The uneasy correspondence between T. H. Huxley and E. P. Wright on fossil vertebrates found in Jarrow, Co. Kilkenny (1865–67)

• Published in: Notes and records of the Royal Society of London Vol. 65; no. 3; pp. 253 - 271
• Main Authors: DeArce, Miguel, Monaghan, Nigel T., Wyse Jackson, Patrick N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 20-09-2011; Royal Society Publishing
• Subjects: Amphibians; Archives; Coal; Edward Perceval Wright; Fossil Amphibians; Fossils; Geological surveys; Geology; Irish history; Jarrow; Natural history; Paleontology; Thomas Henry Huxley; Trinity College Dublin; Vertebrates; William Hellier Baily; British Isles, England, Greater London, London; Eire, Leinster, Kilkenny
• ISSN: 0035-9149; 1743-0178
• DOI: 10.1098/rsnr.2010.0081

The collection of Carboniferous fish and amphibian fossils found in Jarrow in 1864 has been the object of several studies, and has resided successively in at least three Irish museums. This paper draws from the Huxley archives in Imperial College London and from other archives to trace the history of its finding and earliest description. The story was marked by naivety, ambition, abuse, deception and delays, but eventually some of the fossils were salvaged by the expertise and determined action of Thomas Henry Huxley, not usually known for his patience, who stepped into a minefield of conflicting interests but managed to publish and illustrate seven new genera and species from among the specimens. In so doing he trampled, perhaps by relying too much on Wright's assurances, on the sensitivities and possible claims to priority of other local experts.