Biodiversity Data Journal :
Data Paper (Biosciences)
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Corresponding author: Consuelo Sendino (consuelo.sendino@gmail.com)
Academic editor: Ross Mounce
Received: 30 Jan 2019 | Accepted: 13 Feb 2019 | Published: 19 Feb 2019
© 2019 Consuelo Sendino
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Sendino C (2019) The Lyell Collection at the Earth Sciences Department, Natural History Museum, London (UK). Biodiversity Data Journal 7: e33504. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.7.e33504
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This paper provides a quantitative and general description of the Lyell Collection kept in the Department of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum of London. This collection started to be built by the eminent British geologist Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875) in 1846 when the first specimen reached the Museum. The last one entered in 1980 donated by one of Lyell’s heirs. There are more than 1700 specimens, mainly hand specimens with 93% of the fauna and flora from the Cenozoic of the Macaronesian archipelagos of the Canaries and Madeira. Those specimens that belong to the Lyell Collection with certainty have been databased and imaged. Currently they are being geo-referred automatically with the rest of the site geo-references at the NHM. This collection could be increased by a couple of dozen more specimens with those specimens located in the same drawers, but they do not have collector details. The work of data collection of these specimens was implemented over a year from 2016 to 2017, including annelids; brachiopods; bryozoans; echinoderms; scyphozoans; bivalves; gastropods; scaphopods; trilobites; plants; reptiles; fishes; and mammals.
Access to the specimen-level data is available through the NHM data portal with the images associated. This is the first time that a description of the Fossil Lyell Collection dataset is available in the literature.
Sir Charles Lyell, Macaronesia, Canaries, Madeira, Cenozoic, digitisation, collection.
Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, (14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) was a lawyer and geologist whose work influenced both Darwin and Wallace and has been accepted as one of the greatest geological thinkers of the 19th century. His work will be remembered among many other achievements for devising theories for earthquakes, volcanoes and stratigraphy and coining the terms for the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic geological eras. His main work is displayed in his Principles of Geology (1830-1833) (
The Fossil Lyell Collection started to be assembled in June 1846 when C. Lyell Esq., as it is recorded in the NHM catalogue books, presented Cephalaspis lyelli from the Old Red Sandstone of Glammis, Forfarshire (Scotland), figured by Agassiz in 1835 [NHMUK PV OR 20087] (
This collection is mainly composed of fossil specimens, but there are also 51 recent brachiopods, including the 9 collected by Charles Darwin (1809-1882) from Tierra del Fuego or Galapagos during his trip on board the Beagle and later given to Charles Lyell. They are mostly isolated hand specimens with the exception of 7 bryozoan cavity slides and 73 mounted bryozoans (with Lyell’s original handwriting) and 49 mounted brachiopods. There are in total 51 type and figured specimens distributed among molluscs (25), bryozoans (24), fish (1) and reptiles (1), in decreasing number (see Table
Types and cited specimens included in the Fossil Lyell Collection (group; type status; identification; and reference).
