Notes
1. THE ROAD TO EL DORADO
1. C. H. Pander, Monographie der fossilen Fische des silurischen Systems der russich-baltischen Gouvernements (St. Petersburg: Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1856), 6.
2. Baer to W. v. Ditmar, 10 July 1816, in B. E. Raikov, Christian Heinrich Pander: Ein bedeutender Biologe und Evolutionist, trans. W. E. von Hertzenberg and P. H. von Bitter (Frankfurt: Verlag Waldemar Kramer, 1984), 18. See also G. A. Wells, “Goethe and evolution,” J. History of Ideas 28 (1967): 537–50; C. H. Pander, “Beiträge zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Hühnchens im Ei” (Würzburg, 1817), quoted by E. S. Russell, Form and Function: A Contribution to the History of Animal Morphology, Project Gutenberg, 2007, 133, http://www.gutenberg.org/; Professor Ignaz Döllinger (1770–1841).
3. Raikov, Pander, 49; S. Schmitt, “From eggs to fossils: Epigenesis and transformation of species in Pander's biology,” Int. J. Dev. Biol. 49 (2005): 1–8; Robert J. Richards, The Romantic Conception of Life: Science and Philosophy in the Age of Goethe (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2002), 483.
4. Raikov, Pander, 78. The Geological Society of London's copy of C. H. Pander, Beiträge zur Geognosie des russischen Reiches: Die Umgebungen von St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg, 1830) was presented by Murchison when he was president.
5. S. J. Knell, The Culture of English Geology, 1815–1851: A Science Revealed Through Its Collecting (Basingstoke, UK: Ashgate, 2000); James A. Secord, Controversy in Victorian Geology: The Cambrian Silurian Dispute (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986); R. Murchison, The Silurian System (London: John Murray, 1839), 657.
6. “Barabbas,” Murchison on visit to Pander in 1841, in M. Collie and J. Diemar, Murchison's Wanderings in Russia (London: British Geological Survey, 2004), 137–38. For “painstaking” Charles Bunbury, see John C. Thackray, To See the Fellows Fight (London: British Society for the History of Science Monograph 12, 2003), 200.
7. Stephen Jay Gould, Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History (Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1989), 65; “I. Trutnew” possibly Russian artist Ivan Petrovich Trutnev (1827–1912)?
8. Pander, Monographie, 5, trans, extract by Wladimir Ayvazoglou, in Wilbert H. Hass, “Morphology of conodonts,” J. Paleont. 15 (1941): 71–81, and re printed in Wilbert H. Hass, “Conodonts,” in Raymond. C. Moore (ed.), Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part W Miscellanea (1959; reprint, Lawrence: GSA/University of Kansas Press, 1962), W3–W69. As non-German speakers had no direct access to Pander's description, this became an important surrogate.
9. R. I. Murchison, Siluria, 2nd ed. (London: J. Murray, 1867), 236, 355–56. Should Pander's eye disease predate Helmersen's letter, then 1848 or 1849 seem likely. R. O. Fay, Catalogue of Conodonts, Paleont. Contr. 3 (Lawrence: University of Kansas, 1952), 4, incorrectly believed the 2 November 1853 mss. date of a paper by Karl Eduard von Eichwald (1795–1876) to record the first mention of the conodont.
10. Pander in J. Barrande, “Sur une découverte de fossils faite dans la partie inférieure du terrain silurien de Russie,” Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France, ser. 2, no. 8 (1851) : 251–59, 254.
11. R. I. Murchison, Siluria, 1st ed. (London: J. Murray, 1854), 323.
12. K. E. Eichwald, “Beitrag zur geographischen Verbreitung der fossilen Theire Ruβlands Alte Periode,” Bull. Soc. Imper. Natur. Moscou 30, no. 2 (1857): 305–54, 338–39.
