Home

The d'Orbigny Palaeontological Collection of the National Museum of Natural History and Science, Lisbon, Portugal: Historical perspective and revision of Cretaceous Cephalopoda

Fernando BARROSO-BARCENILLA, Miguel Telles ANTUNES, José Manuel BRANDÃO, Pedro Miguel CALLAPEZ, Vanda Faria dos SANTOS & Manuel SEGURA

en Geodiversitas 40 (20) - Pages 505-519

Published on 11 October 2018

The study in course of the materials rescued from the fire that in 1978, destroyed much of the palae­ontological collections of the current National Museum of Natural History and Science (Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência) of Lisbon, has allowed the rediscovery of several Cretaceous cephalopods (and the corresponding original labels) that the renowned palaeontologist Alcide d’Orbigny, according to the wishes of the emperor Napoleon III, offered to the king Pedro V in 1855, in order to re-establish the good relationships between France and Portugal. These historical specimens correspond to nautiloids: Angulithes triangularis de Montfort, 1808; ammonoids: Phylloceras (Hypophylloceras) tethys (d’Orbigny, 1840), Ptychophylloceras (Semisulcatoceras) semisulcatum (d’Orbigny, 1840), Neolissoceras grasianum (d’Orbigny, 1840), Pleurohoplites (Pleurohoplites) renauxianus (d’Orbigny, 1840), Acanthoceras rhotomagense (Brongniart, 1822), Coilopoceras requienianus (d’Orbigny, 1840) and Turrilites (Turrilites) costatus Lamarck, 1801; and belemnoids: Duvalia dilatata (de Blainville, 1827), Hibolithes subfusiformis (Raspail, 1829) and Belemnitella mucronata (von Schlotheim, 1813). All of them come from outcrops relevant for the French stratigraphy, and they seem to have been selected by d’Orbigny with a representative criterion.


Keywords:

Alcide d’Orbigny, historical types, Nautiloidea, Ammonoidea, Belemnitida, Cretaceous

Download full article in PDF format Order a reprint