Earth Collections: Devonian database

The Devonian Period extended from 410-360 million years ago. Corals, brachiopods, early ammonoids, and early vertebrates are the groups best represented in the collections.

The corals are mostly from Devon, and include some of the type material of 19th century workers such as Phillips, and Edwards and Haime, as well as material described more recently by Scrutton. A collection of brachiopods from Peru relates to the work of J. A. Douglas, while the ammonoids include material from Devon studied by M. R. House, and an important collection from Germany put together by J. D. Price for his D.Phil. thesis.

Most of the vertebrate material is from Scotland and the Anglo-Welsh border. In amongst it are fish specimens described by Lankester in the 19th century, and Stensio, Woodward, Westoll and Ahlberg in the 20th century. Of particular note is a specimen from the late Devonian of Scotland, which has recently been recognised as part of the hind limb of a very early tetrapod.

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Enquiries regarding the collections should be sent to: earth@oum.ox.ac.uk