John William Salter

John William Salter (15 December 1820 – 2 December 1869) was an English naturalist, geologist, and palaeontologist.

Salter was apprenticed in 1835 to James De Carle Sowerby, and was engaged in drawing and engraving the plates for Sowerby's Mineral Conchology, the Supplement to Sowerby's English Botany, and other natural history works. In 1842, he was employed for a short time by Adam Sedgwick in arranging the fossils in the Woodwardian Museum at Cambridge, and he accompanied the professor on several geological expeditions (1842–1845) into Wales.

Salter was born in Pratt Place, Camden Town, the son of John Salter (1779–1837), a banking clerk, and his wife, Mary Ann. His birth was registered at Dr. William's Library near Cripplegate, London. In 1846, Salter married Sally, daughter of James De Carle Sowerby, and eventually fathered seven children with her. Also in 1846, Salter was appointed on the staff of the Geological Survey and worked under Edward Forbes until 1854. He succeeded Forbes as palaeontologist to the survey and gave his chief attention to the Palaeozoic fossils, spending much time in Wales and the border counties. He contributed the palaeontological portion to Andrew Crombie Ramsay's Memoir on the Geology of North Wales (1866), assisted Roderick Murchison in his work on Siluria (1854 and later editions),MURCHISON, R. I. 1854. Siluria. The History of the Oldest known Rocks containing Organic Remains, with a Brief Sketch of the Distribution of Gold over Earth. John Murray, London, 523 pp. and Adam Sedgwick by preparing A Catalogue of the Collection of Cambrian and Silurian Fossils contained in the Geological Museum of the University of Cambridge (1873).SEDGWICK, A. 1873 (in SALTER J. W.). A Catalogue of the Collection of Cambrian and Silurian Fossils Contained in the Geological Museum of the University of Cambridge. University Press, Cambridge

In the very early 1860's, while collecting fossils in South West Wales as part of his duties for the British Geological Survey, Salter was examining coastal exposures by boat around the St Davids peninsula and landed in the small inlet of Porth-y-rhaw, in the mistaken belief that it was Solva Harbour a short distance to the east. In 1862, while investigating the eastern cliff section and in strata now known as the Menevia Formation (Rees et al., 2014, p. 73)REES, A. J., THOMAS, A. T., LEWIS, M., HUGHES, H. E. & TURNER, P. 2014. The Cambrian of S W Wales: Towards a United Avalonian Stratigraphy. Geological Society, London, Memoirs, 42, 1–30. Salter discovered remains of one of the largest trilobites ever found (over 50 cm long) and which, in 1863, he named Paradoxides davidis after his friend David Homfray (1822–1893), an amateur fossil collector from Porthmadog, North West Wales.SALTER, J. W. 1863. On the Discovery of Paradoxides in Britain. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, London, 19, 274–277. For many years and up to the time of his death, Homfray was Clerk to the Justices of the Peace for the Penrhyndeudraeth Division.

Encouraged by Salter, Homfray made many important fossil discoveries in the Porthmadog district, Gwynedd, especially within the Tremadocian rocks, and Salter named several species after Homfray to honour his efforts, e.g. Niobe (Niobella) Homfrayi (Salter, 1866, p. 143, pl. 20, fig. 9.),SALTER, J. W. 1866. Palaeontographical Society Monographs (1), pp. 129 – 176, pls. 15 – 25.SALTER 1873. Catalogue of the Cambrian and Silurian fossils contained in the Geological Museum of the University of Cambridge (2): p.15.WOODS, H. 1891. Catalogue of the Type Fossils in the Woodwardian Museum, Cambridge. Henry Woods with preface by T. McKenny Hughes CUP. 180 + xiv SPL: II. 16 (3): p.148. Asaphus Homfrayi Salter (1866)SALTER J. W. 1866 . The geology of North Wales. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of England and Wales. vol. iii (1st edition) (1): p.354 pl. 10 fig. 11. – now Asaphellus homfrayi (Salter) – see Morris (1988): Lectotype,MORRIS, S. F. 1988. A review of British trilobites, including a synoptic revision of Salter's monograph. Palaeontogr. Soc. (Monogr.), 1–316. pp. 26, 255. from Garth Hill, near Porthmadog, and Conularia Homfrayi Salter; undifferentiated Type, also from Garth Hill. [(Salter 1866, p. 354, pl. 10, fig. 11); Salter (1873, p. 18, p. 323); Woods, H. (1891, p. 119)].SLATER, I. L. 1907. A monograph of British Conularae Palaeontographical Society Monographs (4): p. 1.