Phylum |
Type / Cited |
Specimen number |
Taxon |
Reference |
Bryozoa |
Holotype |
NHMUK PI D 53190 |
Hippothoa tuberculum |
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NHMUK PI D 53191 |
Eschara viminea |
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NHMUK PI D 53194 |
Eschara linea |
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NHMUK PI D 53195 |
Cellepora umbilicata |
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NHMUK PI D 53198 |
Cellepora similis |
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NHMUK PI D 53204 |
Eschara tubulata |
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NHMUK PI D 53205 |
Eschara petiolus |
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NHMUK PI D 53206 |
Eschara incumbes |
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Syntype |
NHMUK PI D 53201 [3 specimens] |
Escharina tumidula |
p. 502. |
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NHMUK PI D 53192 |
Cellepora quadrangularis |
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NHMUK PI D 53193 |
Cellepora quadrangularis |
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NHMUK PI D 53196 |
Cellepora informata |
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NHMUK PI D 53197 |
Cellepora informata |
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NHMUK PI D 53200 |
Cellepora quadrangularis |
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NHMUK PI D 53207 |
Lunulites contigua |
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NHMUK PI D 53208 |
Lunulites contigua |
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NHMUK PI D 53209 |
Lunulites distans |
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NHMUK PI D 53210 |
Lunulites distans |
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Figured |
NHMUK PI D 6523 |
Labioporella |
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NHMUK PI D 6527(a) |
Cryptosula |
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NHMUK PI D 6527(b) |
Onychocella |
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NHMUK PI D 6535 |
Trypostega |
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Mollusca |
Holotype |
NHMUK PI OR 43119 |
Venericardia deltoidea |
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NHMUK PI OR 43540 |
Lymnaea columellaris |
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Syntype |
NHMUK PI LL 17678 |
Unio solandri |
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NHMUK PI LL 17679 |
Unio solandri |
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NHMUK PI OR 43039(1) |
Crassatella plicata |
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NHMUK PI OR 43039(2) |
Crassatella plicata |
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NHMUK PI OR 43039(3) |
Crassatella plicata |
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NHMUK PI OR 43039(4) |
Crassatella plicata | |||
NHMUK PI OR 43548 (1) |
Melanopsis carinata |
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NHMUK PI OR 43776 |
Cancellaria laeviuscula |
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NHMUK PI OR 43798 (1) |
Voluta geminata |
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NHMUK PI OR 43798 (2) |
Voluta geminata |
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NHMUK PI OR 43798 (3) |
Voluta geminata |
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Figured |
NHMUK PI OR 44122(1) |
Ostrea flabellula |
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NHMUK PI OR 44122(2) |
Ostrea flabellula |
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NHMUK PI OR 44122(3) |
Ostrea flabellula |
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NHMUK PI OR 44122(4) |
Ostrea flabellula |
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NHMUK PI OR 43816 |
Ancilla subulata |
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Syntype |
NHMUK PI OR 43249(1) |
Mytilus Brardii |
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NHMUK PI OR 43249(2) |
Mytilus Brardii |
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NHMUK PI OR 43249(3) |
Mytilus Brardii |
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NHMUK PI OR 43249(4) |
Mytilus Brardii |
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NHMUK PI OR 43249(5) |
Mytilus Brardii |
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NHMUK PI OR 43535 |
Ancylus elegans |
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Cited |
NHMUK PI TB 14570 |
Pecten gemellari |
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Coelenterata |
Cited |
NHMUK PI PG 4320 (=NHMUK PI CL 800) |
Conularia |
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Brachiopoda |
Cited |
NHMUK PI B 16591 |
Spirifer glaber |
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Cited |
NHMUK PI B 16594 |
Producta Martini |
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Cited |
NHMUK PI B 16595 |
Producta Martini |
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Cited |
NHMUK PI B 16601 |
Producta Martini |
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Cited |
NHMUK PI B 16602 |
Producta Scotica |
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Cited |
NHMUK PI B 16603 |
Producta Martini |
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Cited |
NHMUK PI B 16605 |
Producta Scotica |
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Cited |
NHMUK PI B 16606 [20 specimens] |
Producta Martini |
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Cited |
NHMUK PI B 16611 |
Producta Martini |
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Cited |
NHMUK PI B 16613 |
Spirifer glaber |
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Cited |
NHMUK PI B 16619 |
ProductaSscotica |
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Cited |
NHMUK PI B 16626 |
Producta Scotica |
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Cited |
NHMUK PI B 16629 |
Producta Scotica |
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Cited |
NHMUK PI B 16633 |
Producta Martini |
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Chordata |
Syntype / Lectotype |
NHMUK PV OR 20087 |
Cephalaspis lyelli |
/ |
Holotype |
NHMUK PV R 4168 |
Hylonomus lyelli |
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The importance of this collection is not only historical, but also scientifically significant as being the main reason of the stratigraphic and volcanic studies that Lyell carried out in the Canaries, Madeira and Sicily. These specimens are fundamental to understand Lyell’s theory on volcano formation and the 19th century theory on uniformitarianism. Most of them come from sites that currently are resorts, sites where collecting is not possible. Therefore they enrich Natural History Museum collections and are important for Science and British National Heritage.
The size of this Collection makes it ideal to test a pilot project on digitisation of specimens scattered in the collections. A pre-study of the catalogue books made us think that there were about 700 specimens, but after the search there were more than 1,700 specimens.
To digitise this collection, as part of the Museum Strategy, a pilot project was created with the different steps to achieve the whole digitization of the collection (Fig.
