摘要
A rare and almost complete barnacle fossil,previously described on the basis of two isolated shell fragments,wasrecently exposed in a limestone block on the outer wall of Melbourne’s Old Magistrates’Courts in Victoria,Australia.These courts comprise one of the oldest and grandest buildings in Melbourne and because of this they have aheritage listing.As heritage-listed buildings are protected from alteration by law,and as removal of the fossil wouldbe deemed“alteration”,official permission had to be obtained to extract the specimen.This paper discusses theprocesses involved with extraction of a unique specimen from a protected building and provides an overview of thepalaeontological significance of the fossil.Consideration is given to the likely fate of a fossil of this nature,situateda little below eye level on a busy city street,if it was left in situ;finally,the implications of designating a holotypefrom material removed from a building are assessed.
基金
I thank Dr Jessica Reeves,RMIT University,who helped with photography.Mr Ray Osborne,Heritage Victoria,and Mr Chris White,Acting Pro-Vice Chancellor(Group Governance),RMIT University,managed the legal paperwork,making extraction of the fossil both economically and mechanically feasible.This paper was presented orally at the Second International Symposium of Integrative Zoology at the Institute of Zoology,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing,China,on 10 December 2007.
