EE VIEWS. 
287 
FOSSIL CRUSTACEA.* 
P ERHAPS no more striking example of the usefulness of the process of 
taking stock in scientific matters could very well be adduced than the 
“Catalogue of British Fossil Crustacea” just prepared by Mr. Henry 
Woodward, and published by the Trustees of the British Museum. Little 
more than twenty years ago, when Professor Morris brought out the second 
edition of his admirable “Catalogue of British Fossils,” he recorded only 
306 species of crustaceans. The advance in this department of palaeonto- 
logy has since been so great that Mr. Woodward can now number no fewer 
than 979 distinct species, besides 72 named varieties. The number has 
thus been considerably more than trebled in twenty years, and when we 
remember that for the most part the additions have been made sporadically, 
that is to say, by scattered descriptions and notices in a great number of 
books and papers, it will easily be seen that Mr. Woodward has a strong 
claim upon the gratitude of all students of palaeontology for the labour he 
has undergone in producing his present work. And this labour is by no 
means small ; the catalogue contains not only a classified enumeration of 
the known British crustacean fossils, with particulars of the formations and 
localities in which they occur, but also a full synonymy of both genera and 
species. Mr. Woodward is so well known as a careful and conscientious 
student of the fossil remains of this class of animals, that it is almost un- 
necessary to say that his work is thoroughly well done, and will prove a 
most valuable aid to all future investigators. 
The study of the fossil Crustacea presents many points of high in- 
terest. They are, as Mr. Woodward well indicates, among the very oldest 
of undoubted organic remains. Leaving the Laurentian Eozoon out of the 
question, as still of somewhat uncertain nature, the Lower Cambrian de- 
posits of the St. David’s district of South Wales have furnished various geolo- 
gists, and especially Mr. Henry Hicks, with a series of fossils among which 
crustaceans occupy the very first rank, not only as regards their number 
when compared with the fossil organisms of other groups, but also as present- 
ing a complexity of organization which would seem to indicate that even 
at that remote period of the earth’s history they must have had already a 
long series of predecessors. Trilobites, some of them of large size and very 
complex structure, can hardly be regarded as representing the earliest rea- 
lization even of the crustacean type ; and their occurrence so low down in 
the series of stratified rocks may serve as an encouragement to geologists to 
search elsewhere in deposits of still greater antiquity for traces of the dawn 
of life. 
Starting from this point the Crustacea go on through the whole series of 
fossiliferous deposits, acquiring a greater and greater variety of form and 
organization as they advance towards the present day. Of the thirteen 
orders into which Mr. Woodward divides the class, only two have become 
* “ A Catalogue of British Fossil Crustacea, with their synonyms and 
the range in time of each genus and order.” By Henry Woodward, F.R.S., 
F.G.S. 8vo. Printed by order of the Trustees of the British Museum. 
London. 1877. 
