Type and Figured Palaeontological Specimens in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery A CATALOGUE Compiled by Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Don Squires Hobart, Tasmania Honorary Curator of Palaeontology May, 2012 Type and Figured Palaeontological Specimens in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery A CATALOGUE Compiled by Don Squires Honorary Curator of Palaeontology cover image: Trigonotreta stokesi Koenig 1825, the !rst described Australian fossil taxon occurs abundantly in its type locality in the Tamar Valley, Tasmania as external and internal moulds. The holotype, a wax cast, is housed at the British Museum (Natural History). (Clarke, 1979) Hobart, Tasmania May, 2012 Contents INTRODUCTION ..........................................1 VERTEBRATE PALAEONTOLOGY ...........122 PISCES .................................................. 122 INVERTEBRATE PALAEONTOLOGY ............9 AMPHIBIA .............................................. 123 NEOGENE ....................................................... 9 REPTILIA [SP?] ....................................... 126 MONOTREMATA .................................... 127 PLEISTOCENE ........................................... 9 MARSUPIALIA ........................................ 127 Gastropoda .......................................... 9 INCERTAE SEDIS ................................... 128 Ostracoda ........................................... 10 DESCRIBED AS A VERTEBRATE, MIOCENE ................................................. 14 PROBABLY A PLANT ............................. 129 bivalvia ................................................ 14 gastropoda ......................................... 21 BOTANICAL PALAEONTOLOGY ..............130 echinodermata .................................... 49 PLEISTOCENE ....................................... 130 PALEOZOIC .................................................. 50 MESOZOIC ................................................. 131 PERMIAN ................................................. 50 TRIASSIC ............................................... 140 conulariida .......................................... 49 PERMIAN ............................................... 146 brachiopoda ....................................... 50 Miscellaneous ................................... 146 bivalvia ................................................ 75 Non-Plant, Described as Plant .......... 146 gastropoda ......................................... 83 EUKARYOTA PALAEONTOLOGY ............148 crinoidea ............................................. 84 SILURIAN ................................................. 85 KINGDOM, PHYLUM UNCERTAIN .......... 148 brachiopoda ....................................... 85 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................149 cephalopoda ....................................... 86 trilobita ............................................... 87 INDEXES ..................................................158 echinodermata .................................... 88 ORDOVICIAN ........................................... 89 Index of Genera ................................ 158 brachiopoda ....................................... 89 Index of Species ............................... 161 gastropoda ......................................... 89 cephalopoda ....................................... 91 trilobita ............................................... 92 echinodermata .................................. 104 miscellaneous ................................... 104 CAMBRIAN ............................................ 103 trilobita ............................................. 105 dendroidea ....................................... 117 Introduction This is the second comprehensive catalogue of the type and !gured specimens held in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG). The !rst, prepared by Irene Crespin in 1964 1, included types and !gured specimens of all ages housed in the TMAG as well as those in the collections of the Geology Department, University of Tasmania, the Geological Survey of Tasmania of the Department of Mineral Resources Tasmania and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston. Three years later Nelly H. Ludbrook compiled a listing of the Tertiary molluscan types from Table Cape, Tasmania that included the !rst photographs of many of the Table Cape species 2. In the interim between these, Ross A. Both, Keeper of Geology 1961–66, made an internal listing of corrections and additions to Crespin’s list3. Crespin listed 94 primary or supplementary type specimens among the Tasmanian Museum collections she reviewed, a number which seemed to her to be disappointingly small. Both reported about 118 primary types including some not available to Crespin. Ludbrook listed and photographed 51 molluscan types from the Tasmanian Table Cape strata, 11 of which had not been seen by Crespin or Both. The Royal Society of Tasmania, founded in 1843 and the !rst to be established outside the United Kingdom, was created initially to administer the Colonial Gardens. It soon broadened its focus by establishing a Museum and Library. In 1852 the Royal Society Museum in Hobart was formalised to hold the society’s growing collections and to permit public viewing of those treasures. It was the second museum to be created in Australia but its !rst curator was not appointed until 1861. In 1885 the Parliament acted to vest the Tasmanian Museum and Botanical Gardens as public institutions with both becoming agencies of the State. In 1950 The Tasmanian Museum Act separated the Museum and Botanical Gardens by which time the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery had come to occupy a complex of buildings in central Hobart. In 2002 the over-crowded collection storage facilities in Hobart City were relieved by their movement to their present quarters in the Collections and Research Facility in Rosny, a suburb of Hobart.4 The early collections of the Tasmanian Museum were largely the product of the efforts of the members of the Royal Society in their explorations of the island and their travels. Absent institutions of higher education, its members were self-taught and bene!tted from the regular meetings of the Society where discussions of scienti!c matters occurred. Papers prepared by members were read at those meetings and published in the Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society, a continuing series commenced in 1849. Through the distribution of the Papers and Proceedings, the Society gained awareness throughout the western world and the Museum expanded its collections of Tasmanian natural history to include materials from other parts of the world. Large private collections of Royal Society stalwarts such as Dr. Joseph Milligan (a private physician and long-time Secretary of the Royal Society), Robert M. Johnston (State Statistician 1 Crespin, I. 1964. Catalogue of fossil type and !gured specimens in Tasmania. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics Report no. 69, 30 pp. 2 Ludbrook, NH 1967. Tertiary molluscan types from Table Cape in the Tasmanian Museum, Hobart. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society Tasmania, vol. 101, pp. 65–69, 4 pls. 3 Both, RA 1966. Fossil type and !gured specimens in Tasmanian Museum. 8 page typescript prepared March, 1966. Typed version dated April, 1966. Both also wrote the !rst modern Museum labels easily identi!ed by his use of blue ink. 4 I am indebted to Ms. Jo Huxley, TMAG for her knowledge of the history of the institution and its documents and documentation. See History of the Museum in Collection: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery 2007. For information on the Royal Society of Tasmania see “The Foundation Years of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 1843–86” by Gillian Winter, 1993, Papers and Proceddings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, v. 127 pp. 61–66. 1 and prodigious author of geological and paleontological subjects) Thomas A. Atkinson and others formed the core of the paleontological holdings of the museum. The Johnston collection was particularly massive, ranging through invertebrate, vertebrate and plant fossils of all ages. Twentieth Century investigations of Tasmanian palaeontology were greatly expanded by staff of the variously named Mineral Resources Tasmania and by students and faculty of the Geology Department, University of Tasmania. Collections made by those geologists have been deposited in both the TMAG and the University of Tasmania’s Department of Geology. Further growth of TMAG paleontological collections has been made by contributions of investigators from institutions outside Tasmania. This has resulted in a substantial increase in the numbers of types and !gured specimens since the earlier catalogues. For Australia and especially Tasmania, the early nineteenth century was one of a virtual outpouring of natural history writings as naturalists sought to bring order to a systematically virgin "ora and fauna and its fossil counterparts. Much of the earliest technical literature of these "oras and faunas was produced in England by taxonomists at the Natural History Museum in London and other museums who made identi!cations and described new taxa. Crespin (1964) prepared the comprehensive listing of those earlier studies as quoted here: “Amongst the early described species from Tasmania housed in the British Museum (Nat. History) are Palaeozoic brachiopods (Koenig, 1825), Tertiary corals from Table Cape (Duncan,1875) and freshwater mollusca (Etheridge, 1881). Also in that institution are fossil types collected by Darwin’s party during the voyage of the Beagle ...and by Strzelecki (1845). These included