BEITISH GEAPTOLITES 



HISTORY OF KESEARCH. 



The History of E-esearcli among Graptolites commences in tlie early years of 

 the eigliteentli century. Examples of these fossils were first noticed in the 

 works of von Bromell about 1727, and a few years later the name Gra2')tolithus 

 was first suggested by Linngeus in his ' Sy sterna Natura3.' 



The History itself falls conveniently into four periods. In the first of these 

 (1727 to 1850) papers upon Graptolites were comparatively rare, and their authors 

 did little more than figure and describe the forms which they collected. During 

 the second period (1850 to 1865) the brilliant papers of Barrande in Europe and 

 Hall in America called universal attention to the abundance and variety of 

 Graptolites in the older Palaeozoic rocks, and these authors laid the foundation of 

 our present ideas respecting their structiire and their alliances. During the third 

 period (18G6 to 1880) the workers among these fossils were largely British, who 

 devoted themselves firstly to the investigation and description of the British species 

 and the determination of their geological horizons ; and secondly to the discussion 

 of the problems of the classification, zonal distribution, and probable mode of life 

 of the Graptolites in general. Finally, during the fourth period (reaching from 

 1881 doAvn to the present time) the workers among Graptolites have been mainly 

 non-British, especially Swedish, and the advances made have been great, par- 

 ticularly as respects the intimate structure of the fossils themselves, their 

 distribution in space and in time, and their probable conditions of existence. 



A separate chapter is here devoted to each of these four periods. The pul)]ica- 

 tions of the several investigators are taken u[) in chronological sequence, and each 

 generic or specific title when proposed or eni})l()ye(i for the first time is dis- 

 tinguished by being printed in clarendon type. 



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