Abstract Sir Arthur Smith Woodward published many scientific works on fossil fishes from Brazil, among them the description of 14 new species and the redefinition of two lectotypes. This paper provides an illustrated, taxonomic update on the following taxa, together with comments on their repository and other relevant remarks: Lissodus nitidus ( Woodward, 1888 ), Rhinoptera prisca Woodward, 1907 , ‘ Lepidotes ’ mawsoni Woodward, 1888 , ‘ Lepidotes ’ souzai Woodward, 1908 a , Calamopleurus mawsoni ( Woodward, 1902 ), ‘ Belonostomus ’ carinatus Mawson & Woodward, 1907 , Paleopiquitinga brasiliensis ( Woodward, 1939 ), Lignobrycon ligniticus ( Woodward, 1898 ), Brycon avus ( Woodward, 1898 ), Steindachneridion iheringi ( Woodward, 1898 ), Scombroclupeoides scutata ( Woodward, 1908 a ), Macracara prisca Woodward, 1939 , Mawsonia gigas Woodward, 1907 , Mawsonia minor Woodward, 1908 a ; Vinctifer comptoni ( Agassiz, 1841 ) and Notelops brama ( Agassiz, 1841 ).

Abstract Arthur Smith Woodward commanded international respect and acclaim. He was honoured in scientific circles from Russia to the Americas and throughout Europe, particularly for his outstanding work on fossil fish. He was distinguished in both his exceptional abilities as a vertebrate palaeontologist and in his tall, authoritative presence. He appeared confident, contained and in control, while his intellectual gifts had been apparent from a very early age. He was a remarkable scientist, but a man whose reputation has for too long been seen through the prism of the Piltdown forgery.

Abstract Fossil chondrichthyan teeth played an important part in the establishment of a scientific understanding of ‘formed stones’. Following a slowly emerging taxonomy, Louis Agassiz presented the first comprehensive guide to Palaeozoic chondrichthyans in the 1830s. The next contribution of any substance was Arthur Smith Woodward’s Catalogue of Fossil Fishes in the British Museum (Natural History) with a historical, descriptive and systematic review of the chondrichthyans, a group on which he already had an impressively large publication record. Initially stimulated by his observations on an articulated petalodont dentition ( Climaxodus ), Smith Woodward erected the Bradyodonti in 1921. Defined on the possession of dentitions with very slow growth rates, only seven or eight successional teeth produced throughout the lifetime of the fish, and retention rather than shedding of earlier teeth, primarily by fusion to later ones, the bradyodonts embraced petalodonts, psammodonts, copodonts and cochliodonts. The establishment and subsequent demise of the bradyodonts is briefly reviewed here.

Abstract In the pioneering century of Australian geology the ‘BM’ (British Museum (Natural History): now NHMUK) London played a major role in assessing the palaeontology and stratigraphical relations of samples sent across long distances by local men, both professional and amateur. Eighteen-year-old Arthur Woodward (1864–1944) joined the museum in 1882, was ordered to change his name and was catapulted into vertebrate palaeontology, beginning work on Australian fossils in 1888. His subsequent career spanned six decades across the nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries and, although Smith (renamed to distinguish him from NHMUK colleagues) Woodward never visited Australia, he made significant contributions to the study of Australian fossil fishes and other vertebrates. ‘ASW’ described Australian and Antarctic Palaeozoic to Quaternary fossils in some 30 papers, often deciding or confirming the age of Australasian rock units for the first time, many of which have contributed to our understanding of fish evolution. Smith Woodward’s legacy to vertebrate palaeontology was blighted by one late middle-age misjudgement, which led him away from his first-chosen path. ASW’s work, especially on palaeoichthyology with his four-part Catalogue of Fossil Fishes , was one of the foundations for vertebrate palaeontology in Australia; it continues to resonate, and influenced subsequent generations via his unofficial student Edwin Sherbon Hills. Some taxa, however, have never been revisited.

