‘Old bones, dry subject’: the dinosaurs and pterosaur collected by Alfred Nicholson Leeds of Peterborough, England

Abstract

AbstractAlfred Nicholson Leeds, F.G.S., amassed one of the largest collections of fossil vertebrates from a single geological horizon anywhere in the world. The Leeds Collection is world famous for its large marine reptiles, but also includes the remains of a fine range of dinosaurs and a fragmentary pterosaur. The Leeds Collection ornithodirans were almost exclusively recovered from the Peterborough Member of the Oxford Clay Formation, with a single specimen of a sauropod derived from the underlying Kellaways Formation. The Leeds Collection includes the remains of at least 12 individual dinosaurs representing at least eight taxa (with other remains currently generically indeterminate) and a single fragmentary rhamphorhynchid pterosaur. Perhaps most intriguingly of all, in 1898 Alfred Leeds discovered a probable reptile egg, later attributed to a dinosaur. Each dinosaur and the pterosaur from the Leeds Collection is discussed, and, where known, details of the provenance, a brief history of research and pertinent archive material are included to provide the most comprehensive and up-to-date survey of the Leeds Collection ornithodirans to date.