British Wenlock Crinoids at the Western Australian Museum

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British Wenlock crinoids at the Western Australian Museum

Stephen K. Donovan1

DONOVAN, S.K. (2012). British Wenlock crinoids at the Western Australian Museum. Proceedings of the Shropshire Geological Society, 17, 12–16. A display of Silurian fossil corals, trilobites and crinoids in the Western Australian Museum, Perth, is comprised of specimens from the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation. These formed a part of the collection of James Tennant (1808-1881), a London mineral, fossil and shell dealer. Despite what is stated on the display label, most, if not all, specimens are likely to come from Dudley, not Shropshire. Most of the crinoids are referred to species described by John Phillips in 1839.

1Department of Geology, NCB – Naturalis, Postbus 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]

was unexpected was that they should form a prominent part of the display rather than be INTRODUCTION limited to the research collections. Travelling long distances and accidentally The display includes two slabs of Much bumping into old friends is one of life’s Wenlock Limestone Formation, each of about pleasures. I had never visited Australia until late 200 x 200 mm, bearing typical components of July 2012, and was looking forward to a few the Wenlock benthos such as brachiopods, days mixing business with pleasure. Thus it was bryozoans, trilobite fragments and crinoids that I found myself in the geology gallery, (Figure 1A). An explanatory label states that ‘Dinosaurs to diamonds’, of the Western “Specimens displayed here come from W.A. Australian Museum (WAM) in Perth by Museum’s Tennant Collection, and probably lunchtime on my first day. Despite the fine represent some of the earliest of these fossils displays of dinosaurs, rocks and minerals, and collected in the early 19th century.” James fossil marsupials, it was a glass cabinet of Tennant (1808-1881) was a dealer in minerals, Lower Palaeozoic fossils that caught my eye. fossils and shells whose shop was in London (Wilson, 2012); he was a fellow of the Geological Society and, in 1862-1863, president TENNANT’S WENLOCK CRINOIDS of the Geologists’ Association. The WAM’s Labelled ‘Life in a Shallow Sea 430 million Tennant Collection consists of specimens sent years ago’, this cabinet covered the common to Western Australia by the British Museum groups of Lower Palaeozoic invertebrates. The (Natural History) (Groves, 2010). centrepiece is a slab about 1.3 m long displaying Groups from the Wenlock that are some fine trilobites from China. Smaller slabs highlighted in this display include corals, of grey and (mainly) pink mudrocks from trilobites and crinoids. Rugose corals include Australia bear well-preserved graptolites. Three Omphyma turbinatum Haime, Omphyma more trilobites were Australian in origin. And subturbinatum (d’Orbigny), Kodonophyllum all other specimens on display in this cabinet truncatum (Linné) and Acervularia luxurians were from the Much Wenlock Limestone Eichwald. These are complemented by the Formation of Shropshire and Dudley. tabulate corals Syringopora bifurcata Lonsdale, This should not, perhaps, have surprised me. Favosites forbesi Milne-Edwards & Haime and In the 19th Century collections of well-preserved Halysites catenularius (Linné) (Figure 1B-E). Wenlock fossils from Dudley were sold to many The trilobites include Calymene blumenbachi museums around the world. For example, there Brongiart, Encrinurus punctatus (Wahlenberg), are collections that I have worked on in the Acidaspis brightii Murchison and Bumastus National Museum of Natural History, barriensis Murchison (Figure 1F-H). Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and But of particular interest to me were the my home institution, Naturalis in Leiden. What crinoids, which, recently, have been mono-

BRITISH WENLOCK CRINOIDS

Figure 1. Silurian fossils of the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation on display in the Western Australian Museum, Perth. (A) ‘Block of Wenlock Limestone containing trilobites, brachiopods, bryozoans and crinoids’ (specimen label). Block c. 200 mm wide. (B, C) Solitary rugose corals. (B) Omphyma turbinatum Haime. (C) Omphyma subturbinatum (d’Orbigny). (D, E) Tabulate corals. (D) Favosites forbesi Milne-Edwards & Haime, polished section. (E) Syringopora bifurcata Lonsdale. (F-H) Trilobites. (F, H) Calymene blumenbachi Brongiart. (F) Enrolled. (H) Dorsal view. (G) Bumastus barriensis Murchison, dorsal view..

-graphed as part of a study of the larger British are five species on display in the WAM, that is, Silurian echinoderm fauna (Lewis et al., 2007; about 8% of the specific diversity; as each Donovan et al., 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012). belongs to a different genus, this is about a Despite the display label stating “One of the seventh of the 35 genera known from Dudley classic localities for fossils of this age is the (Donovan et al., 2012, table 8). Wenlock Limestone of Shropshire, England”, Of the three major crinoid groups in the there is little doubt that the well-preserved Silurian of the British Isles, the disparids are not trilobites and crinoids, at least, are from Dudley represented. However, these are typically small rather than Wenlock Edge. Currently there are and not really well suited to public display; about 60 nominal species of crinoid known from interestingly, none were recognised in the the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation. There earliest monograph on the British Silurian

