Fossil and Recent ostracod collections
Introduction
This website allows users to search for information about individual fossil and Recent ostracod collections housed at the Natural History Museum. The information given is about collections rather than individual specimens and is intended to act as a taster so that more detailed enquiries can be made to the curator if necessary. For each collection there is a list of taxa identified, a list of publications, a list of people associated with the acquisition, stratigraphical and geographical details. The collection can therefore be searched via any of these features. To contact the curator, email us.
What is an ostracod?
Ostracods are microscopic crustaceans with a bivalved calcareous shell. These shells are minute, typically 0.2mm to 2mm long but are readily fossilised and can occur in enormous numbers in some sediments. Ostracods inhabit every aquatic environment including the deep oceans, estuaries, lagoons, freshwater, salt lakes, hot springs and even damp terrestrial environments so their shells are equally widely dispersed as fossils. They are extant but also have a long fossil record stretching back to the Ordovician, almost 500 million years ago. They have a varied life style ranging from free swimming to interstitial, resting amongst bottom sediment. Most are benthic carnivores or herbivores, crawling and scavenging, while some are filter feeders and others parasitic. See the University of Greenwich web site for more details about the biology of the Ostracoda.
The NHM palaeontology department has enormous collections of fossil and living ostracods including 20,000 single specimen mounts in a taxonomically organised index collection and many more faunal slides. Material from the collections has been designated as type, figured or been referred to in just over 600 peer reviewed scientific publications. There are also three large collections donated to the museum in the last two decades that contain significant numbers of ostracod slides; the Hull University Collection, The Former British Petroleum Collection and the Aberystwyth University Collection.
Arrangement of the collection
The three major collections listed above have been kept separate from the main type and figured ostracod collection. Two of them are available to search on a collections level on the museum's website and every specimen in the Hull Collection has been databased on an electronic catalogue. The type and figured collection and associated slides have been arranged stratigraphically with individual named slides and assemblage slides kept together. The majority of the Recent material is housed in the Zoology Department, although there are a few Recent specimens held in the Palaeontology Department.
Collectors, donors and publishers
It is not possible to list the names of all those associated with the collection. A list of publications is available here as is a browsable list of individual collections names. Major donors to the collection include Ray Bate, T. Rupert Jones, Robin Whatley, Eric Robinson and Peter Sylvester-Bradley.
Geographical coverage
Just over half of the collection is from the UK but there is also material from the following countries and areas: Atlantic Ocean, Australia, Belgium, Borneo, Brazil, Canada, China, Congo, Cyprus, Former Soviet Union, France, Gabon, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Holland, Indian Ocean, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Java, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Sea, Mongolia, Pacific Ocean, Pakistan, Poland, Red Sea, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, U.S.A.
Stratigraphical coverage
The collection covers the entire geological history of the Ostracoda from the Ordovician to the Recent. Particular strengths are in the Carboniferous, Jurassic, Cretaceous and Eocene.
Enquiries
Further information about the collection can be obtained from the BP and Aberystwyth web sites or contact the Palaeontology Department Enquiries Service