Caroline J. Buttler

Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales

The growth and decay of the end-Ordovician Gondwanan glaciation is globally reflected by facies changes in sedimentary sequences, which record a major eustatic fall and subsequent rise in the Hirnantian Stage at the end of the Ordovician. However, there are different reported estimates of the magnitude and pattern of sea-level change. Particularly...

A combination of encrusting calcitic bryozoans and early seafloor dissolution of arago-nitic shells recorded in the Cincinnatian Series of the upper Midwest of North America allowed the preservation of abundant moulds of mollusc fossils bioimmured beneath the attachment surfaces of the bryozoans. We here call this preservational process 'bryoimmura...

Gastropod shells have been used as substrates by bryozoans since Ordovician times. Their use falls into three categories: (1) empty shells of dead gastropods; (2) shells of living gastropods; and (3) shells of dead gastropods housing secondary occupants (conchicoles). We here identify criteria to recognise these different categories in the fossil r...

In addition to a marked rise in marine biodiversity, the Ordovician witnessed the most profound increase in the complexity of marine ecosystems in the history of the earth, including the expansion of tiering and enhanced biotic interactions. In order to understand these changes, it is important to study palaeoecological relationships among organism...

Esthonioporina is a suborder of Trepostomata known mainly from the Ordovician - Usually regarded as containing fewer than ten genera, this suborder has particular importance as it has been interpreted to be phylogenetically basal among stenolaemates (cyclostomes excluded). Cladistic analysis of the suborder has been undertaken: 1. to infer the rela...

Silurian turreted gastropods from the Upper Leintwardine Formation, Ludlow Series, collected in Delbury Quarry, Shropshire, UK, are all encrusted by the trepostome bryozoan Homotrypa cochlea sp. nov. Bryozoans were not found to encrust any other component of the shelly fauna and thus seemed preferentially to choose the gastropod shells. The rela...

Although phosphatized bryozoans have been described recently from the early Cambrian, the first unequivocal bryozoan fossils with hard skeletons are known from the Ordovician. Recent discoveries of bryozoans in the early Ordovician (Tremadocian) of South China have greatly expanded our understanding of the diversification of these colonial lophopho...

Few bryozoan faunas have been reported globally from the time of the late-Ordovician mass extinction (LOME). A depau�perate bryozoan fauna from the Kuanyinchiao Bed of North Guizhou Province, South China are described here as the frst record following the frst phase of the LOME. This bryozoan fauna includes fve species belonging to fve genera: Hom...

Jagielska, N., Buttler, C., Gardner, N., Warnock, R., and Yates, D. (2021, December 17). Fossils from conflict zones: A tale of Myanmar amber. In E. Dunne and N. B. Raja (Chairs), Social justice in palaeontology: Case studies & future actions [Pre-conference workshop, virtual]. The Palaeontology Association Annual Meeting, Manchester, United Kingdo...

Bryozoans of the superorder Palaeostomata dominated Palaeozoic bryozoan faunas but fewer than twenty palaeostomate genera have been recorded in the Triassic and by the end of this period the superorder was extinct. Although species belonging to the palaeostomate order Cryptostomata abound in rocks of Lower Ordovician to Permian age, only one Triass...

Pyrite oxidation (or pyrite decay) has been a problem in museum collections for many years. The damage to specimens can include total loss of the object and its label. There is no cure: the changes cannot be reversed but the process can be halted. Preventing pyrite oxidation in the first place is obviously preferable but maintaining the appropriate...

Enlarged, ‘compound zooecia’ are described for the first time in a trepostome bryozoan. Several of these zooecia are visible in tangential sections of Eostenopora guizhouensis (Hu) from the Devonian (Eifelian) Houershan Formation of Houershan, Dushan, southern Guizhou, China. They are broad and occupy the space of two or occasionally three or four...

Standard sample preparation often includes cleaning, bleaching, preservation and storage techniques that may affect temperate invertebrate skeletal carbonate composition and integrity. Here we report on a series of interlinked studies and their key results. Rinsing with tap or deionised water has little detectable effect on sample composition and i...

