Geological Purbeck Large Polished Fossil Tree Section

Jurassic era, 140 million years BP. A section of a large in diameter, well preserved fossil tree, polished both sides and displaying the original bark, growth rings and structures in great detail. 13 kg , 46 cm (18"). Ex Dr M.G.Weller collection; bequest from Henry Dewey; gift of Alfred Russell Wallace about 1900; collected by Wallace at Lulworth Cove Forest beds, Dorset, 1885-1894. Alfred Russell Wallace (1823-1913) was a famous British naturalist who travelled extensively in the Amazon rainforest and the Malay archipelago and whose own theory of evolution through natural selection prompted Charles Darwin, through their correspondence, to publish his Origin of Species in 1859; the grave marker for Wallace consists of a large section of fossil tree trunk sited at Broadstone, Dorset and is appropriate for his interest in the Purbeck limestones, which he visited many times in the 1880s and 1890s(including with the American palaeontologist Lester F. Ward in 1894) to study and collect fossil tree samples; Henry Dewey was Director of the British Geological Survey at the time and his synoptic catalogue of specimens from this site only lists Wallace as his source of material. [No Reserve]

Extremely fine condition. A historic specimen.