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Darwin’s long-forgetten fossils unearthed

Posted on behalf of Katherine Rowland. A chance discovery has yielded a “treasure trove” of fossils, including specimens collected by Charles Darwin. The collection, marked “unregistered fossil plants”, has been gathering dust in a gloomy corner of the British Geological Survey for more than 150 years. When Howard Falcon-Lang of Royal Holloway University of London happened upon the collection by accident last April, he experienced a moment of disbelief when he examined the specimens. “Almost the first one I pulled out was inscribed with a diamond cut signature of C. Darwin, Esq,” he says. Of the 314 re-discovered specimens, 17 

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