María Consuelo Sendino Lara

An extensive sample of well-preserved conulariids from the Pennsylvanian of the North American Midcontinent (Texas and Oklahoma, USA) have been studied using X-ray micro-Computed Tomography (µCT) and have shown structures identified as longitudinal muscle bundles and a potential gastric cavity. These unequivocal structures appear in several specimens coming from different sites. Their preservation varies from a gastric cavity with muscle bundles in some individuals to only longitudinal muscle bundles in others. The muscle bundles fuse apically or medially, normally forming V-shaped pairs, and they extend along the theca/exoskeleton, parallel to the corner, towards the aperture. Longitudinal bundles have predominant perradial positions. Although there have been some articles on conulariid soft parts, most of them refer to relic soft parts. This is the first time that these structures are shown using µCT. Discovery of conulariid soft parts contributes to knowledge of metazoan evolutio...

ABSTRACTIncreasing current interest in sponge fossils includes numerous reports of diverse vermicular and peloidal structures interpreted as keratose sponges in Neoproterozoic to Mesozoic carbonates and in various open marine to peritidal and restricted settings. Reports of their occurrence are fundamental and far-reaching for understanding microfacies and diagenesis where they occur; and fossil biotic assemblages, as well as wider aspects of origins of animals, sponge evolution/ecology and the systemic recovery from mass extinctions. Keratose sponges: 1) have elaborate spongin skeletons but no spicules, thus lack mineral parts and therefore have poor preservation potential so that determining their presence in rocks requires interpretation; and 2) are presented in publications as interpreted fossil structures almost entirely in two-dimensional (thin section) studies, where structures claimed as sponges comprise diverse layered, network, particulate and amalgamated fabrics involving...

This paper presents a quantitative and detailed description of the Fossil Lithistida Collection in the Natural History Museum, London. This collection started to be built with the first fossil sponges from the Cretaceous of Wiltshire, collected by William Smith in 1816 and 1818 for the first geological map of England. The latest specimen to enter the collection was collected from the Permo-Carboniferous of Norway by Angela Milner, a researcher at the Museum, in 2000. Although they are mostly from the Cretaceous of England, lithistids are represented from the Cambrian to Cenozoic of England. This makes this collection key for studying this group. Lithistid study will help with understanding of biosilicification evolution in sponges to unlock the changing patterns in the silica cycle in the oceans through geological time. A dataset with information about all the Fossil Lithistida Collection is available through the NHM Data Portal and Suppl. material 1. This dataset includes taxonomic...

The present work describes the collection of conulariids in the Natural History Museum, London, with sections on the history of the collection, its stratigraphic and geographical distribution, and its taxonomic diversity and abundance. Determinations of 753 out of 1131 specimens in the collection have been revised and all associated information has been catalogued. We conclude that this is the most important collection of conulariids, scyphozoan cnidarians with conical, phosphatic skeletons, in the world.

This dataset contains a selection of reliable data from the main Late Miocene and Early Pliocene marine sites of paleontological and paleoclimatic interest from the Canary Islands, Spain. There are three sections: (1) Topographical location of the selected sites, in terms of UTM coordinates and heights (m), above present sea level (APSL); (2) geology and radiometric ages, including a short geological description of the marine deposits, their radiometric ages and dating methods; (3) paleontology and paleoclimate, with a summary of the main fossil fauna, species and/or subspecies, collected from the sites and properly classified in accordance with the systematic paleontology; and an interpretation of the paleoclimatic conditions at the time the fossils lived and were deposited. Moreover, when available, values of SST (Sea Surface Temperature) have been also calculated (or estimated). Each section is presented with their available scientific source(s).

This data set contains a selection of reliable data from the main MIS (Marine Isotope Stage) 11 marine sites of paleontological and paleoclimatic interest from the Canary Islands, Spain. There are three sections: (1) Topographical Location of the selected sites, in terms of UTM coordinates and Heights (m), above the present medium sea level (a.p.s.l.); (2) Geology and Radiometric ages, including a short geological description of the marine deposits, their radiometric ages and dating methods; (3) Paleontology and Paleoclimate, with a summary of the main fossil fauna, species and/or subspecies, collected from the sites and properly classified in accordance with the Systematic Paleontology; and an interpretation of the paleoclimatic conditions at the time the fossils lived and were deposited. Moreover, when available, values of SST (Sea Surface Temperature) have been also calculated (or estimated). Each section is presented with their available scientific source(s).