13. R. Owen, Palaeontology, 2nd ed. (Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1861).
14. Owen's opinion appeared in a letter, 1858, in the 1867 edition of Murchison's Siluria, Appendix E, later versions in Owen's Palaeontology, 1860 and 1861 editions.
15. Huxley to W. Macleay, Sydney, 9 November 1851, in L. Huxley, Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley, vol. 1 (London: Macmillan, 1900), 94.
16. J. Harley, “On the Ludlow Bone-Bed and its crustacean remains,” QJGS 17 (1861): 542–52; Murchison, Siluria (1867),148.
17. Alexander von Volborth (1800–1876). Letter from Volborth to Harley, 12 May 1861, reprinted in Harley, “Ludlow Bone-Bed,” 551–52. This is a partial translation of A. Volborth, “Vorkommen von Conodonten in England und Schweden,” Neues Jahrbuch fur Mineralogie, Geognosie, Geologie und Petrarefakten-kunde 11B (1861): 464–65.
18. Murchison, Siluria (1867), 356.
19. Charles Moore, “On Triassic beds near Frome, and their organic remains,” Rep. BAAS 1857 (1858): 93–94; Charles Moore (1815–1881). The fissures contained fossils dissolved from overlying rocks, including the Carboniferous Limestone. It is unlikely that Moore's conodonts came from the Triassic.
20. Charles Moore, “Report on mineral veins in Carboniferous Limestone and their organic contents,” Rep. BAAS 1869 (1870): 360–80.
21. R. A. Davis, “Science in the hinter land: The Cincinnati school of paleontology,” GSA Annual Meeting Abstract, 2001; D. S. Brandt, “Lagerstätte and luck: The role of the type Cincinnatian in shaping paleontological research in North America (1838–1961),” GSA Annual Meeting Abstract, 2003.
22. E. O. Ulrich, “Observations on fossil annelids and description of some new forms,” Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist. J. 1 (1878): 87–91, 87.
23. J. S. Newberry, Descriptions of Fossil Fishes (Ohio: Geological Survey Report, 1875), 41–46; C. A. White, Biographical Memoir of John Strong Newberry (Washington, D.C., 1908).
24. G. B. Grinnell, “Notice of a new genus of annelids from the Lower Silurian,” Am. Jour. Sci., ser. 3, 14, no. 81 (1877): 229–30.
25. Ulrich, “Observations,” 88.
26. Hugh Miller, The Old Red Sandstone (Edinburgh: John Johnstone, 1841), 33–34; H. Woodward, “George Jennings Hinde,” Geol. Mag. 6 (1918): 233–40. Through marriage to Edith Octavia Clark, there is a family connection to the Wood ward geological dynasty claiming Henry, of the British Museum, as his “cousin.” M. O'Connell, “George Jennings Hinde,” Science 48 (1918): 588–90; G. W. Landpugh, “Anniversary address of the president,” QJGS 75 (1919): lvii-lix.
27. John Smith (1846–1930), incorrectly named by Hinde. R. B. Wilson, John Smith of Dalry, Geologist, Antiquarian and Natural Historian (Ayr: Ayrshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 1995), 23–29; John Young, “Notes on the fossils found in a thin bed of impure Carboniferous Limestone at Glencart, near Dalry, Ayrshire,” Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow 5 (1884): 234–40, 235–36; Anon., “The twenty-ninth annual general meeting, 24 September 1878,” Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow 4 (1881): 1–5, 3; John Smith, “Conodonts from the Carboniferous Limestone strata of the west of Scotland,” Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow 5 (1900): 336–46. Thanks to Mike Taylor for information on Smith.
28. John Smith, “The conodonts of the Carboniferous rocks of the Clyde drainage area,” in J. B. Murdoch (ed.), The Geology and Palaeontology of the Clyde Drainage Area (Glasgow: Geological Society of Glasgow, 1904), 510; John Young, “On a group of fossil organisms termed conodonts,” Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow 4 (1881): 5–7, 6.
