Abstract
THE Department of Geology in the British Museum (Natural History) has now resumed publication of the interesting and informative series of guide-books that were issued at intervals in pre-war years. The exhibition galleries were largely dismantled at the beginning of the War, and the Museum itself was afterwards severely damaged by enemy action. The re-assembling of the exhibits, and the execution of plans for re-arrangement already made in 1938, will require a long time to complete. Meanwhile, as a first step, an exhibit has been set out which is intended to serve as an introduction to the study of fossils. The fossils are stratigraphically arranged, and epitomize the succession of life through geological time. The exhibit also shows how fossils reflect past conditions, and suggests how the various forms of life developed and reacted one on another in diverse environmental associations. The new guide-book, which is primarily intended to be used in conjunction with the exhibit, is entitled "The Succession of Life through Geological Time", the authors being K. P. Oakley and Helen M. Muir-Wood. It is priced at 2s. 6d., consists of 92 pages, and includes an adequate number of well-executed black-and-white drawings and four palseogeographical maps. There is also an attractive colour plate, figuring, in natural surroundings, a reconstruction of one of the first birds, Archceopteryx, the unique specimen of which, from the Jurassic Limestone of Bavaria, is on exhibit in the Museum. Allowing for the increased costs of production, the price is very modest, and the guide might well prove useful as a supplement to the more orthodox elementary text-books of geology.
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Fossils at the British Museum (Natural History). Nature 163, 242 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163242d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163242d0