A bryozoan-dominated fauna that inhabited small caves underneath a carbonate hardground is here described from the Corryville Formation (Upper Ordovician, Katian) exposed near Washington, Mason County, Kentucky, USA. The dominant bryozoan, Stigmatella personata (a trepostome), is found both growing downwards from the cave ceilings and upwards on th...

In 2004 a large and exceptionally well preserved 300 million year old fossilised giant clubmoss plant was discovered in a newly exposed fossil forest site near Wrexham, north Wales. The location, a former steelworks that had operated for over 100 years, was being redeveloped as a heritage site and was subsequently designated as a SSSI so there was...

In 2012 a new relief road was built in Carmarthenshire, South Wales cutting through fossiliferous rocks of Upper Ordovician age and revealing new geological sections. The engineering company undertaking the construction work developed a good working relationship with palaeontologists wanting to collect from new temporary exposures. This was extreme...

Earth Heritage 43 highlighted the importance and geotourism potential of Brymbo Fossil Forest, near Wrexham, North Wales. The star specimen of the former steelworks site is an exceptionally well preserved 300 million-year-old fossilised giant clubmoss comprising a large trunk and its broad Stigmaria ‘root’ structure found in 2004. However, conservi...

Experts discuss the use of 3D scanning and printing for creating replicas for the Stonehenge Visitor Center. The specimens were scanned using a Next engine 3D scanner in two orientations and then the two scans stitched together. The mace head and chalk plaque were both robust and could be easily mounted in a clamp to be scanned. The scans were save...

Abstract. Trepostome bryozoans are documented in the Armorican Massif at the base of the Upper Ordovician (Sandbian), in Crozon peninsula (Veryac’h locality) in the upper part of the Postolonnec Formation and in probable Darriwilian nodules of the Traveusot Formation, south of Rennes. Although silicified, the specimen from the Veryac’h locality cou...

The Llandovery deposits of Iran preserve an important record of the biotic recovery of the benthic faunas in temperate latitude Gondwana after the Terminal Ordovician Mass Extinction. During that time, the terranes of Kopet-Dagh and Central Iran probably formed part of the Gondwana domain. Genera characteristic of the open shelf are mostly derived...

The palaeogeographical distributions of Early Palaeozoic bryozoan faunas are reviewed. Previous studies are examined and new databases have been assembled of the stratigraphical and geographical distribution of Ordovician and Silurian taxa. Analysis was carried out using cluster analysis based on Jaccard’s coefficient and paired group method, as we...

Ten bryozoan species belonging to the Order Cystoporata are described from the Lower Devonian of the Cantabrian Mountains, NW Spain. Three genera, with one species respectively, are new: Physallidopora cantabrica gen. nov. sp. nov., Dolichozoon ramosum gen. nov. sp. nov. and Hiberotrypa dubia gen. nov. sp. nov. Two additional species are new: Fistu...

The Ordovician Courtown Limestone Formation (Aurelucian, Caradoc) of County Wexford, south east Ireland comprises a sequence of blue to white fossiliferous limestones, calcareous sandstones and siltstones, with a basal conglomerate developed in places. A moderately rich brachiopod -trilobite fauna has been described from the Formation. Bryozoans we...

: A bryozoan fauna from carbonate mud-mounds is described from subsurface well cores from the Upper Ordovician (Lower Ashgill) Jifarah (Djeffara) Formation of Tripolitania, north-west Libya. Among a diverse assemblage dominated by trepostomes, nine species of bryozoans are identified, including Jifarahpora libyensis gen. et sp. nov. Delicate and ro...

Is the conservation profession dividing into two groups – specialized technicians often working in private practice, and generalists in the heritage sector whose work is often in preventive conservation covering a diverse range of materials? If so are we moving away from conservation specialists, who contribute to the wide range of processes involv...

Reconsideration of the nature of zooids in trepostomate Bryozoa defines them as physically connected and asexually replicated colony members that housed systems of organs necessary to perform vital functions for the colonies. Zooids known to contain organs in trepostomes are limited to autozooids, the requisite feeding and sexual units, and polymor...