29. G. J. Hinde, “On conodonts from the Chazy and Cincinnati Group of the Cambro-Silurian, and from the Hamilton and Genesee-Shale Divisions of the Devonian, in Canada and the United States,” QJGS 35 (1879): 351–69.
30. G. J. Hinde, “On annelid jaws from the Cambro-Silurian, Silurian, and Devonian Formations in Canada and from the Lower Carboniferous in Scotland,” QJGS 35 (1879): 370–87.
31. U. P. James, “On conodonts and fossil annelid jaws,” J. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist. 7, no. 3 (1884): 143–49; J. M. Clarke, “On the higher Devonian faunas of On tario County, New York,” U.S. Geol. Surv. Bull. 3, no. 16 (1885): 35–120; A. W. Grabau, “Geology and palaeontology of Eighteen Mile Creek and the lake shore sections of Erie County, New York,” Buffalo Soc. Nat. Sci. Bull. 6 (1898–99).
32. Now known as Branchiostoma; Freidrich Rolle, “Fische,” in Adolf Kenngott (ed.), Handwörterbuch der Mineralogie, Geologie und Palaeontologie, vol. 1 (Breslau, 1882), 408; K. A. Zittel andJ. V. Rohon, “Ϝber conodonten,” Bayer Akad. Wiss. München Math-Phys. K.l. Sitzungsber 16 (1886):
108–36, 111.
33. E. H. Ehlers, Die Borstenwurmer (Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1864–68).
34. A. Geikie, Text-book of Geology (London: Macmillan, 1903), 942; J. V. Rohon, “Uber unter-Silurische fische,” Bull. Scientifique Publié par L'Académie Imperiale des Sciences de Saint Pétersbourg, Acad. St. Petersb. 33 (1890): 269.
2. A BEACON IN THE BLACKNESS
1. Roger M. Olien and Diana Davids Olien, Oil and Ideology: The Cultural Creation of the American Petroleum Industry (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), 120, 141, 189.
2. P. V. Roundy, “Introduction, the microfauna in Mississippian formations of San Saba County, Texas,” U.S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Pap. 146 (1926); Hugh S. Torrens, The Practice of Geology, 1750–1850 (Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2002); S. J. Knell, “The road to Smith: How the Geological Society came to possess English geology,” in C. Lewis and S. J. Knell (eds.), The Making of the Geological Society of London (London: Geological Society, 2009), 1–47, 6–7.
3. C. Croneis, “Micropaleontology – past and present,” Bull. AAPG 25 (1941): 1208–55; Roundy, “San Saba,” 1. On professionalization, see also R. S. Bassler, “Development of invertebrate paleontology in America,” Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 44 (1933): 265–86; Carl O. Dunbar, “Symposium on fifty years of paleontology: A half century of paleontology,” J. Paleont. 33 (1959): 909–14; S. Powers, “History of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists,” Bull. AAPG 13 (1929): 153–70; R. H. Dott, “Founding of the AAPG,” Bull. AAPG 37 (1953): 1117–21; H. T. Morley, “A history of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists,” Bull. AAPG 50 (1966): 669–820.
4. Laurence L. Sloss, Twenhofel Award acceptance speech, Denver, 10 June 1980, http://www.earth.northwestern,edu/twenhofel.html/; J. D. Fischer, The Seventy Years of the Department of Geology University of Chicago, 1892–1961 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963), 43; Carey Gardiner Croneis (1901–1972); Croneis, “Micropaleontology,” 1238.
5. Roundy, “San Saba,” 2.
6. Hass, “Conodonts,” in Moore, Treatise, W3–W69, W4.
7. C. L. Cooper, “Conodonts from the Arkansas Novaculite, Woodford Formation, Ohio Shale and Sunbury Shale,” J. Paleont. 5 (1931): 143–51.
