Memoirs of Museum Victoria 74: 1–3 (2016) Published 2016
ISSN 1447-2546 (Print) 1447-2554 (On-line)
http://museumvictoria.com.au/about/books-and-journals/journals/memoirs-of-museum-victoria/
Introduction
Erich M.G. Fitzgerald1
1
Geosciences, Museum Victoria, GPO Box 666, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia ([email protected])
The papers in this volume were written and assembled to
celebrate and honour the significant and ongoing contributions
made by Dr Thomas Hewitt Rich, or Tom, to the field of
palaeontology, especially vertebrate palaeontology, in
Australia, other remnants of Gondwana, and beyond. Most of
Tom’s career has been devoted to the excavation and study of
the early Cretaceous high latitude terrestrial tetrapod fauna of
Victoria, Australia. However, Tom’s interests, scientific
contributions and influence span a much wider range of topics:
biostratigraphy, Mesozoic–Cenozoic Gondwanan vertebrate
biogeography, functional morphology, quantitative analysis of
palaeontological data, biogeochemistry, palaeoecology,
dinosaurs, and above all else, Mesozoic mammals and the
origins of Australia’s unique mammal fauna. The impressive
span of topics addressed by papers in this volume reflects these
enduring interests of Tom’s, and indeed many of the papers
resulted from work initiated, assisted, or inspired by him.
Tom was born on 30 May 1941 in Evanston, Illinois, USA
and subsequently moved with his family to southern California.
On Christmas Day, 1953, Tom was given a copy of the book
All About Dinosaurs by Roy Chapman Andrews (1953), which
inspired him there-and-then to become a palaeontologist
(Rich and Vickers–Rich, 2000). In 1957, Tom took a workshop
for school students in vertebrate palaeontology at the Los
Angeles County Museum (now Natural History Museum of
Los Angeles County) run by Theodore Downs, which
reinforced his determination to pursue a career as a vertebrate
palaeontologist. Tom enrolled in the University of California,
Berkeley, in 1960 to study palaeontology and physics. In 1964,
he graduated with a B.A. and, in the same year, met Patricia
Vickers (now Prof. Emeritus Pat Vickers–Rich)––his future
wife, colleague and collaborator. It was during his Bachelor’s
degree that Tom was first exposed to Prof. Reuben A. Stirton’s
groundbreaking exploration for the pre-Pleistocene history of
mammals in Australia. In 1967, Tom received his M.A. from
University of California, Berkeley, for the thesis “Deltatheridia,
Carnivora, and Condylarthra (Mammalia) of the early Eocene,
Paris Basin, France” (Rich, 1971), which was supervised by Dr
Donald E. Savage. That year, Tom commenced his doctoral
research on Jurassic mammals from Como Bluff, Wyoming, at
Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural
History, under Dr Malcolm McKenna. Eventually, Tom
received his Ph.D. in 1973 for a dissertation on fossil hedgehogs
titled “Origin and history of the Erinaceinae and Brachyericinae
(Mammalia: Insectivora) in North America” (Rich, 1981).
Tom first visited Australia in 1971 as a field assistant on Dr
Richard H. Tedford’s expedition to South Australia and
Queensland. In late 1973 Tom and Pat returned to Australia,
following Pat receiving a Fulbright fellowship to study
Australian fossil birds. The next year (1974), Tom was appointed
as Curator of Fossils at the National Museum of Victoria (=
Museum Victoria), and in 1978 as Curator of Fossil Vertebrates.
He is now Senior Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology.
Tom has collected and studied fossil vertebrates on all
continents, but it is in Australia where his tireless efforts have
been pivotal, most notably in his pursuit of a long-term field
program and research on the early Cretaceous polar terrestrial
biota of the Otway and Gippsland basins of Victoria. These
discoveries and their significance have been chronicled
elsewhere (Rich and Vickers-Rich, 2000; Long, 2007; Trusler
et al., 2010).
The papers in this volume relate to Tom’s scientific
interests and reflect his own contributions to the field. In the
first section, John Long reviews criteria for assessing the
overall scientific significance of a fossil site, using the
Devonian fish site of Gogo Station, Western Australia, as an
example. Tom has consistently stated that Gogo is probably the
most important fossil vertebrate site in Australia, and Long
investigates the basis for this claim.
The study of Cretaceous vertebrates and their
palaeoenvironmental setting represents the majority of Tom’s
current research activities. Kear provides a state-of-the-art
review of Cretaceous marine tetrapods of Australia. Most of
the dinosaur fossils uncovered in the early Cretaceous of
Victoria during Tom’s field program represent the postcranial
bones of herbivorous ornithopods (Rich and Rich, 1989).