From the Clogau Formation of Waterfall Valley near Maentwrog, Homfray also discovered for the first time in Britain, Conocoryphe coronata Barrande, 1846,BARRANDE, J. 1846. Notice pre Âliminaire sur le syste Áme silurien et les trilobites de Bohême. Leipzig, 97 pp. and another species named in his honour, "Conocoryphe" Homfrayi Salter,Hicks, H. 1872. On some undescribed species from the Menevian Group with a note on the Entomostraca, by Prof. T. Rupert Jones F. G. S. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, London, 28, 173 – 185.LAKE, 1932. A monograph of the British Cambrian Trilobites. Palaeontographical Society Monographs pt. vii (4): p.151 pl. xix fig. 7. subsequently assigned to Ptychoparia, Hawle and Corda, 1847.HAWLE, J. & CORDA, A. J. C. 1847. Prodrom einer Monographieder bohmischen Trilobiten. 176 pp. J. G. Calve, Prague.

In 1865 Salter collaborated with Henry Woodward to produce a Chart of Fossil Crustacea.Chart of Fossil Crustacea. By J. W. SALTER and H. WOODWARD. With Descriptive Catalogue. Lowry & Tennant: London. 1865. The Annals and magazine of natural history; zoology, botany, and geology, 16, series 3, pp. 362–364 and in the same year published a paper on some Additional Fossils from the Lingula-Flags.SALTER, J. W. 1865. On some Additional Fossils from the Lingula-Flags. By J. W. Salter, Esq., A. L. S., F. G. S. With a Note on the genus Anopolenus; by Henry Hicks, Esq. M. R. C. S. in which he named several trilobite species that were subsequently described by Hicks (1872).

Salter prepared several of the Decades of the Geological Survey and became the leading authority on trilobites. He resigned his post on the Geological Survey in 1863 and committed suicide on 2 December 1869 by throwing himself into the Thames. He was buried on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery in an unmarked grave (no.15356). At the time of his death he had barely completed the illustrated 'Catalogue of Cambrian and Silurian Fossils' (q.v.) in the Woodwardian Museum and he left unfinished a 'Monograph of British Trilobites,’ published by the Palæontographical Society (1864–1867).

He was elected an associate of the Linnean Society in 1842, made a fellow of the Geological Society of London in 1846, and in 1865 was awarded the Wollaston donation-fund by the Geological Society.

Fossils named in honour of John William Salter

Problematica Salterella Billings, 1861. An enigmatic early Cambrian genus questionably assigned to extinct phylum Agmata? and family Salterellidae Walcott, 1886. The genus is characterized by a small calcareous, apparently septate conical shell and lends its name to the Salterella Grit Member of the An t-Sron Formation which forms a narrow, discontinuous belt, extending along the North-western side of Scotland.

Trilobites Salteria Wyville Thomson, 1864THOMSON, C. W. 1864. Figures and descriptions illustrative of British organic remains. Memoir of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom. Dec 11, 4 pp., pl. 6. [Family: Raphiophoridae]. Type species, by monotypy, Salteria primaeva Thomson, 1864. Balclatchie Group (Caradoc Series) of the Girvan district, Strathclyde, Scotland.TRIPP, R. P. 1980. Trilobites from the Ordovician Balclatchie and lower Ardwell groups of the Girvan district, Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 71: 123 – 145. Salterolithus Bancroft, 1929BANCROFT, B. B. 1929. Some new species of Cryptolithus (s. l.) from the upper Ordovician. Memoir and Proceedings of the Manchester Library and Philosophical Society, no 73, pp. 67 – 98, pls. 1, 2. [Family:Trinucleidae]. Type species: Trinucleus Caractaci Murchison, 1839. Harnagian, Welshpool, Powys, Wales.MURCHISON, R. I. 1839. The Silurian System. 786 pp., 37 pls. London. Salterocoryphe salteri (Rouault, 1851)ROUAULT, M. 1851. Mémoire sur le terrain paléozoïque des environs de Rennes. Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France, 8, 358 – 399. [Family: Calymenidae]. Middle Ordovician (Dapingian – Darriwilian)], upper part of the Valongo Formation in Northern Portugal; the Llanvirnian at Guadarranque in Cadiz (Andalusia), Spain and; the 'Llandeilo' south of Rennes in Brittany.ROMANO, M. 1991. Trilobites from the Ordovician of Portugal. Palaeontology, 34 (2), pp. 329 – 355, 4 pls.