Abstract The Natural History Museum (NHMUK) fossil reptile collections contain a set of specimens sent to Arthur Smith Woodward in 1908 by the Argentinian palaeontologist, Florentino Ameghino. This collection includes a skull and other material of Cricosaurus , a metriorhynchid thalattosuchian (or ‘sea crocodile’), a group of marine crocodylomorphs that existed from at least the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. Handwritten labels in Spanish, probably by Ameghino, and notes in English signed by Smith Woodward are still with the specimens. Using Ameghino and Smith Woodward’s correspondence to investigate the history of the specimens, we have determined that they came from the Vaca Muerta Formation of the Neuquén Basin in Patagonia, they were in the fossil collection of the Museo Nacional, Buenos Aires (MNBA) and that Ameghino loaned them to Smith Woodward for a study that was never published. Therefore, they will be returned to Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ‘Bernardino Rivadavia’, Buenos Aires. These fossils, although not the most impressive, are probably the first metriorhynchid material collected in South America.

Abstract In 1884, Arthur Smith Woodward first met Charles Dawson, a solicitor and industrious amateur collector, antiquarian, geologist, archaeologist and palaeontologist. This began a long association and friendship centred on their mutual interest in palaeontology and human evolution. Dawson devised a complicated plot focused around the ancient river gravel deposits at Barkham Manor near the village of Piltdown, Sussex. In these gravels he planted stone tools and fossil mammal remains together with the lower jaw of an ape and numerous modern human cranial bones to deceive the scientific establishment into believing an early human ancestor had been found in his own back yard. Cleverly devised to provide anatomists and archaeologists with evidence for concepts that they wanted to believe were true, Dawson fuelled numerous contentious debates among scientists that quickly attracted international attention. Nothing could be more unfortunate than such a respectable scientist as Arthur Smith Woodward being taken in by the events of 1912, and then subsequently swept along by them well into his retirement right up to the time of his death in 1944.

Abstract Arthur Smith Woodward was the Natural History Museum’s longest-serving Keeper of Geology and the world’s leading expert on fossil fish. He was also an unwitting victim of the Piltdown fraud, which overshadowed his important scientific contributions. The aim of this book is to honour Smith Woodward’s contributions to vertebrate palaeontology, discuss their relevance today and provide insights into the factors that made him such an eminent scientist. The last few years have seen a resurgence in fossil vertebrate (particularly fish) palaeontology, including new techniques for the ‘virtual’ study of fossils (synchrotron and micro CT-scanning) and new research foci, such as ‘Evo-Devo’ – combining fossils with the development of living animals. This new research is built on a strong foundation, like that provided by Smith Woodward’s work. This collection of papers, authored by some of the leading experts in their fields, covers the many facets of Smith Woodward’s life, legacy and career. It will be a benchmark for studies on one of the leading vertebrate palaeontologists of his generation.

Abstract Four years after joining the Natural History Department of the British Museum in 1882, Arthur Smith Woodward published his first taxonomic paper erecting three new species based on sharks’ teeth. He retired from the Natural History Museum in 1924 but continued to publish until his death in 1944 at the age of 80. In total he named 321 new fossil fishes, a remarkable achievement, marking him out as the most influential palaeoichthyologist of his time. For the first time brief details of all his type specimens are brought together, accompanied in many cases by high-quality photographic images, in an online format readily available to anyone with access to the Internet. Supplementary material: Details of all the Smith Woodward type specimens, including images, are available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18874

Abstract The link between the renowned palaeoichthyologist Arthur Smith Woodward and the similarly lauded marine reptile collector Alfred Nicholson Leeds may seem an unlikely one, but they formed a close family friendship during their professional acquaintance. Amongst the many fish specimens described by Smith Woodward from Leeds’ Oxford Clay collection, the large suspension feeder Leedsichthys problematicus was a challenge that he failed to resolve in print. Work is done to resolve the confused storage history of the material, in order to identify and reappraise the bones that comprised the type material, in the process revealing a key misidentification that undoubtedly coloured Smith Woodward’s type description, and his initial understanding and interpretation of the animal.

