Darwin's fossil trove rediscovered

A trove of fossils believed to be lost for the last 165 years and which included some collected by Charles Darwin himself, are found in a cabinet.


The fossil plants were found by palaeontologist Dr Howard Falcon-Lang in a cabinet belonging to the vaults of the British Geological Survey HQ near Keyworth.They were polished "into thin translucent sheets," said Dr. Falcon-Lang, and were placed inside a drawer labeled "Unregistered Fossil Plants".


""This process allows them to be studied under the microscope. Almost the first slide I picked up was labelled 'C. Darwin Esq'."


The item turned out to be a piece of fossil wood collected by Darwin during his famous Voyage of the Beagle in 1834. This was the expedition on which he first started to develop his theory of evolution.

In the course of his visit to Chiloe Island, Chile, Darwin encountered "many fragments of black lignite and silicified and pyritous wood, often embedded close together".

He had these shipped back to England where they were cut and ground into thin sections.

Joseph Hooker, a botanist and a close friend of Darwin, was responsible for assembling the "lost" collection while he briefly worked for the British Geological Survey in 1846.

The fossils became "lost" because Hooker failed to number them in the formal specimen register before setting out on an expedition to the Himalayas.

The collection was moved several times and gradually became forgotten" (The BBC reports).


The relics can be viewed via an online museum exhibition released Monday.