Clarella salteri (Hicks in Salter 1865) [Family: Centropleuridae]. Menevia Formation, Pt. punctuosus Biozone, Porth-y-rhaw, St David's, Dyfed, Wales. Cnemidopyge Salteri Hicks MS (Salter 1873, p. 22) [Family: Raphiophoridae]. Penmaen Dewi Formation (Whitlandian), middle Arenig Series of Pwlluog, N end of Whitesands Bay, near St David's, Dyfed, Wales. Flexicalymene (Onnicalymene) salteri Bancroft, 1949 [Family: Calymenidae]. Acton Scott Beds (Actonian, Marshbrook, Shropshire, England.BANCROFT, B. B. 1949. Upper Ordovician trilobites of zonal value in south-east Shropshire (Edited by A. Lamont). Proc. R. Soc. (B), 136, pp. 291 – 315, pls. 9 – 11. Leptoplastides salteri (Callaway, 1877) [Family: Olenidae]. Sheinton Shales (Tremadocian Stage) of Sheinton, Shropshire, England.CALLAWAY, C. 1877. On a new area of Upper Cambrian rocks in South Shropshire, with a description of a new fauna. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 33, pp. 652 – 672, pl. 24. Robergiella salteri (Reed, 1899) [Family: Remopleuridae]. Tramore Limestone Formation, ('Llandeilo' and Caradoc Series) of Tramore, County Waterford, Ireland.REED, F. R. C. 1899. The Lower Palaeozoic bedded rocks of County Waterford. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 55, pp. 718 – 772, pl. 44. Oryctocephalus salteri Reed, 1910REED, F. R. C. 1910. The Cambrian fossils of Spiti. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, Palaeontologia Indica 15th Series, 7: 1 – 70 [Family: Oryctocephalidae]. Wuliuan stage in north side of the Parahio River, Spiti region, India. Parahio Formation, Oryctocephalus salteri Zone.PENG, S., HUGHES, NIGEL C., HEIM, N. A., SELL, B. K., ZHU, X., MYROW, P. M. and PARCHA, S. K. 2009. Cambrian trilobites from the Parahio and Zanskar Valleys, Indian Himalaya. Phacops (Viaphacops) salteri Kozlowski, 1923 (p. 54 – 56 pl. 6, fig. 5) [Family: Phacopidae]KOZLOWSKI R. S. J. 1923. Faune dévonienne de Bolivie. Annales de Paléontologie, t. 12, pp. 1 – 112. From the Devonian of Bolivia and Columbia.Floresta Fauna at Fossilworks.org Lotagnostus salteri Westrop and Landing, 2017WESTROP, S. R. and LANDING, E. 2017. The agnostoid arthropod Lotagnostus Whitehouse, 1936 (late Cambrian; Furongian) from Avalonian Cape Breton Island (Nova Scotia, Canada) and its significance for international correlation. Geological Magazine, Volume 154, Issue 5, September 2017, pp. 1001 – 1021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0016756816000571 [Family: Agnostidae]. From the Chelsey Drive Group, north shore of East Bay, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Ctenopyge tumida Zone.

Brachiopoda Broeggeria salteri (Holl, 1865)HOLL, H. B. 1865. On the geological structure of the Malvern Hills and adjacent areas. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 21, 72 – 102. [Family: Elkaniidae]. Obolella salteri Holl, 1865 is type species of the Cambrian lingulid genus Broeggeria Walcott, 1902WALCOTT, C. D. 1902 Cambrian Brachiopoda: Acrotreta; Linnarssonella; Obolus; with descriptions of new species. United States National Museum, Proceedings 25, 577 – 612. and is recorded from the Whiteleaved-Oak Shales (Tremadocian) near Malvern, England.