Abstract When Sir Arthur Smith Woodward began to lose his sight around 1940, his wife Maud persuaded him to record his memoirs. When he died in 1944, they were incomplete and Lady Smith Woodward added her own reminiscences to them with a view to having the whole published. It was not, and the manuscript was donated to the Museum by their daughter Margaret in 1966. These ‘Memories’ are now being made available online for the first time. They provide an invaluable insight into the lives of this eminent scientist and his wife, his constant companion through 50 years of marriage. Supplementary material: Lady Smith Woodward’s original typed manuscript has been transcribed, with footnotes and a few illustrations added. It is available at: www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18867

Abstract The magnificent new and commodious building of the British Museum (Natural History) in Cromwell Road, South Kensington, (referred to here by its current name: Natural History Museum (NHM)) opened to the public in April 1881 with a staff of five in the Geology Department, including the Keeper, Dr Henry Woodward (1832–1921). Following the transfer of Robert Etheridge Junior (1846–1920) and the retirement of William Davies (1813–1891), there was a competition in 1887, involving an examination, for the two vacant Assistantships. This competition resulted in the appointments of Francis Arthur Bather (1863–1934), a First Class Honours graduate in natural sciences from Oxford, and J. W. Gregory ( Lang 1934 ), despite the fact that the latter had not yet graduated or even taken his intermediate BSc examination, and needed to continue his part-time studies for several years to graduate. Clearly Gregory's performance, reputation, enthusiasm and promise gained him the post, and with Bather, he joined the three existing assistants, Richard Bullen Newton (1867–1949), George Charles Crick (1856–1917) and Arthur Smith Woodward ( Lang 1934 ). He accepted the post of 2nd Class Assistant on 16 August 1887 and started work on 12 September 1887 with a salary of £130 per year (NHM archives). It was a stunning coup to have obtained such a post in competition with Oxbridge graduates and the family were rightly proud of his success. Even 60 years later, his sister Eleanor recounted this achievement with pride (A. Mendell, pers. comm. 2008). Grenville Cole wrote to Gregory on 9 August 1887 ‘

Abstract When an 18-year-old Arthur Smith Woodward arrived at the new home of the natural history collections of the British Museum on Cromwell Road, South Kensington in August 1882, he could not have envisaged the treasure trove of vertebrate fossils that awaited him. Even before the move to South Kensington, the collections already contained many fossil fish specimens first described and figured by the famous Swiss zoologist and geologist Louis Agassiz in his monumental work Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles . The fabulous fossil fish collections of Lord Egerton and the Earl of Enniskillen arrived shortly after, including many more of Agassiz’s type specimens. However, Agassiz had left much work undone and ideas on fossil fish systematics had changed in the 50 years since he had started publishing his research. Making full use of the collection, and adding to it, Smith Woodward embarked on a scientific career that was to see him become the world’s leading authority on fossil fishes. When he retired from the Museum at the age of 60, his successors inherited the most extensive and well-documented collection of fossil fishes in the world.

Abstract Although primarily a pre-eminent palaeoichthyologist, Arthur Smith Woodward’s research and publications ranged across all major tetrapod groups: nevertheless, his contributions in this area have generally been overshadowed by involvement in the ‘Piltdown Man’ affair. Smith Woodward published on fossil amphibians, every major group of reptiles and on mammals. Most of the new taxa he named remain valid, a testament to his wide knowledge and understanding of fossil vertebrates beyond his principal speciality, although some of these have now been extensively revised. He travelled widely in Europe and the Americas, resulting in some of the earliest work on Gondwanan Cretaceous reptiles. Several of his taxa revealed the existence of previously unknown groups (e.g. notosuchian crocodiles) or provided important character data that have fuelled various phylogenetic debates (e.g. snake and tyrannosauroid origins). His influence extended beyond his own scientific efforts to incorporate his role as a senior administrator, supporting the acquisition of significant reptile specimens for the collection, and as an educator, producing articles for museum visitors and the general public.

