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Issue 3 November, 2018 ______ __________The Paleontograph________ A newsletter for those interested in all aspects of Paleontology Volume 7 Issue 3 November, 2018 _________________________________________________________________ From Your Editor Welcome to our latest edition. I've decided to produce a special edition. Since the holidays are just around the corner and books make great gifts, I thought a special book review edition might be nice. Bob writes wonderful, deep reviews of the many titles he reads. Reviews usually bring a wealth of knowledge about the book topic as well as an actual review of the work. I will soon come out with a standard edition filled with articles about specific paleo related topics and news. The Paleontograph was created in 2012 to continue what was originally the newsletter of The New Jersey Paleontological Society. The Paleontograph publishes articles, book reviews, personal accounts, and anything else that relates to Paleontology and fossils. Feel free to submit both technical and non-technical work. We try to appeal to a wide range of people interested in fossils. Articles about localities, specific types of fossils, fossil preparation, shows or events, museum displays, field trips, websites are all welcome. This newsletter is meant to be one by and for the readers. Issues will come out when there is enough content to fill an issue. I encourage all to submit contributions. It will be interesting, informative and fun to read. It can become whatever the readers and contributors want it to be, so it will be a work in progress. TC, January 2012 Edited by Tom Caggiano and distributed at no charge [email protected] PALEONTOGRAPH Volume 7 Issue 3 November 2018 Page 2 Patrons of Paleontology--A Review As you might expect from the chapter titles, this is a Bob Sheridan October 14, 2017 fairly specialized book, which is tilted more toward history than science in general, and then very concerned with large illustrated publications about fossils. “Patrons of Paleontology” covers the time before it was widely appreciated that fossils were the remains of ancient life (say about 1700) to fairly recent times. One can summarize this history fairly succinctly. Early on, paleontology was supported by rich aristocrats, when it was fashionable for powerful men to support the “arts” or “scholarship.” (This is a liberal interpretation of the word “government”.) In the period 1800-1900, when geology was first being established as a science (in England) and when the continental United States was being explored, geological surveys sponsored by the crown or federal government, respectively, were the main source of support. The famous rivals Edward Drinker Cope and O.C. Marsh, for example, greatly benefited from such surveys in the late 19th century. Nowadays, paleontology is supported mostly through government grants to universities. Having support allowed paleontology to go from a gentleman’s hobby of collecting curiosities to a real science. Indiana University Press produces the “Life of the Past” series, edited by paleontologist James O. On this journey we do meet most of the giants of Farlow. There are several dozen books in that paleontology. I will mention just a two examples from series by now, some very specific, and some very the early days, which I think are probably the least general. The latest is “Patrons of Paleontology” by familiar, and the most interesting because this was Jane P. Davidson. The author is a professor of art before fossils were distinguished from rocks or other history at the University of Nevada, Reno. She has things of non-living origin. Michele Mercati (1541- written at least two other books on paleontology: 1593) served as physician to seven popes, but he “The Bone Sharp” (1997), which is a biography of also acted as a naturalist and curator of the Edward Drinker Cope, and “A History of Vatican’s natural history collection and botanical Paleontology Illustration” (2007), also in the “Life of gardens. He compiled a large set of descriptions for the Past” series, which I reviewed for the specimens and had copper plates fashioned by artist Paleontograph at the time. Anthoni Eisenhout for an illustrated book. The manuscript was lost after his death, but rediscovered “Patrons of Paleontology” is divided into 6 chapters: and published as “Metallotheca” (minerals) in 1717, 120 years later. In this book are exquisitely illustrated “formed stones”: belemnites, ammonites, 1. The beginnings of government support for echinoids, gastropods, shark teeth, etc.. Robert Plot paleontology. published a large survey called “The Natural History 2. 18th century and early 19th century support of Oxfordshire” (1676). It includes many pictures of for paleontologists and patrons. curious objects, some of which we recognize as 3. Developments in government support for fossils. paleontology in the United States between 1830 and about 1880. 