Drawings intended for AGASSIZ (1833-1843): taxonomic implications for fishes from the Solnhofen Archipelago curated in Prague

Ebert, Martin; Ekrt, Boris; Lam, Caroline; Koelbl-Ebert, Martina und Lopez-Arbarello, Adriana (2022): Drawings intended for AGASSIZ (1833-1843): taxonomic implications for fishes from the Solnhofen Archipelago curated in Prague. In: Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie / Abhandlungen, Bd. 306, Nr. 3: S. 227-263

Abstract

AGASSIZ's work is the basis for the taxonomical descriptions of a large number of fish spe-cies from the Upper Jurassic Solnhofen Archipelago. Most species in his work are well described and most type specimens are figured. Unfortunately, he also introduced some species names with insuffi-cient descriptions and also failed to provide images, so that it is still unclear what he actually meant with these nominal taxa, the type specimens of which are unknown. However, AGASSIZ commissioned many fish drawings, which he was unable to publish in his work, possibly for financial reasons. The majority of these drawings were donated to the Geological Society (London) in four separate batches between 1843 and 1881. The collection was not properly catalogued until relatively recently, with digital images of many of them only accessible from 2017 when the Geological Society's Archive cat-alogue went online. Consequently, for many species it becomes clear for the first time what AGASSIZ understood by these species, which specimens he used for his research and which specimens we must consider as type specimens today. Many of these specimens from the Solnhofen Archipelago are in the National Museum in Prague, which in AGASSIZ's time was one of the largest collections of fishes from the Solnhofen Archipelago. Here we present photographs of the original specimens together with the associated drawings from the Geological Society's collection for each specimen from the Solnhofen Archipelago in the Prague collection for which a drawing is available. Most of these fishes are figured here for the first time and their relevance for taxonomic research is delineated.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Geowissenschaften > Department für Geo- und Umweltwissenschaften
• Themengebiete: 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 550 Geowissenschaften, Geologie
• ISSN: 0077-7749
• Sprache: Englisch