8. God comment by August Foerste in Curt Teichert, “From Karpinsky to Schindewolf – memories of some great paleontologists,” J. Paleont. 50 (1976): 1–12, 11; E. O. Ulrich, “Revision of the Paleozoic systems,” Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 22 (1911): 281–680, 477; E. O. Ulrich, “Correlation by displacements of the strand-line and the function and proper use of fossils in correlation,” Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 27 (1916): 451–90; R. S. Bassler, “The Waverlyan period of Tennessee,” U.S. Nat. Mus. Proc. 41, no. 1851 (1911): 209–24; K. E. Caster, “Memorial to Ray S. Bassler (1878–1961),” Proc. Geol. Soc. Am. (1965): 167–73.
9. E. O. Ulrich, “The Chattanoogan series with special reference to the Ohio shale problem,” Am. J. Sci. 34 (1912): 157–83; E. M. Kindle, “Unconformity at the base of the Chattanooga Shale in Kentucky,” Am. J. Sci. 33 (1912): 120–36, 128.
10. Ulrich, “Chattanoogan series”; E. M. Kindle, “The stratigraphic relations of the Devonian shales of northern Ohio,” Am. J. Sci. 34 (1912): 187–213; Girty to Kindle, 1 November 1912, Smithsonian Institution Archives (hereafter cited as SIA), Record Unit 7329, George Girty Papers (hereafter cited as Girty Papers).
11. Kindle to David White, n.d., Girty Papers.
12. E. O. Ulrich, “Kinderhookian age of the Chattanoogan series (abstract),” Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 26 (1914): 97–99.
13. Ulrich, “Revision,” 290.
14. W. L. Bryant, “The Genesee conodonts,” Buffalo Soc. Nat. Sci. Bull. 13 (1921): 1–59, 9, 23. See also Roundy, “San Saba,” 9, 13.
15. Raymond R. Hibbard to Bassler, receiving conodonts from Bassler (9 July 1924), developing conodont collections and library (17 November 1933), collecting (29 August 1937), acid preparation of scolecodonts (“worm jaws”) (29 September 1939), and so on; Bassler to Hibbard, in which Bassler says with Branson's activity he has given up conodonts (12 November 1933), all in SIA, Record Unit 7234, Box 3, Folder 5, Ray S. Bassler Papers (hereafter cited as Ray S. Bassler Papers).
16. E. O. Ulrich and R. S. Bassler, “A classification of the toothlike fossils, conodonts, with description of American Devonian and Mississippian species,” Proc. U.S. National Mus. 68 (1926): 1–63; R. S. Bassler, “Classification and stratigraphic use of the conodonts,” Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 36 (1925): 218–20. Also R. S. Bassler, “The stratigraphic use of conodonts (abstract),” Washington Academy Sci. J. 16 (1926): 72–73.
17. Grace. B. Holmes, “A bibliography of the conodonts with descriptions of early Mississippian species,” Proc. U.S. National Mus. 72 (1928). Holmes was directed by Ulrich and Bassler and thus serves to backup their conclusions.
18. Clarice B. Strachan, “Biographical sketches of recently elected honorary members: Edward Oscar Ulrich,” Bull. AAPG 20 (1936): 1265–68. But note that Roundy had already drawn up his own “Bibliography of conodont and Paleozoic annelid jaw literature in USGS Library, Reston,” in 1925 in the knowledge that these fossils would prove important to the oil industry.
19. C. R. Stauffer, “Conodonts from the Decorah shale,” J. Paleant. 4 (1930): 121–28; C. R. Stauffer, “Decorah Shale conodonts from Kansas,” J. Paleant. 6 (1932): 257–64; C. R. Stauffer and H. J. Plummer, “Texas Pennsylvanian conodonts and their stratigraphic relations,” Univ. Texas Bull. 3201 (1932): 13–50. Helen Plummer (neé Skewes) was married to Frederick Byron Plummer.