Hence it is appropriate that Barrett describes a postcranial
skeleton of the dryosaurid Valdosaurus from the Cretaceous
2
of England. Despite early Cretaceous Victoria seemingly
being an ornithopod cornucopia, Tom was at the centre of
interpreting arguably the most debated non-avian theropod
fossil ever found in Australia––an astragalus, originally
identified as Allosaurus, from Eagle’s Nest, near Inverloch,
Victoria (Molnar et al., 1981; Fitzgerald et al., 2012). The
allosauroid, if not Allosaurus, affinities of this specimen have
been corroborated by the recent discovery of Australia’s most
completely known theropod, the allosauroid Australovenator
wintonensis (Hocknull et al., 2009). Novas and colleagues
present new evidence from forelimb osteology on the
relationships of Australovenator and related Gondwanan
theropods. Martin completes the coverage of dinosaurs with a
long-awaited description and analysis of the first dinosaur
footprint fossils discovered in Victoria. Tom is currently
spearheading renewed interest in the potential for exceptionally
preserved tetrapod body fossils to be found in fine-grained,
early Cretaceous lacustrine sediments around Koonwarra,
Victoria, which are already famous for yielding finely
preserved fossil plants, arthropods, fish and feathers (Rich et
al., 2009, 2012). Tuite et al. present geochemical analyses of
the Koonwarra sediments stemming from recent excavations
led by Tom. Seegets-Villiers and Wagstaff assess morphological
variation within biostratigraphically significant palynomorph
species that provide the temporal framework for Cretaceous
vertebrate assemblages in the Gippsland Basin, Victoria.
Evans and Pian et al. present new insights into Tom’s
foremost research interest––Mesozoic mammals. Tom’s
search for Mesozoic mammals in Australia has been aptly
described by the late Prof. Zofia Kielan–Jaworowska (2013:
127) as “unstoppable.” The 1982 publication by Tom with Dr
Minchen
Chow,
of
a
Jurassic
mammal
with
“pseudotribosphenic” molars, forced a fundamental rethink of
whether such a complex morphology as the tribosphenic molar
evolved once, and foreshadowed later research suggesting its
dual origin (Luo et al., 2001). Evans reviews the validity of the
concept that pseudotribosphenic molars are fundamentally
different from the tribosphenic tooth structure. Tom has
co-authored six of the seven Mesozoic mammal species
described from Australia, including Kollikodon ritchiei
Flannery et al., 1995; Pian et al. analyse the first cranial
remains of this species, including upper teeth.
Although he would claim that they are very much
secondary to his enthusiasm for Mesozoic mammals, Tom has
made major contributions to knowledge of fossil mammals
from the Cenozoic Era of Australia (and elsewhere). Papers by
Fordyce and Marx, and by Fitzgerald, expand the Oligocene
record of cetaceans in New Zealand and Australia, respectively.
Marsupial evolutionary history in Australia is substantially
illuminated by the description of new fossil species of dasyurid
(Archer et al.), ektopodontid (Pledge), macropodiforms
(Travouillon et al.), and a phascolarctid (Black). There are
additions to the morphology, systematics, and palaeoecology
of marsupials from several Miocene–Pleistocene fossil sites
worked by Tom, including Bullock Creek in the Northern
Territory (Schwartz; Trusler and Sharp), Hamilton (Lundelius),
and Nelson Bay (Piper) in Victoria. Beck et al., Janis et al., and
Sharp present quantitative analyses of anatomical form,
E.M.G. Fitzgerald
function, and evolution in marsupial moles, kangaroos and
their kin, and wombats plus their extinct relatives, respectively.
Tom’s pursuit of Mesozoic tetrapods in Australia has led
him to work on African (Rich et al., 1983) and South American
(e.g., Rich et al., 1998) fossils which, twinned with finds in
Australia, have informed the dialogue on Gondwanan
vertebrate palaeobiogeography (Rich and Vickers-Rich, 1994;
Rich et Rich et al., 2001; Rich, 2008). Jacobs and colleagues
chart the influence of the breakup of Gondwana on the
evolution of coastal vertebrates and their environment in
Africa, South America and Australia. Molnar and Vasconcellos
examine the evidence for continued ecological significance of
non-avian archosaurs in terrestrial vertebrate communities of
South America after the end of the Cretaceous.