Collection digitisation history
To digitise this collection, as part of the Museum Strategy, a pilot project was created with the different steps to achieve the whole digitization of the collection. This included photographs of the specimens that currently are available through the NHM Data Portal.
The beginning of the project (Fig.
The next step was the search of the specimens. According to the register books, we were able to restrict the search to specific group collections. At this stage the use of the index cards and the collaboration of colleagues were really valuable. The data collected from the specimens’ labels and letters associated to the specimens (Fig.
Once all the specimen data -of the Library and specimen labels- was recorded on an Excel spreadsheet, an appropriate template for the information collected, it was processed (ingestion, normalisation with the coinciding data in Emu -master records- and quality data) and uploaded into EMu (
The first two stages of this project, collecting all the information about the specimens and locating them in the collections, were carried out over a six week period thanks to cooperation with the University of Valencia (Spain) which funded an MSc student (
The last stage of the project was the update of the taxonomic identifications where possible, giving the suggested identifications in the determination comments. Lyell’s identifications –assuming those recorded in the catalogue books–, researcher’s identifications – as those given by the Spanish researcher Joaquin Meco in 1973; M. B. Sedda in 1992 and Noel Morris in 2017 & 2018- and suggested taxonomic names are displayed through the NHM Data Portal with the dates (approximate dates for Lyell’s) for these specimens.
The digitisation workflow has been an important way of recording decisions, above all the first stages that addressed the following steps. The most consuming time modules were the data label transcriptions, data normalisation and suggested taxonomic identifications.
Historical Collection
The origin of the different collections integrated into the Lyell collection had different sources, such as Lyell’s specimens from the Geological Society that entered in the Museum in 1911 (almost 5%, 1 is from Miss Busk, George Busk’s daughter) or those that came from Museum of Practical Geology in 1880 (almost 2%) and directly from Miss Busk in 1899 (almost 23%) and James Sowerby (0.4%) in 1861. Lyell was also the receiver of other people’s specimens [Charles Darwin’s brachiopods -0,5%-; Charles James Fox Bunbury’s gastropods -0.6%-; Giuseppe Seguenza’s molluscs from Sicily –almost 3%-; Dr Beck’s brachiopods -0.1% -; H. Cumming’s brachiopods -0.1%-; Dr Fleming’s brachiopods -0.1%-; William Mantell’s -0.2%- brachiopods; Lords of Admiralty’s and W. Stimpson’s brachiopods from the Gulf Stream Expedition -0.2%-; and William Willoughby Cole Enniskillen’s (3rd Earl) fish –only one specimen-]. But the main part of the collection came from 1846 to 1875, the latter is the year of his death, with more than 52% of the specimens. As already noted above, there have been fossils that were presented by Lyell’s successors: Leonard Lyell donated three fishes in 1913 and Lady Lyell one fish in 1980). 13% of them do not have the date when Lyell presented them to the NHM (Fig.
This collection is not only key on research of volcano formation and palaeontology of Macaronesia (93% of the palaeoflora and palaeofauna are from the North Atlantic Ocean), but it is also reference for scientific and taxonomic studies (1.5% contains types).
At this stage of the NHM digitisation development, most of the specimens have been assigned geographic coordinates (Fig.
; .
This collection covers two kingdoms, Plantae (2.26% of the sample) and Animalia (97.74%).
Plantae includes the groups Chlorophyta (0.11% of the sample and 5% of plants); Pteridophyta (0.5% of the sample and 23 % of plants); Embryophyta (0.58 % of the sample and 25 % of plants); and Magnoliophyta (1% of the sample and 46 % of plants). See Figs
Animalia includes 8 phyla: Annelida (0.3% of the sample and 0.3% of animals); Bryozoa (24% of the sample and 24.5% of animals); Mollusca (64.21% of the sample and 66% of animals); Brachiopoda (4.9% of the sample and 5% of animals); Coelenterata (0.05% of the sample and 0.05% of animals); Echinodermata (0.46% of the sample and 0.47% of animals); Trilobita (0.11% of the sample and 0.11% of animals); and Chordata (2.49% of the sample and 2.55% of animals). See Figs
Most of the molluscs had no identification and the others had obsolete taxonomic names. All the specimens have been identified as much as their preservation allowed and through the knowledge of the NHM research associates. The obsolete names have been suggested to be changed to the updated ones on the NHM Data Portal.
