Roderick Impey Murchison (1792–1871) was one of the first British geologists to appreciate the value of fossils in stratigraphical research. He devoted much time in the early 1830s to mapping the geology of Wales and the Welsh Borderland and in 1835 he named the series of fossiliferous rocks that he had studied the Silurian. In 1839 he published a detailed account of his researches on the geology and palaeontology of these rocks in The Silurian System. Part II consisted mainly of descriptions and illustrations of fossils by Agassiz, Beck, Broderip, König, Lonsdale, MacLeay, Milne Edwards, Phillips and J de C Sowerby as well as by Murchison.
A catalogue of the fossils illustrated in The Silurian System was compiled by J D D Smith and published by the British Geological Survey in 1989 to coincide with the 150th Anniversary of the publication of Murchison’s book. Many of the existing specimens were originally registered in the Geological Society Collection and are now housed in the British Geological Survey.
A considerable number of papers have been published since the 1989 catalogue was prepared in which specimens originally illustrated in The Silurian System have been figured, described or cited. Details of these references are given in this supplement using the same entry numbers (from 1 to 463) as in the 1989 catalogue, together with additional pre-1989 works and amendments to the catalogue.
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