The end of the Mesozoic and the beginning of the Cenozoic
eras were profoundly shaped by the K–Pg mass extinction event.
Bertozzi et al. present molecular evidence, calibrated by the
fossil record, for rapid diversification of rays in the wake of K–
Pg extinctions. Ward and colleagues present new records of
nautiloid cephalopods, K–Pg survivors, from the Paleocene
Pebble Point Formation of Victoria, and emphasize the potential
for this unit to yield additional insights into the evolution of life
in Australia immediately after the K-Pg boundary.
The last paper in the volume reflects Tom’s history of
discovering and/or investigating anomalous fossils––fossils
that are “not supposed to be there” or may have unusual
provenance. These have included chronological anomalies
such as Cretaceous temnospondyls (Warren et al., 1991);
“northern hemisphere” dinosaurs in Australia (Rich and
Vickers-Rich, 1994; Currie et al., 1996; Benson et al., 2010); a
rhinoceros tooth from New Caledonia (Rich et al., 1988); a
Cretaceous mammal from Australia with tribosphenic molars
resembling those of advanced placentals (Rich et al., 1997);
and the “strange case of the wandering fossil”––a diprotodontid
mandible originally collected at Beaumaris (Victoria), but
somehow transported by persons unknown some 1300 km
north to Queensland, where it was rediscovered and then sold
to Museum Victoria in Melbourne (Rich et al., 2003). In this
volume, Tyler and Prideaux honour this tradition of Tom’s by
describing Pleistocene frogs from the Nullarbor Plain, an arid
region from which frogs (fossil and extant) have hitherto been
conspicuously and entirely absent.
Acknowledgements
I heartily thank all the contributors to this volume for their
enthusiastic response to my “call to arms” and the resulting
excellent papers. I also wish to thank the following scientists
enlisted to review papers: Michael Archer, Robin Beck, Chris
Bell, Karen Black, Stephen Brusatte, Lisa Buckley, Aaron
Camens, Thomas Darragh, Ewan Fordyce, Simon George,
Michael Gottfried, Scott Hocknull, Sandrine Ladeveze,
Olivier Lambert, Julien Louys, Zhe-Xi Luo, Susannah
Maidment, Chris Mays, Andrew McDonald, Travis Park,
Katarzyna Piper, Gilbert Price, Gavin Prideaux, Dale Roberts,
Anthony Romilio, Michael Stein, Jeffrey Stilwell, Kenny
Travouillon, Vivi Vajda, Jorge Velez-Juarbe, Vera Weisbecker,
John Wible, Michael Woodburne, Adam Yates, and several
Introduction
anonymous reviewers. Richard Marchant and Patty Brown
(Museum Victoria) are thanked for their assistance in
managing the preparation of this volume. William Birch and
Felix Marx read drafts of this manuscript. The Royal Society
of Victoria and Geological Society of Australia (Victoria
Division) provided generous financial support towards the
production of this volume.
References
Andrews, R.C. 1953. All About Dinosaurs. Random House: New
York. 146 pp.
Benson, R.B.J., Barrett, P.M., Rich, T.H., and Vickers-Rich, P. 2010. A
southern tyrant reptile. Science 327: 1613.
Chow, M., and Rich, T.H.V. 1982. Shuotherium dongi, n. gen. and sp.,
a therian with pseudo-tribosphenic molars from the Jurassic of
Sichuan, China. Australian Mammalogy 5: 127–142.
Currie, P.J., Vickers-Rich, P., and Rich, T.H. 1996. Possible
oviraptorosaur (Theropoda, Dinosauria) specimens from the
Early Cretaceous Otway Group of Dinosaur Cove, Australia.
Alcheringa 20: 73–79.
Fitzgerald, E.M.G., Carrano, M.T., Holland, T., Wagstaff, B.E.,
Pickering, D., Rich, T.H., and Vickers-Rich, P. 2012. First
ceratosaurian dinosaur from Australia. Naturwissenschaften 99:
397–405.
Flannery, T.F., Archer, M., Rich, T.H., and Jones, R. 1995. A new
family of monotremes from the Cretaceous of Australia. Nature
377: 418–420.
Hocknull, S.A., White, M.A., Tischler, T.R., Cook, A.G., Calleja,
N.D., Sloan, T., and Elliott, D.A. 2009. New mid-Cretaceous
(latest Albian) dinosaurs from Winton, Queensland, Australia.
PLoS ONE 4(7): e6190. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006190
Kielan–Jaworowska, Z. 2013. In Pursuit of Early Mammals. Indiana
University Press: Bloomington. 253 pp.
