Rediscovery of “lost” Triassic fossil plant types: Components of the Wilhelm Bock Collection in The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and in the Yale Peabody Museum

Abstract

Wilhelm Bock (1897?-1972) was an engineer by profession who turned to paleontology in the later years of his life and became a research associate in the former Department of Geology and Paleontology of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP). In the early 1960s Bock left the Academy and established “The Geological Research Foundation,” apparently at his home. When Bock left the institution he also retained a significant portion of his sizable collection, which contained numerous type and figured specimens. Recently, routine curation of the Paleobotany collection at ANSP has lead to the recovery of 62 specimens figured by Bock, which have been reported as “lost” since his death in 1972. Included in the recovered material are two paratypes of Ginkgoites milfordensis Bock, a taxon that has long been reported as having been based upon the single specimen that was destroyed while on loan in the early 1970s. Also rediscovered were the neotype and isoneotype of Diploporundus rugosus (Wanner ex Ward) designated by Bock in 1960.