with Steve Hutt and Darren Naish. As a result, the Society’s research grant will have part funded another worthwhile project!

2. The palaeoecology of eurypterids from the Welsh borderlands

Susan Beadmore

Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, BS8 1RJ

Studies regarding the palaeoecology of the Order Eurypterida, an extinct group of large chelicerate arthropods, were neglected during the early twentieth century. However, the last few decades have seen a possible ancestral link between eurypterids and scorpions (Braddy et al. 1999), and probably other arachnids, alongside a surge of taxonomic and palaeoecological revisions. Palaeoecological models for eurypterids are limited to the ‘river’, ‘transition’ and ‘euryhaline’ hypotheses and the ‘biofacies model’ (Braddy 2001); although all require revision, the latter is central here. Devised by Kjellesvig-Waering (1961), based on localities containing Late Silurian to Early Devonian rocks in the Welsh Borderlands, the three biofacies proposed were named after the most common eurypterids: the Carcinosomatidae–Pterygotidae (C/P) phase in open marine conditions, the Eurypteridae (E) phase in marine to brackish waters, and the Hughmilleridae–Drepanopteridae–Stylonuridae (H/D/S) phase in the shallowest and freshwater environments. These, and several additional sites, were visited using the funding awarded by the Palaeontographical Society to collect new fossil material and to study the associated sedimentology; previously collected material stored in the Ludlow Museum was also included. The resulting dataset of eurypterids and associated taxa was analysed for 25 localities using SYSTAT (Version 5.2.1) and the ward linkage method was used in five separate analyses (two using the entire dataset at family and generic level; three for Ludlow Museum data only: for family level and for direct and indirect associations at generic level).
        The re-analysis maintains the H/D/S phase based on associations with plants and freshwater vertebrates, although the C/P and E phases should be revised to C and E/P phases. The former still represents deeper water based on a proximity to graptolites (cluster 2b, Text-fig 1), and the latter, a range of shallower environments as indicated by a mix of brachiopods, cephalopods and bivalves (cluster 1, Text-fig 1). These C and E/P phases have already been noted further afield in the Bertie Waterlime Formation of eastern North America. Inter-phase mixing (Braddy 2001) cannot be ruled out and is most notable in the two deeper aquatic biofacies, i.e. the C and E/P phases, which would have been similar in salinity, depth, and sedimentology.
        This study has revealed several limitations in methods of palaeoecological sampling relating to collection bias, identification of fragmentary specimens, and the effects of sedimentary and taphonomic processes. In the Q-mode analyses of this study the comparison of direct and indirect associations suggests preference be made for the former as direct associations of eurypterids and taxa known from specific environments here provides strong support for the revised biofacies. R-mode analyses showed a division of deep (BA 2-3) and shallow (BA 1) water localities that were again most clear where direct associations of taxa were used. Such associations are however more difficult to find in hand specimen due to chance preservation and collection bias.
        The stratigraphical distribution of localities was taken into account and shown not to have had an effect. The number of localities from each unit was generally constant with both the numbers of eurypterid families and genera closely following the trend; that of the associated taxa deviated greatly throughout and requires investigation. Further study is also required regarding the distribution of eurypterids through time from deeper to shallow, and even fluvial, conditions. This study made use of a previously collected section from the Downton Castle Sandstone at Ludford Corner where indeterminant eurypterids were found as disarticulated (transported/disturbed) fragments of exoskeleton in direct associations with plants, lingulid brachiopods and gastropods, suggesting the unit lay within the H/D/S phase. Similar and more extensive sections from other units for comparison, and stratigraphically equivalent deep and shallow water localities in the Welsh Borderlands must be identified in order to resolve the proposed palaeoecological shifts of eurypterids through time and to determine in more detail their relationship to sedimentology.

References

BRADDY, S. J. 2001. Eurypterid palaeoecology: palaeobiological, ichnological and comparative evidence for the ‘mass-moult-mate’ hypothesis.  Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 172, 115-123.

–––– ALDRIDGE, R. J., GABBOTT, S. E., & THERON, J. N. 1999. Lamellate bookgills in a late Ordovician eurypterid from the Soom Shale Lagerstatte, South Africa: support for a eurypterid-scorpion clade. Lethaia, 32, 72–74.
KJELLESVIG-WAERING, E. N. 1961. The Silurian eurypterids of the Welsh Borderlands. Journal of Paleontology, 35, 789–835.