20. F. H. Gunnell, “Conodonts from the Fort Scott limestone of Missouri,” J. Paleont. 5 (1931): 244–52.
21. F. H. Gunnell, “Conodonts and fish remains from the Cherokee, Kansas City, and Wabaunsee groups of Missouri and Kansas,” J. Paleont. 7 (1933): 261–97.
22. C. L. Cooper, “Arkansas”; C. L. Cooper, “New conodonts from the Wood-ford Formation of Oklahoma,” J. Paleant. 5 (1931): 230–43.
23. Carl Rexroad told me he was known as “Ted”; Rexroad received a cowboy belt from Branson when a child. C. R. Longwell, “Edwin Bayer Branson (1877–1950),” Bull. AAPG 35 (1951): 1706–10; S. P. Ellison, “Memorial for Maurice Goldsmith Mehl (1877–1966),” Proc. GSA (1966): 219–24; C. C. Branson, “Maurice G. Mehl (1887–1966),” Oklahoma Geol. Notes 26 (1966): 139–40.
24. E. B. Branson and M. G. Mehl, Conodont Studies (Columbia: University of Missouri Studies 8, 1933–34), 8. I have not listed the individual papers below.
25. Their paranoia was not helped when Stauffer showed them old yet unworn conodonts – “delicate, sharp-pointed, hand-like crests with the fibrous structure” – mixed with a younger fauna that was considerably more worn! C. R. Stauffer, “Conodonts of the Glenwood Beds,” Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 46 (1935): 125–68.
26. C. R. Stauffer, “The conodont fauna of the Decorah shale (Ordovician),” J. Paleont. 9 (1935): 596–620.
27. C. L. Cooper, “Review of Conodont studies,” J. Geol. 43 (1935): 443–45.
28. J. W. Huddle, “Marine fossils from the top of the New Albany shale of Indiana,” Am. J. Sci. 25 (1933): 303–14; J. W. Huddle, “Conodonts from the New Albany shale of Indiana,” Bull. Am. Paleont. 21 (1934).
29. C. L. Cooper, “Conodonts from the Upper and Middle Arkansas Novaculite, Mississippian, at Caddo Gap, Arkansas,” J. Paleont. 9 (1935): 307–15.
30. E. B. Branson and M. G. Mehl, “The conodont genus Icriodus and its stratigraphic distribution,” J. Paleont. 12 (1938): 156–66.
31. M. M. Knechtel and W. H. Hass, “Kinderhook conodonts from Little Rocky Mountains, northern Montana,” J. Paleont. 12 (1938): 518–20, 520; E. B. Branson and M. G. Mehl, “New and little known Carboniferous conodont genera,” J. Paleont. 15 (1941): 97–106; Wilbert H. Hass (1906–1959); C. C. Branson, c.1962; Geol. Soc. Am. Proc. for 1960 (1962): 104–106; C. R. Stauffer, “Conodonts of the Olentangy shale,” J. Paleont. 12 (1938): 411–43.
32. C. L. Cooper, “Conodonts from a Bushberg-Hannibal horizon in Oklahoma,” J. Pa
leont. 13 (1939): 379–422; W. H. Hass, “Corrections to the Kinderhook conodont fauna, Little Rocky Mountains, Montana,” J. Paleont. 17 (1943): 307–309.
33. Branson and Mehl, “New and little known,” 97.
34. C. C. Branson, “Conodonts in the Permian,” Science 75 (1932): 337–38; C. C. Branson, “Origin of phosphate in the Phosphoria Formation (abstract),” Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 43 (1932): 284. This discovery was widely publicized at the time. E. B. Branson and M. G. Mehl, “The recognition and interpretation of mixed conodont faunas,” Denison University Bull. Jour. Sci. Lab. 35 (1941): 195–209. Ellison makes much of the importance of this work in his obituaries of Mehl. E. B. Branson and M. G. Mehl, “A record of typical American conodont genera in various parts of Europe,” Denison University Bull. Jour. Sci. Lab. 35 (1941): 189–94.
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