Long, J.A. 2007. Nomination of Prof Pat-Vickers Rich and Dr Thomas
Hewitt Rich for the 2007 Selwyn Medal. Geological Society of
Australia Abstracts 79: 55–60.
Luo, Z.–X., Cifelli, R., and Kielan–Jaworowska, Z. 2001. Dual origin
of tribosphenic mammals. Nature 409: 53–57.
Molnar, R.E., Flannery, T.F., and Rich, T.H.V. 1981. An allosaurid
theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Victoria,
Australia. Alcheringa 5: 141–146.
Rich, T.H.V. 1971. Deltatheridia, Carnivora, and Condylarthra
(Mammalia) of the early Eocene, Paris Basin, France. University
of California Publications in Geological Sciences 88: 1–72.
Rich, T.H.V. 1981. Origin and history of the Erinaceinae and
Brachyericinae (Mammalia, Insectivora) in North America.
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 171: 1–116.
3
Rich, T.H. 2008. The palaeobiogeography of Mesozoic mammals: a
review. Arquivos do Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro 66: 231–249.
Rich, T.H., and Rich, P.V. 1989. Polar dinosaurs and biotas of the Early
Cretaceous of southeastern Australia. National Geographic
Research 5: 15–53.
Rich, T.H., and Vickers-Rich, P. 1994. Neoceratopsians and
ornithomimosaurs: dinosaurs of Gondwana origin? National
Geographic Research and Exploration 10: 129–131.
Rich, T.H., and Vickers–Rich, P. 2000. Dinosaurs of Darkness.
Indiana University Press: Bloomington. 222 pp.
Rich, T.H.V., Molnar, R.E., and Rich, P.V. 1983. Fossil vertebrates
from the Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous Kirkwood Formation,
Algoa Basin, southern Africa. Transactions of the Geological
Society of South Africa 86: 281–291.
Rich, T.H.V., Fortelius, M., Rich, P.V., and Hooijer, D.A. 1988. The
supposed Zygomaturus from New Caledonia is a rhinoceros: a
second solution to an enigma and its palaeogeographic
consequences. Pp. 769–778 in: Archer, M. (ed), Possums and
Opossums: Studies in Evolution. Surrey Beatty and Sons and the
Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales: Sydney. 788 pp.
Rich, T.H., Vickers-Rich, P., Constantine, A., Flannery, T.F., Kool, L.,
and van Klaveren, N. 1997. A tribosphenic mammal from the
Mesozoic of Australia. Science 278: 1438–1442.
Rich, T.H., Vickers-Rich, P., Novas, F.E., Cuneo, R., Puerta, P., and
Vacca, R. 1998. Theropods from the “middle” Cretaceous Chubut
Group of the San Jorge sedimentary basin, central Patagonia. A
preliminary note. GAIA 15: 111–115.
Rich, T.H., Flannery, T.F., Trusler, P., and Vickers-Rich, P. 2001.
Corroboration of the Garden of Eden hypothesis. Pp. 323–332 in:
Metcalfe, I., Smith, J.M.B., Morwood, M., Davidson, I., and
Hewison, K. (eds), Faunal and Floral Migrations and Evolution
in SE Asia-Australia. A. A. Balkema: Lisse.
Rich, T.H., Darragh, T.A., and Vickers-Rich, P. 2003. The strange
case of the wandering fossil. Bulletin of the American Museum of
Natural History 279: 556–567.
Rich, T.H., Li, X.–B., and Vickers-Rich, P. 2009. A potential
Gondwanan polar Jehol biota lookalike in Victoria, Australia.
Transactions of the Royal Society of Victoria 121: v–xiii.
Rich, T.H., Li, X.–B., and Vickers-Rich, P. 2012. Assessment of the
potential for a Jehol biota-like Cretaceous polar fossil assemblage
in Victoria, Australia. Pp. 505–516 in: Godefroit, P. (ed),
Bernissart Dinosaurs and Early Cretaceous Terrestrial
Ecosystems. Indiana University Press: Bloomington. 629 pp.
Trusler, P., Vickers–Rich, P., and Rich, T.H. 2010. The Artist and the
Scientists: Bringing Prehistory to Life. Cambridge University
Press: Port Melbourne. 308 pp.
Warren, A.A., Kool, L., Cleeland, M., Rich, T.H., and Vickers-Rich, P.
1991. An Early Cretaceous labyrinthodont. Alcheringa 15: 327–332.