Few Earth Science departments are as fortunate as we are in Glasgow in being closely linked to the collections and curatorial expertise of a major museum. The Hunterian Museum was founded and made available to the public in 1807 and thus is Glasgow's oldest public museum. It takes its name from Dr William Hunter who was Queen Charlotte's (wife of George III) gynaecologist and a major collector of works of art, manuscripts, coins and medical, archaeological, ethnographical and natural history materials. His vast and priceless collection was bequeathed to Glasgow University in 1783. Most of the million or so geological specimens have been acquired since that date either by individual donation or through the acquisition of important research collections, some from the academic and museum staff and research students. Willaim Hunter's brother, also a medical man, founded another Hunterian Museum at what is now the Royal College of Surgeons in London.
The museum is undergoing continuing major refurbishment and there are many new exhibits and important specimens worth seeing. The curatorial staff in geology will always endeavour to show you material from the collections (by arrangement) and will help with identification of material you have collected yourself. These facilities are at your disposal: please make full use of them.
The aim of the practical is to introduce you to the Museum (if you haven't visited it before) and to enable you to have 'hands-on' experience especially of some aspects of vertebrate palaeontology. Many of the topics continue themes from the lectures and the invertebrate fossil labs. The practical should at least provide you with insights into some important facets of the history of life on Earth.
A. Preservation
Some of the vertebrate fossils you will be examining are preserved as complete skeletons (in some cases articulated); others as isolated bones. Q.1. Which of these types of preservation do you think is most common in the geological record? What environmental conditions are required for the preservation of complete skeletons?
Bone is composed of calcium phosphate and has a porous structure. It is therefore relatively light. Q.2. Examine the sub-fossil giant deer jaw from the late Pleistocene of Ireland and the Pleistocene (about 2 million year old 'Ma') mammoth tusk. Compare these with the Mid Jurassic (about 160 Ma) pliosaur bones and teeth in the lab. and on display (Exhibit 8D). Explain their different densities.
sub-fossil giant deer jaw
mammoth tusk
Pliosaurs and plesiosaurs are both marine reptiles termed plesiosaurians. The former are commonly very large animals with large heads (and teeth!) and short necks. The latter have long necks and small (but effective) heads. (see Exhibits 8A, 8F) and also the very large, partially repaired pliosaur bones in the lab.
Pliosaur bones and teeth
Juvenile Pliosaur limb bone
Atlas axis of pliosaur
Pliosaur teeth
B. Conservation
Pyrite is a common diagenetic mineral growing in the pores of fossil bone or even replacing the bone material. Under damp conditions in air it reacts with water to produce sulphuric acid which reacts with bone and other substances to produce calcium sulphate (gypsum). This is termed 'pyrite rot'.Q.1. Examine the effects of 'pyrite rot' seen in the limb bone of the Jurassic ichthyosaur Ophthalmosaurus and in the plesiosaur ribs (compare with unaffected ribs). Describe the physical effects of 'pyrite rot'.
Such deterioration of fossil vertebrate material is a common problem and conservation measures have to be undertaken to prevent the complete loss of the specimens Q.2. Examine and describe the specimens of plesiosaur ribs and the repaired limb bone of another Jurassic plesiosaur, Cryptoclidus. The latter literally exploded in a packing case when housed in a rather damp store.
Pyrite rot in plesiosaur rib bone
Limb bone of Ophthalmosaurus
Cryptoclidus bone that has exploded!
Q.3. What measures should a museum take to prevent the decay of such valuable fossil material?
C. Curatorial jigsaws
Complete but disarticulated vertebrate skeletons need to be carefully repaired and reassembled in order to understand the morphology of the animal. The Hunterian Museum has very many scales and bones of a very large (over 2m) holostean fish, Lepidotes latifrons, from the Middle Jurassic Lower Oxford Clay near Peterborough. These are being painstakingly reassembled and a partial reconstruction is in case 8B. This is the largest known specimen of this species; the type specimen of this species in the Natural History Museum in London is only about half this size. Q.1. In the lab., examine the replica of part of the reconstructed head. Compare the weight of the latter with that of one of the genuine skull roof bones. Marvel at the patience and skill required for such a reconstruction.
Map of the body scales

Real skull bones on left and casts on right
Mould of Lepidotes scales with real scales still within

Q.2. Why do you think plastic replicas are being made of reassembled sections of this fossil? Q.3. Compare this material with the Lower Jurassic specimen of L. elvensis on display in the museum (wall case 4E) Note and explain the differences.
Reconstructed skeletons make very effective displays.

Cryptoclidus eurymerus
Q.4. Examine the museum display (exhibit 8A) of the plesiosaur Cryptoclidus eurymerus and make notes on the mode of life of this Jurassic marine reptile. How did it swim? (click here to see the skeleton on display) How did it reproduce (n.b. most reptiles lay eggs)? Q.5. Examine the reconstructed bones of C. eurymerus in the lab. What part of its skeleton do they belong to?



D. Trace fossils
Trace fossils are a record of the activities of animals preserved in or on sediments such as tracks, trails, burrows and borings. Vertebrate footprints are trace fossils which can provide a lot of information about the animal which made them. Q.1. Examine the track of the Cretaceous (about 140Ma) dinosaur (exhibit 6E) both from close-up and from a distance. Note the impressions of the three digits which have the inner toe shorter than the outer - a characteristic of Iguanodon and its relatives. Interpret the gait (walking) pattern of Iguanodon from its track.
Q.2. Examine the only known Scottish dinosaur footprint (from the Middle Jurassic (about 180Ma) of Skye) (exhibit 6G).
Q.3. Examine the trackway made by the Carboniferous 'millipede' Arthropleura in exhibit 6C. A half-scale model of the animal together with a specimen and limb replica are on display (exhibit 6B). Note its size.

Body segment of Arthropleura
Q.4. Small animals can leave tracks and trails too. Examine the exhibit showing some of these.
E. Morphology related to Mode of Life
Similar morphologies can be evolved by unrelated animals adopting similar modes of life (convergent evolution).
Q.1. Examine and sketch the skeletons of the marine reptiles Stenopterygius (an ichthyosaur) and Metriorhynchus (a marine crocodile) and the model of Mosasaurus (a marine lizard). Note and interpret the similarities in overall body plan. What other vertebrates show similar morphologies? Note the modern skull in the lab. What do you think it might belong to? See also the ichthyosaur on display - exhibit 7A and particularly the one showing carbonised soft tissue in exhibit 10A.