Phd Thesis from the Shadows out of Time
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UNIVERSITY OF COPENH AGEN FACULTY OF SCIENCE PhD Thesis Kasper Lykke Hansen From the Shadows out of Time A comparison and assessment of the fossil collections of P.W. Lund and V. Lausen based on historical archives and bone analysis. Additionally, thoughts and guidelines about future avenues for their usage are proposed. Supervisors: Tom Gilbert & Morten Meldgaard This thesis was submitted to the PhD School of Science, University of Copenhagen, 31 January 2019 Name of department: The Natural History Museum of Denmark Author(s): Kasper Lykke Hansen Title and subtitle: From the Shadows out of Time Topic description: A comparison and assessment of the fossil collections of P.W. Lund and V. Lausen based on historical archives and bone analysis. Additionally, thoughts and guidelines about future avenues for their usage are proposed. Supervisors: Tom Gilbert & Morten Meldgaard Submitted on: 31 January 2019 Word count: 32,400 Cover: V. Lausen and P.W. Lund (Photo: KLH, SNM) 1 Abstract English Two large South American subfossil vertebrate collections are housed in the Natural History Museum of Denmark, the P.W. Lund Collection and the V. Lausen Collection. Both were collected in the 19th century. Today they are kept in a storage facility and are very rarely accessed or studied. Many other European natural history museums keep similar collections. By examining the personal histories behind the collectors as well as reviewing and comparing the two collections, suggestions for their future use are proposed. Data has been collected from museum archives, letters, interviews and newspapers. Fossil material has been identified through morphological analysis. Both collections show a potential for deeper scientific investigations. The V. Lausen Collection with three virtually undescribed type specimens and the possibility of sampling petrosal bones from large extinct mammals for ancientDNA studies. The P.W. Lund Collection with many subfossil bones and breccias remaining unidentified. This thesis also reveals that the biography of V. Lausen gives new insight into how a philanthropically inclined man of the 19th century purchases and donates fossils. Furthermore, when exhibited together, these two historical collections have complemented each other in such a way, that they apparently enhance the sum experience of the viewer. Revisiting old museum collections and reconstructing the stories that surround them may be a valuable endeavour. The P.W. Lund Collection and the V. Lausen Collection should not be forgotten in a storage facility as they hold great promises within several different fields of scientific research and for new museum exhibitions. This work may find use as a guide or tool for future curators and students of these and similar collections around the world. Dansk Statens Naturhistoriske Museum huser to store samlinger af subfossile knogler fra Sydamerika; P.W. Lunds Samling og V. Lausens Samling. Begge blev indsamlet i det 19. århundrede og opbevares i dag i museets magasiner. Mange andre europæiske museer opbevarer lignende samlinger. Ved at undersøge de to protagonisters personlige historier og ved at udføre en nøje gennemgang og sammenligning af de to samlinger, præsenteres der forslag til deres fremtidige udnyttelse. Der er blevet indsamlet data fra museets arkiver, breve, interviews og andre nyhedskilder. Fossilerne er blevet identificeret baseret på deres morfologi. Begge samlinger har et potentiale for yderligere videnskabelige undersøgelser. V. Lausens Samling med tre næsten ubeskrevne typeeksemplarer, samt muligheder for at udføre fossil DNA analyser på petrosa knoglerne hos flere arter af store uddøde pattedyr. I P.W. Lunds Samling er der mange uidentificerede småknogler og breccier. Denne afhandling afslører også gennem V. Lausens biografi, hvordan filantroper fra det 19. århundrede indkøbte og donerede naturhistoriske samlinger. Yderligere syntes der at være relativt store fordele ved at udstille komplementære samlinger som disse to sammen, idet dette tilsyneladende øger den samlede oplevelse hos den museumsbesøgende. At genbesøge ældre museale samlinger og rekonstruere historierne der omgiver disse kan være meget værdifuldt. P.W. Lunds Samling og V. Lausens samling bør således ikke blive glemt i museets magasiner, da de kan bruges konstruktivt i flere forskellige fremtidige forskningsprojekter og indgå i nye udstillinger. Denne afhandling kan bruges som ledetråd af fremtidens kuratorer samt studerende af disse samlinger. 2 Table of contents INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 5 MATERIALS & METHODS ................................................................................................. 7 P.W. LUND BIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................... 9 OVERALL DESCRIPTION OF THE P.W. LUND COLLECTION ...................................... 17 VALDEMAR LAUSEN BIOGRAPHY ................................................................................ 27 OVERALL DESCRIPTION OF THE V. LAUSEN COLLECTION ...................................... 45 THE RECENT HISTORY AND STATUS OF THE COLLECTIONS .................................. 59 COMPARISON/DISCUSSION ........................................................................................... 77 MOVING FORWARD......................................................................................................... 85 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................ 91 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................. 95 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................. 97 APPENDIX ...................................................................................................................... 103 3 4 Introduction The Natural History Museum of Denmark houses two relatively large subfossil vertebrate collections from South America of historical and scientific importance. The more famous of the two is the P.W. Lund Collection from Lagoa Santa, Brazil. The natural historian Peter Wilhelm Lund (1801-1880), excavated limestone caves, and, over the course of a 10-year period, collected and studied vast quantities of Late Pleistocene vertebrates which he eventually donated to King Christian VIII of Denmark. Lund’s personal history, as well as most of his scientific collection, has previously been studied in great detail. The collection itself includes almost 300 species of vertebrates and around 45 type specimens. The less well-known collection is Dr. Lausen’s. Valdemar Lausen (1834-1889) was a Danish medical doctor who worked and lived for most of his adult life in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He had a general interest in palaeontology and fossils, and acquired a substantial number of specimens from various “fossil collectors” during his time in Argentina. Some very impressive almost complete skeletons of ground sloths and glyptodonts, skulls of sabre-toothed cats and remains of rare Miocene mammals are among the highlights of this collection. Dr. Lausen also donated his entire collection, not to the King, but to Copenhagen University. Today, these two historical collections are kept in a storage facility at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, under Copenhagen University, in Denmark, except for a very small number of specimens currently on exhibition at the same museum and some on a loan to a museum in Brazil. As the collections are somewhat large, they take up a relatively large amount of storage space. The Lund Collection has around half a dozen scientific visitors on average each year, while the Lausen Collection has only one at most. In reality, less than 1% of the subfossil material from these collections has been studied or used in any other way in any given year since 1965. One could argue that keeping the collections safely tucked away in dimly-lit storage is a good way of preserving the, in some cases, very fragile fossils for the curiosity of future generations of mankind. But at the same time, it does seem somewhat unsatisfactory to keep so much hidden away, without even knowing precisely what is contained in the collections, both in regard to scientific and historical information. The aim of this research project was to compare these two collections that are of similar age and geographical origin, and the two people who have given name to them, as well as to attempt to assess the collections’ inherent values – not necessarily in monetary terms, but rather in the broader sense. This research should not only yield an overview and assess the status of the 5 collections, but also lay out future prospects for their possible uses (both scientific- and exhibition-wise), and, by extrapolation, potentially do so for similar collections in other museums. In order to draw an adequate comparison, it was first essential to accumulate as much information as possible on as many different aspects of both the collections and their donors. With regards to P.W. Lund’s personal life, this has previously been documented at great length and detail in his biography (Holten & Sterrl 2010), so only a brief résumé has been provided here. Lund’s Collection as a whole has also been previously dealt with, especially in E Museo Lundii (Winge 1888-1915), but also by many others. However, new quantitative and volumetric information