The Fossil Fishes of the English Chalk

The Chalk Group of southern and eastern England preserves a rich marine fauna of Late Cretaceous age. In this work, first published in seven parts between 1902 and 1912, Arthur Smith Woodward (1864–1944) provides what remains the principal account of fossil fishes from these deposits. Woodward describes and illustrates over fifty genera of ray-finned, lobe-finned, and cartilaginous fishes. The three-dimensional preservation of some Chalk fishes allows Woodward to describe aspects of anatomy not visible in heavily compressed fossils of similar age from other localities. Woodward finds that the fine detail apparent in bony fish skulls from the Chalk provides evidence of a closer correspondence between Cretaceous species and their modern relatives than had previously been anticipated. This monograph represents one of Woodward's last truly monumental contributions on fossil fishes, and was completed at around the time his scientific attention became increasingly dedicated to the now infamous Piltdown Man.