This data set contains a selection of reliable data from the main Holocene marine sites of paleontological and paleoclimatic interest from the Canary Islands, Spain. There are three sections: (1) Topographical Location of the selected sites, in terms of UTM coordinates and heights (m), above the present medium sea level (a.p.s.l.); (2) Geology and Radiocarbon ages, including a short geological description of the marine deposits and their conventional and calibrated ages; (3) paleontology and paleoclimate, with a summary of the main fossil fauna, species and/or subspecies, collected from the sites and properly classified in accordance with the systematic paleontology; and an interpretation of the paleoclimatic conditions at the time the fossils lived and were deposited. Moreover, when available, values of SST (Sea Surface Temperature) have been also calculated (or estimated). Each section is presented with their available scientific source(s).<br>

FIG. 6. — Reworked Ordovician conulariids from the Triassic Budleigh Salterton Pebble Beds Formation, Devon: A, B, Metaconularia? pyramidata (Bronn, 1837) (NHMUK PI G15294); C, D, conulariid indet. (NHMUK PI G15295); E, F, part and counterpart of conulariid indet., probably a juvenile individual of M.? pyramidata (NHMUK PI G15287); G, fragment of M.? pyramidata (NHMUK PI G15288); H, I, conulariid indet., probably a juvenile individual of M.? pyramidata (NHMUK PI G15289); J, K, conulariid indet., probably a juvenile individual of M.? pyramidata (NHMUK PI G15290); L, conulariid indet. (NHMUK PI G15291); M, conulariid indet., probably a juvenile individual of M.? pyramidata (NHMUK PI G15292); N, O, M.? pyramidata (Bronn, 1837) (NHMUK PI G15293). Scale bars: 10 mm.

ABSTRACT Recommended reference to this publication: Kershaw, S., Da Silva, A.-C. & Sendino, C. 2021. British Silurian stromatoporoids. Fauna, palaeobiology, and palaeogeographical significance. Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society, London: 1-92; pls 1-22. (Publ. No. 660, part of Vol. 175 for 2021.) British Silurian stromatoporoids occur in carbonate rocks, mostly in the Wenlock Series, together with a small number in the Llandovery Series and very few in the Ludlow Series. Using field and museum material (408 samples) and literature, this study identifies 15 stromatoporoid genera, doubling the previously known generic diversity, so the British Isles holds the third highest genera-diversity Wenlock assemblage after Gotland/Estonia (23 genera) and the Siberian Platform (20 genera). Remarkably, nearly all samples come from the small (100 × 100 km) Much Wenlock Limestone Formation (MWLF) (Homerian Stage, uppermost Wenlock Series) in the Midland Platform of central England (Avalonia), surrounded, underlain, and overlain by siliciclastics. On the Midland Platform one sample is Llandovery age; 11 samples are Ludlow age (Aymestry Limestone). Other samples from the Isle of Man (Wenlock age, six samples) and south-west Scotland (Llandovery age, three samples) are in transported material, with associated corals and they indicate unpreserved carbonate platforms in northern Britain. A few Llandovery Series stromatoporoids are also reported from Ireland, both north and south of the Iapetus Suture; published reports of Wenlock stromatoporoids from Ireland are shown to be misidentified trace fossils. In the MWLF stromatoporoids (together with the more abundant rugose corals, tabulates, heliolitids, and some microbial carbonates) occur in small patch reefs and in bedded bioclastic grainstones, packstones, and nodular wackestones; stromatoporoids are more common in and near patch reefs. The MWLF stromatoporoid fauna has 15 confirmed low-level taxa: Labechia conferta (Lc), Lophiostroma schmidti (Ls), Ecclimadictyon macrotuberculatum (Em) and E. astrolaxum (Ea), Petridiostroma simplex (Ps) and P. linnarssoni (Pl), Actinostromella vaiverensis (Av), Araneosustroma fistulosum (Af), Densastroma pexisum (Dp), Plectostroma intertextum (Pi), Simplexodictyon yavorskyi (Sy), Eostromatopora impexa (Ei), ‘Stromatopora’ venukovi (‘S’v), Syringostromella borealis (Sb) and Parallelostroma typicum (Pt). No new taxa were found. The five most abundant taxa (Lc, Av, Dp, Px, and Sb) total 230 specimens, 64.2% of the MWLF assemblage, consistent with taxa proportions in other Palaeozoic stromatoporoid assemblages. The stromatoporoids have limited growth forms: Lc grew laminar frames, mostly in patch reefs; the other taxa range from laminar to high domical, maximum sizes around 40 cm basal diameter. They almost completely lack the complexities and diversities of form of their contemporaries in nearby large carbonate platforms of Baltica (Gotland/Estonia) and Laurentia (eastern USA and Canada); only two samples contain intergrown corals. Overall, British Silurian stromatoporoids may be viewed as a relatively limited shallow marine assemblage that took advantage of suitable conditions in a short time-and-space window in an episode of raised sea level with low siliciclastic input. The MWLF has the largest assemblage in the Avalonia microcontinent at the end of the Wenlock Epoch. Palaeogeographically, the Avalonia assemblage of stromatoporoids lay in an important location between Laurentia, Baltica and other Silurian continents and may have aided distribution pathways of stromatoporoids that presumably had planktonic forms for migration. Stromatoporoids were likely not affected by the mid-Silurian extinction event, but data are insufficient to be certain. Les stromatoporoïdes de Silurien de Grande-Bretagne. Faunes, paléobiologie et signification paléogéographique