4. Paleontology in the mid-19th century surveys outside the United States. 5. Government support for paleontology in the late 19th century and the turn of the 20th century: 1880 to about 1940. 6. Conclusion PALEONTOGRAPH Volume 7 Issue 3 November 2018 Page 3 Patrons Cont'd Resurrecting the Shark--A Review Among them is what we now recognize as the distal end of the femur of the dinosaur Megalosaurus (the Bob Sheridan December 18, 2017 first illustration of a dinosaur bone), and Plot did recognize that it was probably a bone fragment, Helicoprion (“spiral saw”) is problematical fossil from although in the book the specimen was labelled the Permian (~290 Myr.), that has been “solved” “scrotum humanum” because of its shape. very recently. The original fossils appeared as a two- dimensional logarithmic spiral (up to 4 turns) This book is fairly well illustrated, for the most part apparently composed of outward-pointing shark drawings of fossils from the 19th century and before, teeth, with the smallest teeth at the center of the plus some sketches by artists on field expeditions. A spiral. The teeth show no signs of wear. Some useful appendix contains short biographies for about spirals, or “tooth whorls” as they are sometimes a hundred paleontologists and artists from antiquity called, are only a few inches in diameter, some are to the early 20th century. as wide as two feet. Helicoprion fossils are found in marine deposits world-wide. Currently three different There are two curious mistakes toward the end of species are recognized. this book, which is consistent with the author not having a paleontological background. One is a mention of the NOVA program “The Four-Winged Dinosaur,” which the author says was about Mononychus, whereas the program was about Microraptor. In the short biography section “lagerstatten” is defined as “a massive burial site of a large group of the same species.” I think the author meant “monospecific bone bed.” Books in the “Life of the Past” series seldom disappoint. However, despite the fact that I am a student of the history of science and I appreciate paleoart, I find the two books in the series written by Clearly Helicoprion represents part of a shark-like Jane P. Davidson (“A History of Paleontological animal, but which part? This turns out to be a Illustration” and the current “Patrons of surprisingly difficult question to answer. Since sharks Paleontology”) not particularly to my liking. Perhaps I have cartilaginous skeletons, only the jaws and teeth want more science with my art history. However, I are preserved as fossils and we have no idea of how did like “The Bone Sharp” since Edward Drinker those related to the rest of the animal. Shark skin is Cope is one of my scientific heroes. often covered in tooth-like structures, so one cannot conclude that something that looks like a tooth is Sources: necessarily from the mouth. Paleozoic sharks were very diverse and had a wide variety of elaborate Davidson, J.P. dorsal spines, crests, fins, etc. Also, how their tooth “Patrons of Paleontology. rows were arranged and how the teeth were shaped How government support shaped a science.” 2017, were also sometimes very different from modern Indiana University Press, Bloomington IN, 232 sharks. So since Helicoprion was first discovered in pages $40 (hardcover) 1890’s, almost every possible suggestion has been made for the location of the tooth whorl (some more than once): lower jaw, upper jaw, dorsal fin, tail, back of the throat, nose, etc., and all seemed equally plausible given the information at the time. The observation of similar sharks like Ornithoprion (from the Carboniferous) in the 1960s suggested that the tooth whorl was in the lower jaw of Helicoprion and that the jaw was short, no longer than the diameter of the whorl. Cont'd PALEONTOGRAPH Volume 7 Issue 3 November 2018 Page 4 Resurrection Cont'd Today we recognize a whole group of extinct “whorl tooth” cartilaginous fishes called the The breakthrough came in 2012 when a large Eugeneodontida (“true origin teeth”), which is further specimen of Helicoprion at the Idaho Museum of divided into two families Helicoprionidae (“spiral Natural History (IMNH 37899) was CT-scanned. The saws”--named after Helicoprian) and Edestidae cartilaginous parts of the skull were visible and this (“those that devour”--named after Edestus). Their puts the tooth whorl in context relative to the rest of closest living relatives are the ratfish. the head. The cartilaginous “nose” is elongated, so Helicoprion probably had an appearance close to All of the above is to put into context the new book I that of a modern shark. Now that we know the size am reviewing today: “Resurrecting the Shark”. The of the head, we can estimate the size of the entire author, Susan Ewing, is a free-lance writer with Idaho Helicoprion as about that of a modern great several dozen books and articles to her credit, of white shark.
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