Palaeontology Collection
The GSI maintains important collections of Irish fossils obtained during the course of mapping programmes over the last 150 years. The bulk of the collections consist of the acquisitions made between the years 1845 and 1890. They are typical of all stratigraphic systems represented in Irish geology, and cover all the major fossil localities in the country. The collections contain more than 25,000 specimens and include over 1000 type and figured fossils (over 400 of these being palynomorphs), and are particularly strong in Lower Palaeozoic shelly faunas, and in Lower Carboniferous shelly fossils. Specimens, once in GSI's collections, relevant to Northern Ireland are now housed in the Ulster Museum.

In addition there are large collections of Upper Carboniferous faunas and floras from both drilling earlier this century in the Leinster Coalfield, and recent remapping. Other acquisitions include a large collection of shelly fossils from the Carboniferous of the Lough Allen Uplands area donated by Prof. Hodson of Southampton University.

A project to curate and document the collections which started in 1994, funded by the National Heritage Council, has recently been completed by Dr. Matthew Parkes. The collections are now organized, fully documented and accessible. A computer database has been set up, and can be searched on most data fields.

Fossil

Vestinautilus semiglaber Foord 1990
Syntype
Dinantian. Doohyle, Co. Limerick. This image is part of a plate from the published catalogue of type and figured specimens held by the GSI.

A new catalogue of type and figured specimens has been published, and may be purchased from GSI's Public Office.  In addition a digital scanned version of the publication is also available in multi-page tiff or pdf format.

Enquiries concerning the collection are welcome, and specimens are available to be consulted in GSI or can be loaned to bona fide research workers at no charge. Research students should apply through their academic supervisor or curator.

All enquiries about the collection should be addressed to Dr. A.G. Sleeman. Tel: 01-678-2862.

For infomation on other GSI archives please click here.