Cartilaginous fish (OUMNH PAL-J.003184)3D Model
Lyme Regis, Dorset, England. Lower Jurassic. (~200 million years old).
Amongst Elizabeth Philpot’s extensive fossil fish collection is a small, extinct cartilaginous fish - Squaloraja polyspondyla. Many of Elizabeth’s specimens have handwritten labels and here you can see her distinctive handwriting describing “186 vertebrae, about 50 of which are under the skin”.
The species caused some disagreement between Victorian fossil collectors. Another Squaloraja was sold by Mary Anning to Geological Society Fellow John Naish Sanders in two parts. John, however, only received the body, much to his disappointment. He called on Elizabeth Philpot’s help to reunite the two parts, but it proved to be fortunate that the tail was never returned to the body as the latter was presented to the Bristol Museum and subsequently destroyed during the Blitz.
Specimen: OUMNH PAL- J.003184 Collections Online: https://oumnh.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/oum-catalogue-722801
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