infocus #27 September 2012 Palaeobotany under the microscope

DOI: 10.22443/rms.inf.1.85

Darwin’s lost fossil found’ proclaimed the Daily Mail in January 2012. However, the collection of ‘lost fossils’ recently uncovered in the British Geological Survey’s vaults is far more complex and varied than that headline suggests. It comprises more than three hundred microscopic slides of fossil wood, all of which date from the early Nineteenth Century. The slides relate not only to Charles Darwin, but also to his ‘inner circle’ of John Henslow and Joseph Hooker, as well to a whole host of other leading scientists of the day. Most intriguingly, they shed light on a murky era when advances in microscopical techniques were transforming palaeobotany, the study of fossil plants. In this article, I reveal more about these amazing fossils and explain their significance for the history of microscopy, and science in general.