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What made Stan Wood a great collector?

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Abstract

Stan Wood was an exceptional fossil collector who, over a collecting career of more than 40 years, provided British palaeontology with an abundance and variety of new Carboniferous fossils the like of which had not been collected since Victorian times. So what made him a great collector? Here, with the help of Stan’s family, his friends and colleagues, we try to provide the answer. There is no single factor that stands out, but a complex mixture of innate and learned behaviours that together produced a unique talent. Although he acquired an Open University degree in geology, Stan was largely self- taught as a collector and in doing so became an accomplished and confident field geologist. He was naturally curious, persistent and very observant with a photographic memory. He was tough, very strong and enjoyed hard physical work. He was congenial, unorthodox and a calculated risk taker. He asked questions, tested ideas and had a healthy disregard for authority. He was systematic, kept detailed records and shared his discoveries. He not only loved collecting fossils but, in the process, discovered in himself the essential qualities of a true scientist.

Description

Journal Title

Earth and Environmental Sciences Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1755-6910
1755-6929

Volume Title

108

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

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Sponsorship
Natural Environment Research Council (NE/J022713/1)