Science Art: Plate XII foldout by Thomas Davidson, from The geologist : a popular monthly magazine of geology.

From Thomas Davidson's Palaeontological Notes on the Brachiopoda: http://biodiversitylibrary.org/item/176366#page/495/mode/1upThese are fossilized shells from Thomas Davidson’s “On Some Fossil Brachiopoda,” or “Palaeontological Notes on the Brachiopoda,” from this magazine dedicated to amateur geologists published in 1858.

Amateurs were a lot less amateur in the 1850s, I reckon.

Reading on, we learn that the Rev. T.W. Norwood, of Cheltenham, really loved wandering around North Cave and collecting fossils in a stone he called “ligniferous marl.”

Which would be a great name for a character in something.

I found this thanks to the Biodiversity Heritage Library.