Number 8 - Geological Curators Group

items, including ethnological and archaeological material).'219 Missing Ordovician nautiloids from theYale Peabody MuseumIn January 1989 representatives of Yale University'sPeabody Museum of Natural History visited the newMexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources atSocorro,NewMexico,to retrieve Ordoviciannautiloidsfrom western Newfoundland which were on loan to thelate Rousseau H. Flower. Only 65 of the original 325Ordovician nautiloid lots loaned to Flower wererecovered.In most cases, the Peabody nautiloids are marked with5116-inch-diameter green stickers with a handwrittenlocality number in black ink on each. Commonexamples are 310012, 3450121, 3476140, 4656128.Peahody specimen labcls accompany most lots, hutsome may have become separated from the specimens.Should anyone know the whereabouts of Peahodynautiloids fitting the ahovc description, please contactRusscll D. White, Collection Manager, Division ofInvertebrate Paleontology, Peabody Museum of NaturalHistory, Yale University, 170 Whitncy Avenue,P.O. Box 6666, New Haven, Connecticut 06511,U.S.A.220 Fossil insects in amberAlison Henwood (Department of Earth Sciences,University of Cambridge, Downing Street, CambridgeCB2 3EQ) is anxious to trace specimens ofinsects in amber in museum collections for her researchon taphonomy and identification of insects,principally flies. Please inform her at the aboveaddrcss of any spccimens in your collection or inothers.221 Foraminifera described by L. v.FICHTEL and J. P. C. v. MOLL in 1798H. S. Torrcns (Dcpt. of Geology, Kcclc University,Keele, Staffs. ST5 5BG) draws attention to a paper byRogl(1982) which describes the discovery of a majortype collection in Vienna. Testacea microscopica byFichtel and Moll (1798) has been a great influence onthe investigation of the Foraminifera. Many of thedescribed species and variations are type species ofgenera created by Montfort (1808, 1810). So thediscovery of the type-collection at the Natural HistoryMuseum in Vienna is of importance for the solution ofmany nomenclatorial problems. Rtigl and Hansen(1984) provided full taxonomic revisions, with colourreproductions of Fichtel and Moll's beautiful 1798plates and a history of the collections (in English).Johann Paul Car1 von Moll, born 1735 in Oettingen(Bavaria), was involved later on in the work of theNaturalien Cabinet in Vienna, the forerunner of theNatural History Museum. He died in Vienna, 1812.His co-author Leopold von Fichtel, son of the enthusiasticnaturalist Johann Ehrenreich von Fichtel, becamefamous for his collection of natural objects andhis worldwide travels. He was born in 1770 inHermannstadt (Sibiu, Rumania) and died young inVienna in 1810.Rilgl, R. 1982. L. v. Fichtel und J. P. C. v. Moll undihre wissenschaftliche Bedeutung. Ann. Naturhist.Mus. Wien, 84/A, 63-77.Rdgl, F. and Hansen, H. J. 1984. Foraminiferadescribed by Fichtel and Moll in 1798: a revision ofTestacea Microscopica. Neue Denkschr. Naturhist.Mus. Wien. 3.222 Thomas WILLCOX (fl. 1890s)Mrs Susan Cowdry (Lion House, Etchilhampton,Devizes, Wiltshire) writcs:'As part of the my interest in old mineral specimensfrom the Mendips, Somerset, I am trying to trace thewhcreabouts of the collection of Thomas Willcox; hewas manager in thc 1890s of Higher Pitts Mine and St.Cuthbert's Lead Works, both near Wells. NeitherBristol, Taunton, Bath, Cardiff nor Oxford museumshave any knowlcdge of Willcox. I would be mostgrateful for any help.'223 Lost manuscript autobiography ofRichard Cowling TAYLOR (1789-1851)H. S. Torrcns (Dept. of Geology, Keele University,Keele, Staffs. ST5 5BG) writes:'Taylor was a pionccr English geologist trained 1805-1811 by both William Smith (1769-1839) himself andby Edward Webh who had also earlier trained WilliamSmith as a land surveyor. Taylor was active as anengineer, mineral and land surveyor in England andwrote a large number of papers up to 1830 when hedecided to emigrate to the USA where he anived in."-a11131.Here he had a second distinguished carcer as a miningadvisor and geologist and continued to publish manypapers. He died in Philadelphia in October 1851. In