This is the remarkable case of a fossil sent to Sydney from a Queensland copper mine circa 1912. It was identified in 1922 as being the wing of an extinct Australian insect.
The Sydney Geological and Mining Museum opened in the building below in 1909. Despite walking past it on countless occasions, I never visited the museum, which closed in 1995. It was only years later, when my partner and I visited to the Fossil and Mineral Museum in Bathurst (definitely not to be missed), that I began to appreciate the wonders of such treasures from the earth.
Around 1912, William Corbould, manager of the Mount Elliot Copper Mine in Cloncurry, forwarded a fossil in crystallised selenite to the Museum. Selenite is a form of gypsum.
Mount Elliott Copper Mine in 1909. (Wikipedia)
William Henry Corbould
In 1922 renowned entomologist and geologist Robert Tillyard wrote an academic paper on the fossil. It was published in the Records of the Geological Survey of New South Wales.
Under the title; AN INSECT WING IN A CRYSTAL OF SELENITE, Tillyard wrote that it was found at a depth of 260 feet and was only fossilised insect wing ever found in a mineral lode. Here is a brief extract from the piece;
The actual crystal of selenite in which the fossil occurs is a beautiful specimen, very clear, but tinged with green and brown ores of copper, on the slant faces, and also on the edge closest to the fossil.
It would seem the most probable explanation of the occurrence of this wing fragment is as follows:-
At the time of the formation of the copper lode, or shortly afterwards, large vugh [rock cavity] channels must have existed, reaching to the surface of the outcrop. Down there, water percolated; and the wing, quite probably in its present fragmentary condition, as part of the remains of some dead insect, was either blown into one of these channels, and carried downward until it reached a resting place in some out of the way corner. Here it became incorporated in some manner between the layers of crystallising selenite that have been found in several parts of the mine embedded in the lode material.
Tillyard concluded that the fossil contained the wing of an undocumented, extinct grasshopper. He had submitted a drawing to Mr A.N. Caudell, an expert in the subject from what was then known as the United States National Museum, in Washington. Caudell agreed with Tillyard’s findings; that it was a unique specimen. The new species and genus was named Austrodictaya corbouldi by Tillyard, in honour of mine manager William Corbould.
A STAR EXHIBIT
Five years later an article was published about Sydney’s Geological & Mining Museum. The writer commented how engaging the institution was for visitors, especially the young. The fossilised wing received special mention;
It would be hard to imagine, for instance, a more absorbing place than the Children’s Room…And in this room some of the most magical treasures are stored. Here is the Locust’s Wing in Crystal. It came from 300 feet down in the Mount Elliot copper mine at Cloncurry – a slab of gypsum with the perfect wing of a locust imprisoned within its crystal flakes. “This is the only known example of such a thing in the world” Mr Card explains. “The gypsum evidently formed around the wing. Today it is preserved as if it were in glass.” (The Sun, Jan. 16 1927)
A FOSSIL FRAUD EXPOSED
In 1953 the then Curator of the Mining Museum, Mr H. F. Whitworth, received a request from Harry Ladd at the US National Museum. Ladd wanted a photo of the imprisoned wing. He was writing a major work on fossils and was keen to include the unique specimen. While preparing the fossil, Whitworth noticed that it was slightly scratched. He decided to immerse it in water for a better result. To his shock, bubbles appeared around the wing, suggesting a cavity. On closer inspection he was shocked to discover a slit had been made in the layers of gypsum. Someone, probably a prankster at the mine, had inserted the fragment of wing then forced the layers back together.
Oh dear me, it was all rather embarrassing. A difficult letter had to be sent to United States, though to be fair, Mr Whitworth was in no way to blame. The next step was to discover what insect the ‘extinct’ Austrodictaya corbouldi wing really belonged to.
Anthony Musgrave, Curator of Insects at the Australian Museum (Sydney) was consulted. After careful examination he concluded that it was the forewing of the Great Gumtree Grasshopper. It is widely known in in Australia, especially in North Queensland.
Many years later paleontologist Peter Jell revisited the fake fossil case in his work The Fossil Insects of Australia (2004) Much to my amusement Jell identified the wing fragment as belonging to the species Terpandrus horridus. 😎 The emphasis in mine, but no doubt Robert Tillyard and William Corbould would appreciate the irony.
The Gum tree Grasshopper insect is remarkable in its own right. During the day it rests among fallen leaves, perfectly camouflaged. Later it climbs up the gum to feed.
The fake gypsum crystal is now held at the WB Clarke Geoscience Centre, in the Sydney suburb of Londonderry.
The Geoscience Centre; a treasure house of mineral specimens
When I tracked it down the relevant government agency kindly sent me a recent photo, showing the wing still in place. Thank goodness it wasn’t discarded after the fraud was uncovered. It’s a pity it is not on public view though, displayed along with the story.
Fake but fascinating!
Robert Tillyard would never know that the fossil was not genuine. He died in a car accident near Goulburn on January 13 1937. William Corbould also died some years prior to the 1953 revelations.
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