Looking for information on a historic Jurassic squid fossil

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

I was recently skimming through one of William Buckland's papers (in Geology and mineralogy considered with reference to natural theology). In the paper, he discussed (and illustrated) a squid fossil that had been found by Mary Anning, in the Lias/Jurassic of Lyme Regis in 1828 (see pic below). 

Would anyone happen to know in what museum this fossil currently is?

 

Taken from Buckland (1837), plate 44'', fig. 1.

[TqB]

I don't know but it looks likely to be a Phragmoteuthis (as your tag suggests).  Other specimens from the same plate (figs 6, 7 & 8) are in the Oxford University Museum. 

Sorry if you've already worked all that out!

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

2 hours ago, TqB said:

I don't know but it looks likely to be a Phragmoteuthis (as your tag suggests).

 

Looked up Dorset phragmoteuthids just now, and I came across this interesting bit in a paper by Donovan (2006):

 

Phragmoteuthis huxleyi sp. nov. 

1836 Belemno-sepia; Buckland, vol. 2, pp. 70–71, pl. 44’’ figs 1–4.

1864 Belemnite; Huxley, p. 14, pl. 1, figs 4, 4a.

1922 Phragmocon eines Belemnoiden; Naef, p. 262, fig. 65d (p. 172).
1966 unnamed genus; Jeletzky, p. 38 (huxleyi in manuscript).
1977 [phragmoteuthid phragmocone]; Donovan, p. 21.

Holotype. BM(NH) no. C46849, from bed 85 of Lang and Spath (1926, p. 159), Upper Sinemurian, Obtusum Zone, Stellare Subzone, of Stonebarrow, near Charmouth, Dorset, England.

Paratypes. BM(NH) nos. 39857, 83963 (Huxley’s figured speci- men), C313, C46836. All from ‘Lower Lias’, probably Obtusum Zone, Dorset coast.

 

Yeah I think Anning's specimen that I posted above is a P. huxleyi  But then I checked the NHMUK collection database for the specimens mentioned as holotype/paratype, and I have no idea which one was the one found by Anning, as no pictures of the fossils were included in the database entries!...

 

2 hours ago, TqB said:

Other specimens from the same plate (figs 6, 7 & 8) are in the Oxford University Museum

Thanks for that info, that's good to know  

[TqB]

@The Amateur Paleontologist That's the paper I had my information from, I can see you're well on the case! Annoying about the lack of photos of NHM type material - I hope they might one day have the funds and research interest to do more.

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

@TqB I know, right? Even for famous specimens (such as Mary Anning's first complete Plesiosaurus), there sometimes aren't pictures of the material! 

But enough dissing the NHM.. that place is a brilliant museum  

[TqB]

12 hours ago, The Amateur Paleontologist said:

@TqB I know, right? Even for famous specimens (such as Mary Anning's first complete Plesiosaurus), there sometimes aren't pictures of the material! 

But enough dissing the NHM.. that place is a brilliant museum  

Indeed! I once spent a happy week in the research and storage area, going through drawer stacks of belemnites and other coleoids.  

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

1 hour ago, TqB said:

Indeed! I once spent a happy week in the research and storage area, going through drawer stacks of belemnites and other coleoids.  

I bet that was amazing  I spent last year half a day in the cephalopod collections looking at Belemnotheutis specimens from Wiltshire, which was quite wonderful!

Just to know, were you there for a particular research project?

[TqB]

2 hours ago, The Amateur Paleontologist said:

I bet that was amazing  I spent last year half a day in the cephalopod collections looking at Belemnotheutis specimens from Wiltshire, which was quite wonderful!

Just to know, were you there for a particular research project?

I'm very interested in belemnotheutids. The classic B. antiquus is now Acanthoteuthis antiqua, unless this paper has been superseded. 

Doyle & Shakides 2004

 

Yes, I was doing my Ph D, on Lower Lias belemnites. A long time ago and never published anything.  Are you planning on bringing anything out?

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

5 hours ago, TqB said:

The classic B. antiquus is now Acanthoteuthis antiqua

Really? I don't think I've seen that before, even in recent literature (such as the Hart et al. 2019 paper on coleoid arm hooks from the Jurassic of the UK)... 

Did you get to take a look at any belemnite material collected by Mary Anning while working on your Ph.D?

 

6 hours ago, TqB said:

Are you planning on bringing anything out?

Yeah I've started working on a project involving the description of coleoid arm hooks from the Cretaceous of Denmark. 

[TqB]

@The Amateur Paleontologist Having looked around a bit, not everyone agrees with Acanthoteuthis/Belemnotheutis synonomy.  But I don't think there's been a formal revision since the Doyle & Shakides paper. I was convinced!

 

I don't remember anything labelled of Mary Anning's - I was mainly looking at Lang's Belemnite Marls material and relevant type specimens.

 

I look forward to seeing your arm hook material, very interesting and useful to see what was swimming around.