Abstract The University of Glasgow archives contain a printed application, dated 17 May 1904, by Professor John Walter Gregory, DSc, FRS, FGS for the new Chair of Geology in the University of Glasgow which was submitted on his behalf by his sister Anne J. Nicholson, acting as attorney for Gregory, and Arthur Smith Woodward (Hon. LL D Glasgow, FRS & Keeper in the Geology Department of the NHM; Fig. 14.1 ), as authorized by cablegram from Gregory himself. Once again his elder sister, who was close to him throughout his life, helped him as did Woodward. His application listed his experience and achievements chronologically of which only a few items are repeated here. ‘Obtained first place in Honours for Geology in BSc 1891, University of London … 1887–1900 extremely varied experience in Palaeontology in BM(NH) … 1900 succeeded the late Sir Frederick McCoy as Professor of Geology in the University of Melbourne and since 1901 has also held office as Director of the Geological Survey of Victoria … 1900 Selected as Director of the Civilian Staff of the British Antarctic Expedition but did not accept the office … has visited nearly all the principal Universities and Geological Museums in Europe and North America and is well acquainted with the nature of the work in progress … 1892 Awarded the 1892 Lyell Fund, Sir A. Geikie addressed him “You have shown yourself to be at once an accomplished palaeontologist and an able petrographer”; 1894 Cuthbert Peek Award from Royal Geographic Society

Abstract Arthur Smith Woodward’s wife, Maud, recorded scientific visitors invited to their home between 1894 and 1944, on an embroidered tablecloth. The tablecloth contains 342 signatures covering a 50-year period. It forms a unique and fascinating historical record including many of the great figures of late nineteenth and early twentieth century biology, geology and palaeontology from around the world. Many other professionals, amateurs and collectors are also represented.

Abstract The Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian–Maastrichtian) Chalk Group and Eocene (Ypresian) London Clay Formation are two British marine deposits that yield globally significant assemblages of fossil actinopterygian (ray-finned) fishes. Materials from these units, especially the Chalk, featured prominently in the work of Arthur Smith Woodward. Here we summarize the history of study of actinopterygian fossils from the Chalk and London Clay, review their geological and palaeoenvironmental context and provide updated faunal lists. The Chalk and London Clay are remarkable for preserving fossil fishes in three dimensions rather than as the flattened individuals familiar from many other famous Lagerstätten , as well as capturing detailed ‘snapshots’ of marine fish faunas that bracket the major taxonomic shift that took place near the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary.

Abstract Joseph Mawson, a nineteenth-century British railway engineer and businessman in Brazil, discovered fossils from the Cretaceous of Bahia that were described by E. D. Cope and Arthur Smith Woodward. A biographical outline of Mawson is presented. Mawson’s discoveries (especially the giant coelacanth fish Mawsonia , named after him by ASW) are interpreted today in the light of modern geological investigations. Mawsonia apparently lived in fluvial, lacustrine and brackish-water habitats in western Gondwana at the time South America separated from Africa. From the Late Jurassic until the Barremian, Mawsonia was widespread across western Gondwana, but its Aptian–Cenomanian records in South America are restricted to northeastern Brazil (including the Borborema tectonic province and adjacent areas to its north). In contrast, Mawsonia remained widespread in the Aptian–Cenomanian of Africa. Recently published data suggest that northeastern Brazil was still contiguous with Africa in the Aptian/Albian, although it was probably separated from the rest of South America by an epicontinental seaway that apparently followed an unconventional course across the Brazilian interior rather than along the present-day coastline. Aptian–Cenomanian records of Mawsonia and other non-marine taxa (including tetrapods) in northeastern Brazil may therefore represent ‘African’ rather than ‘South American’ biotas.

Abstract The monotypic scombrid fish Micrornatus is represented by a single skull from the early Eocene (Ypresian) London Clay Formation of southeastern England. Although Arthur Smith Woodward substantially increased the diversity of scombrids and scombrid-like taxa known from this deposit, he seems not to have studied the fossil that would later be recognized as Micrornatus . Here we re-examine this specimen using computed microtomography, with two principal aims: first, a revised anatomical account with an emphasis on concealed features; and, second, ‘proof-of-concept’ for the tomographic study of fish crania from the London Clay. Scans reveal new details of the braincase, suspensorium and ventral hyoid arch. We compare the cranial anatomy of Micrornatus with other members of Eocoelopomini, a group also containing the genera Eocoelopoma , Palaeothunnus and possibly Landanichthys . Clarification of the taxonomy and phylogeny of early fossil scombrids is needed, and we suggest that computed tomography will be a useful tool for revealing the anatomical evidence needed to accomplish this goal. Supplementary material: Micrornatus hopwoodi NHMUK PV OR 36136 PLY files are available at: http://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1561381