As a palaeontological collection, its stratigraphical distribution is important. They are mainly Cenozoic specimens, largely from the Tertiary (more than 61%) and Quaternary (more than 35%) of Macaronesia. The rest of the specimens are from the Silurian to Cretaceous and are in very low numbers (Fig.
Lyell visited the Canaries and the Madeira islands from December 1853 to April 1854. He was guided around Gran Canaria by the Spanish engineer Pedro Maffiotte (1816-1870) and around Madeira by the Portuguese military engineer Major Antonio Azevedo and the German Georg Hartung (1821–1891), who had an interest in geology. All of them contributed to Lyell’s collection. Maffiotte posted to Lyell further material from the localities that they had visited together and exchanged letters with him for twelve years between 1854 and 1866. Lyell spent several years studying the specimens collected from these islands, and exchanged letters with other researchers in an attempt to determine the identities of the species present.
Photographs of the specimens and an article on the planification of the Lyell Project
Column label | Column description |
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Project | Narrative |
Types and cited specimens included in the Fossil Lyell Collection (group; type status; identification; and reference).
Column label | Column description |
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Phyllum | Phylum names |
Type/Cited | Types and figured and cited specimens' names |
Specimen number | Registration number |
Taxon | Published taxon |
Reference | Publication |
Lyell Collection with identifications and specimen numbers
Column label | Column description |
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Registration-No.:(Registration) | Specimen number |
Description:(Catalogue) | Group |
Taxon:(Determination-Details)/Taxonomy:(Object-Details) | Identfication |
Number:(Type-And-Number-Of-Objects) | Number of specimens |
Reduced project cost
This pilot project has been carried out with few resources. Regarding staff working on this, there was a curator involved in the whole project; an MSc student working only 6 weeks on the project; a volunteer working a day per week over a year; an NHM photographer working for 3 months full time; a research associate working a day per week over two months giving broad IDs; and less than one day for each curator with Lyell specimens in their collections. Other additional costs comprise consumables such as plastazote, acid free trays, archival pens, and archival paper for new labels. The success of this was due to advanced planning and resource tracking.
Each stage accomplishes a particular objective and creates inputs to the next stage (Fig.
This is a good example of reduced cost for digitisation infrastructure creation maintaining a high public profile for digitisation.
Collection results
A scattered and unrecorded collection has been assembled, recorded, photographed and displayed through the NHM Data Portal that currently is under the Beta version. The taxonomic names given by Lyell, where these have been preserved, are respected, but also suggested taxonomic names are displayed in comments through the NHM Data Portal. The importance of this project lies in the Collection being ready for research, not only on taxonomy, but also for stratigraphic and volcanic formation studies, as 93% of the specimens come from the Macaronesia islands.
The specimens have been re-housed in plastazote, acid free trays in a new location with all the molluscs in the same cabinet, with easier access for research and for salvage purposes.
The display of this data virtually eliminates the need for specimen handling by researchers and will greatly speed up response time to collection enquires.
This pilot project procedure and its workflow are advantageous for new digitisation projects regarding collections containing a variety of specimens of different taxonomic groups.
This project could not be possible without the help of an MSc student, Teresa Máñez from University of Valencia (Spain). I am also grateful to my colleagues Noel Morris for his help with mollusc identifications, Jon Todd for advice and finding the Lyell specimens published by James Sowerby in his encyclopaedic work The Mineral Conchology of Great Britain, Jane Barnbrook for re-boxing the molluscs and annelids and the NHM science photographer Kevin Webb and the researcher Carlos Góis-Marques from the University of Lisbon (Portugal) for the fossil animal and plant photographs respectively. I do not want to miss this opportunity to acknowledge the work carried out previously by the former NHM mollusc curator John Cooper and the collaboration of all my curation colleagues in this project, by alphabetical surname order: Emma Bernard; Pip Brewer; Sandra Chapman; Jill Darrell; Tim Ewin; Peta Hayes; Zoe Hughes; Claire Mellish; Roula Pappa; and Martha Richter.
The origin of the different collections integrated into the Lyell collection by different sources