 

TEXT-FIG. 1. The Q-mode dendrogram at generic level using direct associations of eurypterids and other taxa from the Ludlow Museum collection. The main clusters and sub-divisions are numbered with the distribution of eurypterid families providing support for the revised C and E/P phases. Cluster 1 represents the E/P phase with the larger cluster 2 representing the C phase. Although similar taxa in the form of cephalopods, brachiopods and bivalves are present in both clusters the range is less limited in the C phase and also includes additional taxa here taken as typical of deep water settings, e.g. trilobites (2a) and graptolites (2b).

2006 Research Grant Reports

1. Systematics of British Silurian crinoids in the collections of the British Geological Survey, Keyworth

Stephen K. Donovan

Department of Geology, Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum – Naturalis, Postbus 9517,
NL-2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands; (donovan@naturalis.nnm.nl)

A grant from the Palaeontographical Society supported research on the British Silurian crinoids in the collections of the Geological Survey Museum, British Geological Survey, Keyworth (BGS). The objectives were to collect data on specimens of British Silurian crinoids, principally the disparids, and to survey the Llandovery collections in pursuit of new crinoid taxa and crinoid-rich localities from this part of the succession.
       Both objectives were achieved with considerable success. I have examined the collections of Llandovery (Lower Silurian) crinoids at BGS in some detail, as well as members of the Subclass Disparida from throughout the Silurian, resulting in the collection of detailed observations and a large loan of specimens for further work. This project has enabled progress to be made in the writing of two typescripts (Donovan et al., in prep. a, b). Perhaps the most unexpected find was a fine specimen of a new species of dendrocrinid (cladid) from the Telychian of Shropshire.

Donovan, S.K., Lewis, D.N. & Crabb, P. (in prep. a). A field guide to the Silurian Echinodermata of the British Isles: Part 2 - Crinoidea. To be submitted to Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society.
Donovan, S.K., Widdison, R.E., Lewis, D.N. & Fearnhead, F.E. (in prep. b). The British Silurian Crinoidea. Part 1. Introduction and Disparida. To be submitted to Monographs of the Palaeontographical Society.

2. The Neuroptera (Insecta: Holometabola) of the Purbeck and Wealden of England

James E. Jepson

School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, The University of Manchester, Williamson Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK; (james.jepson@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk)

The project required repeated visits to the Booth Museum of Natural History (Brighton), The Natural History Museum (London) and the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences (Cambridge) to study the collections of insects from the Purbeck Limestone and Wealden Groups. In particular, the project focused on the Order Neuroptera. Neuropteran from these deposits are understudied and only four families are recorded: Nymphitidae (Purbeck only), Brongniartiellidae (Purbeck and Wealden), Psychopsidae and Kalligrammatidae (both Wealden only) with four species described. Many of the specimens are poorly preserved, especially those from the Wealden. In each deposit only the wings are preserved. To date, my research on these collections has increased the number of families and species from both of these horizons. In the Purbeck Limestone the Family Prohemerobiidae has been recognised and more representatives of Brongniartiellidae have been identified; the Wealden Group is now known to have yielded members of the Osmylidae, ?Ithonidae and Chrysopidae, as well as additional representatives of the Psychopsidae, Brongniartiellidae and ?Kalligrammatidae.

3. British Lower Jurassic pliosaurs - implications for the evolution and distribution (stratigraphical, geographical) of plesiosaurs

Adam S. Smith

School of Biology and Environmental Science, Department of Zoology, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland; (adam.smith@ucd.ie)

My research concerns a group of short-necked Lower Liassic plesiosaurs. These specimens represent some of the earliest known plesiosaur taxa and are vital for elucidating the evolutionary origin of this group of marine reptiles. Their taxonomy rests on the affinities of RhomaleosaurusR. cramptoni, together with data from many other key taxa. In particular, the Palaeontographical Society Grant allowed me to visit and describe three key taxa stored in the collections of the NHM: Rhomaleosaurus thorntoni, the largest of the Lower Liassic plesiosaurs; Macroplata tenuiceps, a very poorly known species; and the enigmatic taxon Eurycleidus arcuatus. These data are being incorporated into morphometric and phylogenetic analyses that will shedding light onto the systematics, evolutionary history and palaeobiology of these ‘sea dragons’. cramptoni, the holotype of the family Rhomaleosauridae. A cast of this iconic specimen dominates the marine reptile gallery in the Natural History Museum (NHM), London. The original material, stored in the National Museum of Ireland, has been transported to the Palaeontology Conservation Unit of the NHM for preparation and conservation. I have gathered comparative morphological and dimensional data from the newly prepared