THE ALFRED LEEDS FOSSIL VERTEBRATE COLLECTION OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF IRELAND—NATURAL HISTORY

Alfred nicholson Leeds (1847–1917) is famous among vertebrate palaeontologists for amassing an invaluable collection of fossil vertebrates from the Middle Jurassic aged ‘Oxford Clay’ deposits of the Peterborough district in the UK, throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Part of his collection was acquired by the national Museum of Ireland—natural History in november 1893 but has not previously been described. This fossil material includes a suite of Jurassic marine reptiles: crocodiles, plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs. There are no examples, however, of the giant fish Leedsichthys; the remains of which are commonly found among the fauna of the Oxford Clay Formation. Despite representing only a very small fraction of the total Leeds Collection, the specimens in Ireland are significant historically, and have scientific value in their own right. For the first time, in this paper, a historical review of the Dublin Leeds Collection is presented, the fossil specimens described and a long-lost piece of important documentation is presented. Historical review of the Leeds Collection Since the nineteenth century the clay pits of the Peterborough district, UK, have yielded a huge number of marine reptile remains. The collection housed in the nMInH (national Museum of Ireland—natural History), although a very small fraction of the Leeds Collection in total, is valuable because of its historical relevance and the intrinsic scientific value of its fossils. Although primarily known for its Callovian age marine reptile skeletons, the Oxford Clay also yields fish, including the giant suspension-feeder Leedsichthys (Liston and noè 2004), and dinosaurs (Liston and noè 2008). Alfred Leeds also included coprolites and invertebrate fossils (e.g. bivalves like Trigonia, belemnites and ammonites) in many of his sales, to provide institutions with a representative faunal suite for the Oxford Clay. General overviews of the Leed