BOOK REVIEW
Palmer, Douglas. 2008. Book reviews,
MIKULIC, D. G., LANDING, E. & KLUESSENDORF, J. (eds) 2007. Fabulous Fossils.
300 years of Worldwide Research on Trilobites. v + 248 pp. Albany: New York
State Museum. Price US $19.95 (paperback). Geological Magazine
145(1): 157.
Trilobites are undoubtedly amongst the most
popular fossils and, one way or another, any palaeontologist dealing with
Palaeozoic strata will encounter them and have to face questions about their
nomenclature. The very nature of Linnaean taxonomy and rules of the
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) require our
attention to historical precedent in classification and that means delving into
the early literature. Generally speaking, we can get away with using the
literature of the last 50 or so years but even this may no longer be
immediately available in our libraries. If one has to delve into the deeper
history of palaeontology, the early 19th century and perhaps even into the late
18th century, then we can be in trouble. Fabulous Fossils:
300 Years of Worldwide Research on Trilobites will help and encourage
young palaeontologists be more aware of the curious and fascinating history of
the subject. New York State Museum is to be congratulated on producing this
excellent collection of essays, celebrating ‘300 Years of Worldwide
Research on Trilobites’. The essays range from James St John’s
review of the earliest trilobite research, through regional reviews such as the
history of trilobite research in South Korea, Brazil, Australia, China and
parts of the USA to Professor Harry Whittington’s ‘Reflections on
the classification of the Trilobita’, Ellis Yochelson on ‘Charles
Doolittle Walcott and Trilobite Appendages (1873–1881)’. Although
most of these will mainly be of interest to trilobite specialists, I would
still recommend any palaeontologist dealing with Palaeozoic macro-invertebrate
fossils to read some of the essays, especially St John’s which reproduces
many of the early illustrations of trilobites including the first known one.
This is Edward Lhwyd’s 1698 illustration, recognisable today as Ogygiocarella
debuchii,
although Lhwyd thought that it resembled a ‘flatfish’ and wrote ‘not
that I conclude that either these, or any other Marine terrestrial Bodies, were
ever really, either Parts or Exuviae of Animals’. As an
illustration, it is fairly crude considering the technical skills of
illustration that were generally available at the time but maybe not in Oxford.
I am more impressed by the quality of illustration of the paradoxidid called Entomolithus
paradoxus by
Linnaeus in his 1753 Museum Tessinianum, which I have not seen
before and it would be interesting to know who was producing the illustrations
for such works. The paper by Mikulic & Kluessendorf will be of particular
interest to British palaeontologists as it deals with ‘Legacy of the
locust – Dudley and its famous trilobite Calymene
blumenbachii’,
which was first discovered in the mid 1700s and was, apparently, the first
trilobite to be known from complete exoskeletal remains and was instrumental in
establishing their arthropod affinities. Some of the early illustrations of
this iconic trilobite, such as those by Walch (1771) and Blumenbach (1780) are
better than those reproduced in Murchison’s 1859 Siluria. Hopefully Fabulous Fossils will be sufficiently
successful for New York State Museum to consider further similar publications
on other major groups of fossils – they would be doing palaeontology and
upcoming students a great service.