A page from Robert Kidston's fossil diary
A gentleman's collection
25 August 2008
A 'gentleman scientist' who donated his fossil collection to the British Geological Survey in 1925 would be surprised to find his plant collection is a valuable tool for scientists studying climate change.
Robert Kidston, one of the British Geological Survey's great palaeontologists of the early 20th Century, was also a 'gentleman scientist', like Charles Darwin, Robert Boyle and others before him.
While studying palaeontology as a young man, he inherited a large sum of money enabling him to finance his own studies and follow wherever his scientific interests took him. This was mostly in the field of fossil plants, photography and palaeontological illustration.
Forgotten collection
In 1925, he bequeathed a huge collection of fossil plants to the British Geological Survey (BGS). Kidston's 7500 fossils filled 400 draws in the BGS museum and its value was largely forgotten. A resurgence in geological climate change research in the last ten years has meant that professionally-curated fossil collections are highly valued. Scientists are now using the fossils, which date from the Carboniferous period around 360-299 million years ago, to understand the environment, and in particular climate change, during that time.
Scientist have estimated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide 300 million years ago.
Kidston would probably never have imagined the new use for his fossils. In the last decade, palaeontologists have made an important development in reconstructing ancient environments and atmospheres by studying fossilised plant organs. Kidston's collection enables climate scientists to use the best fossil material without having to go looking in the field.
Thanks to his obsessive attention to detail, we have very comprehensive records of the geological age and geographical position of each specimen; this combined with superb preservation means that the collection is unique in palaeobotany and is gathering an international reputation.
The fossils are so well preserved that scientists are able to study their stomata - the tiny pores in leaves which regulate gas exchange. The amount of stomata present, can tell us a lot about the atmosphere at the time the plants grew. British researchers have assessed the density of stomata on Kidston's fossil leaf surfaces and from that, they have estimated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide 300 million years ago. These estimates feed directly into computers that model climate change and help predict future change.
A fossil from the extensive collection
Some fossils in the collection are so well preserved that their sporangia, or spore-bearing structures, are still intact and unopened after 300 million years. Palaeobotanists from the Czech Republic are regular visitors to the BGS museum and have managed to liberate these trapped spores using special chemicals. These newly-released spores and their parent plants which are mainly extinct are helping geologists to reconstruct the Carboniferous coal swamp forests in great detail.
Our curatorial staff are still getting to grips with the superb range and quality of Kidston's specimens but they are registering them in the BGS palaeosaurus database to make them more accessible to scientists. The value of such fossil collections are being realised the world over. Who knows what other forgotten collections gathering dust in a dark corner might suddenly become the object of intense scientific interest?
Mike Stephenson is a palaeontologist and Christine Thomson is a curator at the British Geological Survey.
Interesting? Spread the word using the 'tools' menu on the right.
