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The Daniels Collection (1 Viewer)

Fred Ruhe

Fred Ruhe

Well-known member
Netherlands
The colection of Micheal Daniels, a private colection, was deposited in the Scotish National Museum after the death of Michael.

Michael collected in Walton-on-the-Naze on the Essex coast and the fossils come from the London Clay.

This important collection could not be formaly described because it was in a private collection but some scientists have seen the collection like Storrs Olson, Colin Harrison and Gerald Mayr.

Michael reported on his very interesting collection in the Sape Newsletters for 1988 and 1989 (nr. 2 and 3) you can find them at: Newsletters – Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution

Gerald Mayr wrote together with Michael two papers based on the collection:

Gerald Mayr & Michael Daniels, 1998
Eocene Parrots from Messel (Hessen, Germany) and the London Clay of Walton-on-the-Naze (Essex, England)
Senckenbergiana Lethaea 78: 157-177

Gerald Mayr & Michael Daniels, 2001
A New Short-legged Landbird from the Early Eocene of Wyoming and Contemporaneous European Sites
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 46 (3): 393-402

Now Gerald Mayr and Andrew C. Kitchener are writing papers based on this collection and already 3 papers have been published:

Gerald Mayr & Andrew C. Kitchener, 2022
New Fossils from the London Clay Show that the Eocene Masillaraptoridae are stem Group Representatives of Falcons (Aves, Falconiformes)
Journal of Vertebratge Paleontology e2083515

Gerald Mayr & Andrew C. Kitchener, 2022
Oldest Fossil Loon Documents a Pronounced Ecomorphological Shift in the Evolution of Gaviiform Birds
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society zlac045

Gerald Mayr & Andrew C. Kitchener, 2022
Early Eocene Fossil Illuminates the Ancestral (Diurnal) Ecomorphology of Owls and Documents a mosaic Evolution of the Strigiform Body Plan
Ibis (advance online publication)

And I expect more papers to follow.

En joy,

Fred
 
A new paper based on this collection is:

Gerald Mayr & Andrew C. Kitchener, 2022
Psittacopedids and zygodactylids: The diverse and species-rich psittacopasserine birds from the early Eocene London Clay of Walton-on-the-Naze (Essex, UK)
Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology. doi:10.1080/08912963.2022.2141629

Fred
 
And another new paper based on this collection is:

Gerald Mayr & Andrew C. Kitchener, 2022
New species from the early Eocene London Clay suggest an undetected early Eocene diversity of the Leptosomiformes, an avian clade that includes a living fossil from Madagascar
Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments. doi:10.1007/s12549-022-00560-0

Fred
 
In this series of papers on the Daniels collection another new paper is published:

Gerald Mayr & Andrew C. Kitchener, 2023
Multiple skeletons of Rhynchaeites from the London Clay reveal the osteology of early Eocene ibises (Aves, Threskiornithidae)
Vol.:(0123456789)1 3PalZ

Fred
 
Fred Ruhe said:
...
Gerald Mayr & Andrew C. Kitchener, 2023
Multiple skeletons of Rhynchaeites from the London Clay reveal the osteology of early Eocene ibises (Aves, Threskiornithidae)
Vol.:(0123456789)1 3PalZ

Fred
Click to expand...

Cite this article
Mayr, G., Kitchener, A.C. Multiple skeletons of Rhynchaeites from the London Clay reveal the osteology of early Eocene ibises (Aves, Threskiornithidae). PalZ(2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-022-00647-1

[from here]​
​
Click to expand...

Hopefully of some use/help ...

Cheers

/B
 
And another paper on his collection:

Gerald Mayr & Andrew C. Kitchener. 2023
The Halcyornithidae from the early Eocene London Clay of Walton-on-the-Naze (Essex, UK): A species complex of Paleogene arboreal birds
Geobios 2023
 
And another new study

Gerald Mayr & Andrew C. Kitchener, 2023
Early Eocene fossils elucidate the evolutionary history of the Charadriiformes (shorebirds and allies).
Journal of Paleontology

Fred
 
REMEMBERING MICHAEL DANIELS (1931-2021)
(By Gerald Mayr in the SAPE newsletter 37 for 2023)

In September 2021, Michael Daniels passed away shortly after celebrating his 90th birthday. To longtime members of SAPE, he will be well-known for his reports on amazing bird fossils found in the early Eocene London Clay of Walton-on-the-Naze in the southeastern part of England.
Michael was one of the founding members of the Tertiary Research Group in 1969 and moved to Holland-on-Sea after his retirement as a cabinet maker and locksmith in 1985. During a period of more than three decades, he collected numerous bird fossils from a horizon, which is no longer well exposed. As has been noted in a recent obituary by Andrew Kitchener, Michael estimated “that he drove 27,000 miles and walked 1,590 miles on 640 field visits to Walton-on-the-Naze to collect 15 tonnes of London Clay. He then took another 600 hours or 150 days to painstakingly prepare around 700 birds fossils”. The material he gathered ranges from individual bones, or fragments thereof, to multiple largely complete skeletons that preserve most bones in fine detail.
As a largely self-taught fossil bird enthusiast, he developed a unique identification and cataloguing system of his specimens based on multiple measurements of the often fragmentary bones. This idiosyncratic method worked well to provide an overview of the different types of birds in his collection and enabled the location of fossils in the numerous boxes and drawers in his Victorian-style study room. Michael was a keen observer with exceptional drawing skills and many of illustrations accompanied his notes in early SAPE newsletters.
Michael intensely corresponded with various SAPE members, including Cécile Mourer-Chauviré, Peter Houde, and Storrs Olson, who repeatedly visited his home and the collection. I first contacted him in 1995 in the course of my phD thesis on fossil birds from Messel. Since then, we met and corresponded over many years and co-authored a few studies that included some of his fossil material. Because the London Clay avifauna shows very close parallels to that of Messel, we had very fruitful discussions over the years, which greatly helped both of us to understand the fossils we were interested in. Michael’s three-dimensionally preserved but often fragmentary bones showed close details not visible in the Messel birds, whereas the skeletons from the latter locality gave a more vivid impression of the overall appearance of these Eocene birds.
Michael had a deep “British” sense of humor, but was also sensitive to what he perceived as ignorance by the scientific establishment, feeling neglected by researchers who did not study fossils in private hands. For some time, I also fell victim to this inherent leeriness, but our relationship improved again in the past years and my last visit to his home dates back to 2015.
In his long life, Michael had to cope with some blows of fate, most notably the far too early death of his daughter Caroline in 2004, who was the only child he and his wife Pamela had. Pamela, who provided hospitality for many visitors of the Daniels collection, died in 2013, aged 77. It may be a coincidence, but Michael’s activities at Walton-on-the-Naze largely came to a halt after Caroline’s death and the large collection was put in some sort of slumber state.
Michael had a long friendship with Andrew Kitchener, the curator of the vertebrate zoology collections of the National Museums Scotland. He bequeathed his collection to this institution, and Andrew and I are currently in the process of curating and describing the fossils.

Fred
 
And another paper on this collection:

Gerald Mayr & Andrew C. Kitchener, 2024
The galliform birds from the lower Eocene London Clay of Walton-on-the-Naze (Essex, U.K.): new species suggest faunal connections to Asia
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. e2374305. doi:10.1080/02724634.2024.2374305
 

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