FIG. 4. — Metaconularia? pyramidata (Bronn, 1837) from the Upper Ordovician Grès de May of May-sur-Orne, Normandy: Harvard, Bronn collection: A-D, lectotype, MCZ16028; E-H, plaster cast, MCZ16029; I, J, plaster cast MCZ (no number). Scale bars: 10 mm.

FIG. 2. — Locations of Budleigh Salterton (Devon) and May-sur-Orne (Normandy), with the approximate position of the Rheic Suture between the palaeocontinents of Avalonia and Gondwana. Both localities yield Metaconularia? pyramidata (Bronn, 1837): indigenous examples occur in the Upper Ordovician Grès de May of May-sur-Orne, while reworked fossils occur in the Triassic Budleigh Salterton Pebble Beds Formation of Budleigh Salterton.

There are three historical collections in the Palaeontology which have great importance for the history of the NHM. These are the Sloane, K\xf6nig and Pennant Collections. Over 100 specimens belong to the Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) Collection. The collection of Carl Dietrich Eberhard K\xf6nig (1774-1851), first Keeper of the Department of Natural History and Modern Curiosities, numbers about 50 specimens, described in Icones fossilium sectiles (1825). Finally, there is the collection of Thomas Pennant (1726-1798), an 18th century zoologist, antiquarian and correspondent of Gilbert White, which was donated in 1912 by the Earl of Denbigh. This comprises about 1000 specimens, some of which were described in Pennant\u2019s manuscript Reliquiae Diluviannae, or a Catalogue of such bodies as were deposited in the Earth by the Deluge. Specimens in these collections are an invaluable resource for historical research and are the founding core of the British Museum and later The Natural History Museum. They mark the progress of early palaeontological exploration. Each collection contains fossils belonging to various groups, including molluscs, echinoderms, brachiopods, sponges, bryozoans, arthropods, fishes, reptiles, mammals and plants.

This article provides updated information about the Porifera Collection at The Natural History Museum (NHM), London. With very little information available regarding fossil sponge digitization or any similar initiative, this paper covers the type and figured specimens and drawer label content data of the Porifera Collection and also describes the collection and its research potential. With approximately 71,000 specimens, of which more than 60% are Mesozoic, the NHM holdings offer the best Mesozoic sponge collection in the world and one of the most important due to its breadth and depth. The Porifera Collection covers all stratigraphic periods and all taxonomic groups and includes almost 3000 cited and figured specimens including types. Although most of the specimens come from the British Isles, worldwide samples are also present, with abundant specimens from other Commonwealth countries and from Antarctica.

En este trabajo se sintetiza el registro estratigrafi co de los conularidos (Familia Conulariidae Walcott, 1886, Orden Conulariida Miller & Gurley, 1896, Phylum Cnidaria Hatschek, 1888) de Gondwana para mostrar la importancia estratigrafica de estos organismos fosiles. Se ha elaborado una base de datos documental que permite identificar los periodos y epocas en los que los conularidos se diversifican mas y en los que son mas abundantes. [ABSTRACT] In this work it is synthesized the stratigraphical record of conulariids (Family Conulariidae Walcott, 1886, Order Conulariida Miller & Gurley, 1896, Phylum Cnidaria Hatschek, 1888) of Gondwana to show the stratigraphical importance of these fossil organisms. A documental database has been elaborated and it allows to identify the periods and epochs in which conulariids are more diversifi ed and more abundant.