S.K. DONOVAN

Figure 2. Silurian crinoids of the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation on display in the Western Australian Museum, Perth. (A, E) The monobathrid camerate Periechocrinus costatus (Austin & Austin). (B) The cyathocrinid cladid Cyathocrinites monile Salter. (C) The diplobathrid camerate Dimerocrinites decadactylus Phillips. (D) The flexible cladid Sagenocrinites expansus (Phillips). (F) The cyathocrinid cladid Gissocrinus goniodactylus (Phillips).

crinoids (Phillips, 1839). Cladids include the expansus (Phillips) (Figure 2B, D, F). cyathocrinids Cyathocrinites monile Salter Camerates are the diplobathrid Dimerocrinites (labelled as the junior synonym C. actinotubus decadactylus Phillips and the monobathrid Angelin) and Gissocrinus goniodactylus Periechocrinus costatus (Austin & Austin) (Phillips), and the flexible Sagenocrinites (labelled as Periechocrinites moniliformis; for a

BRITISH WENLOCK CRINOIDS full discussion of the invalidity of this name, see Donovan, S.K. (2009). John Phillips and the Donovan & Riley, 2011; Donovan et al., 2012); British Silurian Crinoidea: 170 years of one specimen is mislabelled Eucalyptocrinites monographic endeavour. Proceedings of the decorus (Phillips) (Figures 2A, C, E). Yorkshire Geological Society, 57, 155-164. Above I compared the diversity of the Donovan, S.K., Lewis, D.N., Crabb, P. & crinoids in this display with what we know of Widdison, R.E. (2008). A field guide to the the crinoids of the Much Wenlock Limestone Silurian Echinodermata of the British Isles: Formation at the present day. However, this was Part 2 - Crinoidea, minor groups and perhaps the wrong assessment to make. Rather, discussion. Proceedings of the Yorkshire how do these five species relate to those known Geological Society, 57, 29-60. at the time of the death of James Tennant in Donovan, S.K., Lewis, D.N., Fearnhead, F.E. & 1881? The only monograph of the British Widdison, R.E. (2009). The British Silurian Silurian crinoids was Phillips (1839). Before Crinoidea. Part 1, introduction and Disparida. 1881, the most important taxonomic additions Monographs of the Palaeontographical were by Salter (1873) and Angelin (1878), the Society, London, 163 (632), 1-45. latter including some taxa common to both Donovan, S.K. & Riley, M. (2011). What's in a Gotland and Dudley. Phillips described fourteen (wrong) name? Thoughts on the true utility species (Donovan, 2009), to which Salter added of electronic museum catalogues. The 20 and Angelin six taxa (Donovan et al., 2009, Geological Curator, 9, 357-362. 2010, 2012). Donovan, S.K., Widdison, R.E., Lewis, D.N. & Not all of Salter’s species had been Fearnhead, F.E. (2010). The British Silurian adequately illustrated (if at all) by 1881, but, Crinoidea. Part 2, addendum to Part 1 and nevertheless, about 40 species were recognised Cladida. Monograph of the in total, that is, about two thirds of those known Palaeontographical Society, London, 164 at the present day. But of the five species (635), 47-133. displayed in the WAM, four are either Phillips Donovan, S.K., Widdison, R.E., Lewis, D.N. & species, or, in the example of Periechocrinus Fearnhead, F.E. (2012, in press). The British costatus, was renamed soon after 1839 (Austin Silurian Crinoidea. Part 3, addendum to parts & Austin, 1843). Phillips’s species were the first 1 and 2, Camerata and columnals. to be described and named, including just three Monograph of the Palaeontographical after Miller (1821; see Donovan, 2009), and Society, London, 166. might be considered the commonest taxa. The Groves, W. (2010). Geobabble. Black Country make-up of Tennant’s collection seems to Geological Society Newsletter, 203, p. 14. support this; none of the displayed species are Lewis, D.N., Donovan, S.K., Crabb, P. & referable to later species. Gladwell, D.J. (2007). A field guide to the Silurian Echinodermata of the British Isles: Part 1 - Eleutherozoa and Rhombifera. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Scripta Geologica, 134, 27-59. My trip to Perth was supported by Curtin University of Miller, J.S. (1821). A natural history of the Technology, Bently, which I gratefully acknowledge. The Crinoidea or lily-shaped animals, with Western Australian Museum, Perth, is congratulated for having such a stimulating palaeontological display. observations on the genera Asteria, Eurayle, Comatula and Marsupites. C. Frost, Bristol, 150 pp. REFERENCES Phillips, J. (1839). Organic remains. In: The Silurian System, part 2 (R.I. Murchison), pp. Angelin, N.P. (1878). Iconographia 670-675. John Murray, London. crinoideorum in Stratis Sueciae Siluricus Salter, J.W. (1873). A catalogue of the fossilium. Holmiae, iv+62 pp. collection of Cambrian and Silurian fossils Austin, T., & Austin, T., Jr. (1843). Description contained in the Geological Museum of the of several new genera and species of University of Cambridge. Cambridge Crinoidea. Annals and Magazine of Natural University Press, Cambridge, xlviii+204 pp. History (series 1), 11, 195-207.

S.K. DONOVAN

Wilson, W.E. (2012). James Tennant (1808- 1881). Mineralogical Record Biographical Archive, 3 pp. www.mineralogicalrecord.com. Accessed 11 September 2012.

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