STUDYING FOSSILS IN ENGLAND, AUSTRIA, AND 



HUNGARY 



By R. S. BASSLER 

 Head Curator, Department of Geology, U. S. National Museum 



The circumstances attending the acquisition by the Institution of 

 the remarkable Frank Springer collection of fossil echinoderms, as 

 well as Doctor Springer's plans for its study and increase, were set 

 forth in the Explorations Report for 1929. 1 Here also I reported 

 how in fulfillment of his wishes I spent my field season of 1929 in 

 Europe in obtaining new material and especially in preparing casts 

 of unique type specimens in the Barrande collection at Prague, Bo- 

 hemia. It was here noted that time was available for collecting only 

 in France and Germany, leaving other equally interesting areas for 

 future investigation. Much effort has since been spent in the prepa- 

 ration and installation in the study series and the exhibition series 

 of fossils resulting from that summer's work. 



One of the results, a slab of limestone about 4 feet in length, ob- 

 tained from the Mesozoic (Triassic) limestone of Germany in co- 

 operation with the Geological Institute of the University of Halle, 

 originally showed upon its surfaces only a few calices of crinoids, or 

 so-called sea-lilies. Preparation in the National Museum's laboratory 

 by carefully chiseling away the surrounding rock has revealed no less 

 than 30 complete bodies and a multitude of columns, many preserv- 

 ing their bases. Although not a result of the present field season's 

 work, this slab is of such interest as an exhibit and also as evidence 

 of tangible results in building up the Springer collection that a photo- 

 graph of it is here introduced (fig. 6). This illustration does not do 

 the subject justice, as the solid, slightly expanded bases of the crinoid, 

 the long columns composed of many buttonlike segments with a body 

 or calyx several inches in length are unusually well preserved in the 

 rock and still possess a reddish tint, possibly as in life, which causes 

 the fossil remains to stand out sharply on the creamy white back- 

 ground of the limestone. 



Opportunity for continuing field-work abroad was afforded the 

 past summer when in the interests of the Springer collection I was 

 detailed to study in various European museums, particularly of Eng- 



1 Explorations and Field-work of the Smithsonian Institution in 1929, p. 9, 1930. 



5 