Reconsideration of the nature of zooids in trepostomate Bryozoa defines them as physically connected and asexually replicated colony members that housed systems of organs necessary to perform vital functions for the colonies. Zooids known to contain organs in trepostomes are limited to autozooids, the requisite feeding and sexual units, and polymor...

George Robert Vine was a Sheffield-based stay- (corset-) maker and amateur naturalist who also specialized in the study of bryozoans. He was born near Portsmouth into a poor family and received a limited school education. He was largely self-taught and spent a period in his youth engaged in various trades, as well as being active in the movement fo...

Examination of a Jurassic ichthyosaur, prepared for wall display in the nineteenth century and currently in storage in the National Museums and Galleries of Wales (NMGW), revealed extensive deterioration of the plaster mount caused by movement of the wooden frame. During the project to create a new stable support, it was found that the specimen had...

The Tramore Limestone Formation (Llandeilo, Ordovician), exposed in southeast Ireland, contains well-preserved colonies of the trepostome bryozoan Diplotrypa petropolitana. Two palaeoenvironmen-tal settings-a deep water carbonate basinal facies and a shallow water carbonate shelf facies-are represented. Shape, size and attitude to bedding of Diplot...

Valuable historical information can be lost from specimen labels which are exposed to the acidic products of pyrite decay. In addition to disfiguring the surfaces and weakening the structure of the paper, in many cases the documentation can be completely destroyed. Using techniques from the field of paper conservation, damaged labels can be cleaned...

The Bendricks, just to the east of Barry, South Wales, is the only known Upper Triassic dinosaur footprint site in Britain and the most extensive trackway site in the country. Prior to 1996 all the trackways discovered both at the Bendricks and elsewhere in South Wales, were of animals walking with a bipedal gait but in the autumn of that year a qu...

The importance of condition surveys of geological collections is widely ac­ knowledged. At the National Museum of Wales a condition survey form has been devised to facilitate this task. The form lists ten parameters that are scored from a master scoring guide. The results, in a format easily entered into a database, show the current state of the co...

The Barrington hippopotamus skeleton has been on display at the Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge for over 60 years. During a recent loan to the National Museum of Wales, the opportunity was taken to clean the specimen and carry out conservation work including consolidation, renewal of some mounting bolts and the crowning of a broken canine. Techniques...

The sedimentology and palaeontology of carbonate beds in the lower part of the Fosses Formation (Ashgill of the Condroz area, central Belgium) have been investigated. Two depositional interpretations are suggested: deposition either near a platform-ramp margin as bioclastic turbidites and interbedded shales or on a shelf as a transgressive sequence...

A diverse bryozoan fauna has been discovered in South Wales in the Slade and Redhill Beds (upper Rawtheyan, Ashgill), exposed in a new road-cutting near Whitland. This is the first account of a moderately diverse Ordovician bryozoan fauna from Britain. The fauna is represented by 15 species belonging to four orders, the majority being Trepostomata....

Kurzfassung Gut erhaltene Proben der Bryozoen-GattungKukersella aus dem Spätordovizium (Ashgill) von Südwales ermöglichen eine neue Deutung der Morphologie und der Feinstruktur des Skelettes. Im Gegensatz zu den Ergebnissen früherer Untersuchungen beweisen sie, daß die Endozone eine axiales Bündel bildet und die endozonalen Zooecien nicht den proxi...

Salvadorea distincta distincta (Wilson, 1926), Salvadorea sp. 2 of Nelson, 1981, Biqhornia patella (Wilson, 1926), B. cf. B. bottei Nelson, 1963, Grewingkia haysii haysii (Meek, 1865), and Deiracoralliurn prolongaturn (Wilson, 1926) are present within the Upper Ordovician Bighornia-Thaerodonta Zone of the Beaverfoot Formation. Bighornia wilsonae sp...

Two Late Ordovician unattached solitary rugose corals from the Beaverfoot Formation in southeastern British Columbia were almost certainly preserved in life position. These unique specimens occur beneath large colonial corals and were thus shielded from high-energy events that overturned and transported other individuals. They confirm previous hypo...