New species of Archaeocyathinae and other organisms from the Lower Cambrian of Beltana, South Australia [with] Further notes on Archaeocyathi (Cyathospongia) [and] …Cyathospongia (Archaeocyathi) [and] … Archaeos (Pleospongia) [and] Development and Classification of Archaeos (Pleospongia)

Description:

Memoirs of the Kyancutta Museum Vol. 1-4 & 6.

Scarce series of pioneering palaeontological studies of Lower Cambrian archaeocyaths from South Australia, comprising Nos. 1-4 and 6 (of 6), without the separately issued supplement No. 3A (noted as already out of print on the wrapper of No. 4), or No. 5 (a philosophical essay).

The five memoirs present contain important taxonomic descriptions of numerous new genera and species of archaeocyaths, an extinct group of early reef-building marine organisms, from the exceptionally rich fossil deposits of the Flinders Ranges.

The Kyancutta Museum, on the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia. was established in 1929 by Robert Bedford (1874-1951), an English-born naturalist and geologist who settled in the small, isolated township of Kyancutta in 1915. An unusual privately founded scientific institution, the museum housed Bedford's extensive collections of fossils, minerals, meteorites, ethnographic material and antiquities. Bedford was particularly noted for his investigations of the Henbury meteorite craters and his pioneering research on Cambrian archaeocyaths. The museum's independently published Memoirs (1934-1939), produced largely at Bedford's own expense, made a significant contribution to the study of early Cambrian life. Following his death, the museum continued under the care of his family until its closure in 1971, when the collections were dispersed, much of the material being acquired by the National Museum of Victoria and the Australian National University.

Condition

4to, later library buckram, gilt title to spine, orig. printed wrappers retained. From an institutional library with neat ink stamps to front covers and margins of plates. Inscribed by the authors to Dr Leonard James Spencer (1870-1959), distinguished mineralogist and meteorite specialist, and Keeper of Mineralogy at the British Museum (Natural History), 1927-1935. Bedford and Spencer corresponded during the 1930s concerning the acquisition and exchange of meteorite specimens. Good.