Abstract A new bioclaustration structure is described from the Emsian (Lower Devonian) Aguion Formation of Asturias, NW Spain. It is the result of intergrowth of two bryozoan species, Leioclema elegans and Loxophragma cf. leptum, hosting an unknown soft-bodied modular symbiont. These structures point to the development of host-specific symbiotic associations in which both partners grew simultaneously. The association is tentatively assessed as commensalism; no evidence suggesting parasitism or mutualism has been found. A revision of the existing literature on Devonian bryozoans reveals that tubular structures similar to those described herein have been observed in different regions of the world. Only a few trepostome genera developed this kind of association during the Devonian, and Leioclema seems to have been a suitable partner in intergrowths with a range of soft-bodied and skeletonized organisms. It is suggested that the association described herein was relatively common during the Devonian and that molecular factors such as chemical mediation may have played a role in conducting the development of these specific intergrowths.

This paper describes the current status and the future outlook for KE EMu, a system for museum collection documentation and management that is capable of monitoring collections and exporting data to websites. Although KE EMu is a collections management system for all museums and collections, it has great potential for natural history collections, especially geological collections that have been relatively neglected. KE EMu Software has been active in supporting efforts to standardize documentation, encompassing all kinds of information (e.g., images, bibliography, exhibition history) that are associated with the item and its management.

The Carboniferous–Permian bryozoan Archimedes (Order Fenestrata) has characteristic screw-like axes from which a typical fenestellid meshwork radiated during life. Thickly calcified Archimedes screws broken into length of a few centimetres are commonly at outcrops collected minus the meshwork. Screws can be either sinistral or dextral, respectively coiling in an anticlockwise or clockwise direction with distal growth. Here we investigate Archimedes chirality in order to establish whether there is any preference for sinistral or dextral screws in samples from particular localities and also in composite collections from multiple localities. While the composite collections revealed no predominance of one coiling direction over the other, two of the seven locality samples showed a statistically significant dominance of sinistral over dextral screws. The two samples with a dominance of sinistral screws may be either statistical artefacts or due to the fragmentation of long sinistral screws. There is no evidence for a biological preference for one coiling direction over the other in Archimedes and it is known that individual colonies may contain both sinistral and dextral screws.

Este trabajo recoge la revision taxonomica de la coleccion de conularidos (Scyphozoa) del Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC). Esta coleccion esta formada basicamente por muestras ordovicicas del Parque Nacional de Cabaneros (Castilla-La Mancha). Se han redeterminado y analizado quimicamente los ejemplares, con lo que algunos de los mismos se han excluido del grupo.

Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875) is one of the most important geologists of all time and was the pioneer of the principle of uniformitarianism. He was able to see that the present is the key to the past and that the geological processes that have shaped the Earth are not the consequence of catastrophes but routine processes we can observe today.\r\n\r\nThe Lyell Collection contains 1,735 specimens including fossils of reptiles, mammals, fishes, plants, bryozoans, brachiopods, trilobites, echinoderms, worms and molluscs, being the last ones the biggest part of the collection. Other specimens that are in these collections are the recent brachiopods that Charles Darwin (1809 \u2013 1882) collected from Tierra del Fuego or Galapagos during his trip on board of the Beagle and later gave to Charles Lyell. There are also 13 specimens more that were probably collected by Lyell. Although these ones do not have any label with them, some have numbers glued with similar handwriting to that of Charles Lyell.\r\n\r\nLyell Collection was constantly increasing by collection, purchase, exchange and gift. \r\n\r\nCharles Lyell\u2019s specimens came to the NHM (Natural History Museum) through different sources. Most of them were donated by Charles Lyell during his life in different dates, but others were given to the Geological Society and posteriorly this transferred them to the NHM in 1911. Also Leonard Lyell (1850 \u2013 1926), Charles Lyell\u2019s nephew, and other heirs, such as Sophie Mary Lyell (born Trafford) (1916-2012), 2nd Baron Lyell\u2019s wife, donated more specimens after Charles Lyell\u2019s death, in 1913 and 1980.\r\n\r\nThe last acquisition of Lyell\u2019s specimens came in 1980 donated by Lady Lyell, Sophie Mary Lyell, who gave a shark tooth, Carcharodon angustidens, Agassiz, 1843 (specimen with the registration number NHMUK PV P 60903). \r\nThis collection keeps very interesting specimens, not only from the scientific and taxonomic nature of the item, but also striking samples. Charles Lyell was interested in coll [...]

