Darwin-L Message Log 3:83 (November 1993)

Academic Discussion on the History and Theory of the Historical Sciences

This is one message from the Archives of Darwin-L (1993–1997), a professional discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.

Note: Additional publications on evolution and the historical sciences by the Darwin-L list owner are available on SSRN.

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<3:83>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu  Sun Nov 21 20:18:22 1993

Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1993 21:26:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Darwin's lost Galapagos fossils
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

This message comes from Jere Lipps who was having difficulty posting
it.  Please reply either to him or to the group as a whole.

Bob O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)

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When Darwin sailed into the Galapagos, one of the ship's crewmen climbed
Cerro Brujo on San Cristobal and returned with some fossils.  Darwin
reported this (3d edition of Geological Observations, 1896, p. 130)
and used the occurrence of these fossils as evidence that the tuff cone
of Cerro Brujo had been uplifted, although he acknowledged that they
could have also been carried up to their height (of several hundred feet)
by the eruption.

In 1986, Carole Hickman and I together with several others collected many
fossils from Cerro Brujo.  We'd like to write up this occurrence and
have searched the Natural History Museum, London, Oxford U., Cambridge U.,
and the Geol. Soc. of London for the material Darwin wrote about.  No luck.
No one seems to know where the fossils are.  Does anyone out there have
any ideas?

Jere H. Lipps (jlipps@ucmp1.Berkeley.EDU)
Museum of Paleontology
UC Berkeley

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