Earth Collections: Silurian database

The Silurian Period extended from 440-410 million years ago. Silurian fossils are abundant in the collections, and comprise some of the finest of our material in terms of quality of preservation. The overwhelming majority are from the UK, with many of the non-British specimens originating from the Baltic area. Brachiopods and trilobites are richly represented. There are also important suites of early cephalopods and echinoderms.

Many of the type and figured specimens represent brachiopod species established by late 20th century workers such as Bassett, Cocks, Hurst and Walmsley. Of the type and figured trilobites, some are mentioned in the papers of notable 19th century authors such as Salter and Brongniart, while others relate to the 20th century publications of Reed, Whittard, Shergold, Thomas, Owens, Siveter and others.

Two particularly significant Silurian holdings are the Grindrod Collection, mostly from the Malvern Hills area, and the Cocks-Ziegler Collection, which comes from the Welsh Borderland.

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