Con el presente trabajo se pretende avanzar en el conocimiento de los conularidos, para lo cual se ha accedido a una de las mayores colecciones del mundo y la mas diversa de todas: la coleccion de conularidos de The Natural History Museum de Londres. Dicha coleccion abarca 165 yacimientos entre el Reino Unido y 20 paises mas, con una distribucion estratigrafica que va desde el Cambrico Superior hasta el Triasico Superior. Se han estudiado sistematicamente 43 especies repartidas en ocho generos, que incluyen 753 ejemplares de los 1.131 especimenes de los que consta la coleccion. Se ha analizado su distribucion estratigrafica, se ha dado un cuadro sistematico acorde a los estudios actuales, se ha estudiado su morfologia, y se ha propuesto una terminologia morfologica en espanol, ademas de estudiar sus afinidades biologicas que los aproximan a los cnidarios escifozoos Se ha hecho una recopilacion historica de su estudio, desde 1793 hasta la actualidad, en la que se pueden observar cuat...

A conulariid preserved in three dimensions from Ordovician fluvioglacial erratics of the Northern European Lowlands (North German Plain) is described under open nomenclature. It is assigned to the genus Conularia with similarities to Baltoscandian conulariids. The lithology of the erratic boulder and fauna contained in it provide important information on the origin and transport direction of the sediment preserved in a kame from the Saalian glaciation. This paper deals with the site of origin of the boulder in Baltoscandia analysing the comprised palaeofauna, from a palaeostratigraphic and palaeogeographic point of view, from its deposition in Ordovician times until its arrival at its current location in the Late Pleistocene. It also reveals for the first time the internal structure of the conulariid aperture.

A fascination with natural history does not recognize class, as is shown through the activities of female aristocrats who, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, contributed significantly by increasing the number of collections at natural history museums. These women were not members of the Geological Society of London because, at that time, women were not even allowed to be members, but they still left their impressive legacy in museums. This paper will focus on three women who made extensive collections that are now incorporated into British museums. The first of these, the Duchess of Portland, made one of the finest collections in England and, possibly, the best collection of shells and fossils in Europe of her time, which was later acquired by the Natural History Museum, London. She was followed by the Countess of Aylesford who made one of the most important mineral collections of her time, which is now at the Natural History Museum, London. Finally, Baroness Brassey co...

Our attraction to fossils is almost as old as humans themselves, and the way fossils are represented has changed and evolved with technology and with our knowledge of these organisms. Invertebrates were the first fossils to be represented in books and illustrated according to their original form. The first worldwide illustrations of paleoinvertebrates by recognized authors, such as Christophorus Encelius and Conrad Gessner, considered only their general shape. Over time, paleoillustrations became more accurate and showed the position of organisms when they were alive and as they had appeared when found. Encyclopedic works such as those of the Sowerbys or Joachim Barrande have left an important legacy on fossil invertebrates, summarizing the knowledge of their time. Currently, new discoveries, techniques, and comparison with extant specimens are changing the way in which the same organisms are shown in life position, with previously overlooked taxonomically important elements being d...

It is proposed that an isopod species from the Cretaceous of Japan, belonging to the genus from the Cretaceous of Japan, belonging to the genus Palaega (P. yamadai), is included in the genus Ferreniscus described in the Triassic of the Iberian Peninsula, after a careful study of its features: pleotelson with carina, and general shape.

This paper provides a quantitative and general description of the Lyell Collection kept in the Department of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum of London. This collection started to be built by the eminent British geologist Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875) in 1846 when the first specimen reached the Museum. The last one entered in 1980 donated by one of Lyell’s heirs. There are more than 1700 specimens, mainly hand specimens with 93% of the fauna and flora from the Cenozoic of the Macaronesian archipelagos of the Canaries and Madeira. Those specimens that belong to the Lyell Collection with certainty have been databased and imaged. Currently they are being geo-referred automatically with the rest of the site geo-references at the NHM. This collection could be increased by a couple of dozen more specimens with those specimens located in the same drawers, but they do not have collector details. The work of data collection of these specimens was implemented over a year from 2016 to 2017, including annelids; brachiopods; bryozoans; echinoderms; scyphozoans; bivalves; gastropods; scaphopods; trilobites; plants; reptiles; fishes; and mammals.

Ida Lilian Slater (1881-1969) was one of the first women to work as a geologist in a male world, and although her career was short, she made important contributions to the Early Palaeozoic of Wales and Scotland. Her main work was based on a collection of a group of fossil scypho-zoan polyps gathered not by her but by another significant woman, Elizabeth Anderson, widely known as Mrs. Robert Gray (1831-1924). The majority of this collection is kept at the Natural History Museum (NHM), London, and the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge. She worked in the former one for two years describing species and comparing specimens for her monograph on British conulariids. Although her work was based not only on this group, she will be remembered by her important contribution to the conulariids through collections. The NHM collection is considered the best in the world in terms of diversity and the second best in its number of specimens, while the Sedgwick Museum has a smaller collection that is still c...