Classic Cretaceous Sponge

[piranha]

From the Cabinet of Curiosities:  Here is a special Victorian era specimen of Oncolpia (=Brachiolites) elegans.  I acquired it from someone who had no idea what they had, for $10 mixed among some other non fossil items.  In my opinion this fossil is priceless, it will never be sold or traded, instead it will eventually be donated to an appropriate permanent museum collection.  It was originally collected by Joshua Toulmin Smith and was most likely prepared and subsequently labeled by Henry Alleyne Nicholson, who prepared over 4000 glass slides in his career.  "Nicholson pioneered the use of thin sections in identifying and interpreting the internal structure of fossil invertebrates" (Long et al. 2003).  A true gem of British Palaeontological history! 

 

 

Long, S.L., Taylor, P.D., Baker, S., & Cooper, J. 2003

Some early collectors and collections of fossil sponges represented in the Natural History Museum, London.

The Geological Curator, 7:353-362   PDF LINK

[Raggedy Man]

Would love to pop that under my phase microscope. I bet it looks yummy! Thanks for sharing bud!

[Tidgy's Dad]

Fantastic, a beautiful fossil and a priceless piece of history too. 

[Fossildude19]

What an amazing acquisition, and at a bargain price, no less!   

Congratulations on acquiring this piece of history, Scott.  

[ynot]

Nice when You can save a bit of history and get a good fossil to boot!

[doushantuo]

 

to the right:Exanthesis(Eocene/Castle Hayne[]Finks et al

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Spongy Joe]

What a fabulous find!

 

Can I ask how you know that Smith collected it, though? That note could just be referring to genus authorship. If the handwriting is Nicholson's you ought to be able to get a sample to compare with - try writing to Sarah Long at the NHM if you want to follow that up.

 

When I worked in a Yorkshire museum, there was a wonderful slide collection going back to the nineteenth century. It included parasitic critters (mites, lice, etc.) - the specialism of the then-curator! - and I strongly suspect that some were sent to him by Joseph hooker, and perhaps even Darwin... but could never quite prove it!

[piranha]

9 hours ago, Spongy Joe said:

What a fabulous find!

Can I ask how you know that Smith collected it, though? That note could just be referring to genus authorship. If the handwriting is Nicholson's you ought to be able to get a sample to compare with - try writing to Sarah Long at the NHM if you want to follow that up.

 

 

I already made that contact 10 years ago, she agreed it was authentic and compared favorably with other numbered labels of Smith's specimens.  As for the attribution to Nicholson, I made a side by side comparison with a figured label provided in the paper cited above.  The letters: a, c, o, r, t, in Brachioloites and Actinostroma appear to be similar, especially the unique shape to the letter 'r', open letter 'o', and the bold finish to the letters 'a' and 't'.  Also, the letters 'u' in 'Toulmin' and 'h' in 'Smith' look like a dead ringer for the examples in 'Büchel'.  In my estimation both labels appear to be in the hand of Nicholson.  I'm not a forensic handwriting specialist... I only play one on TFF!     

 

[Spongy Joe]

Excellent! Thanks for explaining, Piranha - I've got to say that does look pretty convincing.

[bcfossilcollector]

Magnificent discovery!

[Plantguy]

Too cool Scott. Nice addition! 

 

Regards, Chris

[piranha]

I thought about posting this many years ago but only got around to it now.  It is a bit on the esoteric side, not the garden variety fossils we typically see. 

It was a lucky sequence of events that allowed me to find it and trace the historical significance.  Thanks for the interest and the great comments!