NATURWISSENSCHAFTLICHER ANHANG / NATURAL SCIENCE APPENDIX - FERDINAND ROEMER COLLECTS AND WRITES ON TEXAS GEOLOGY, BOTANY, AND ZOOLOGY (1849)

German geologist and palaeontologist Ferdinand Roemer (1818-1891), the "Father of the geology of Texas" gives an account of his sojourn in Texas (12/1845 - 4/1847) in his 'Texas' (1849), an important source book for geologists and natural scientists. He provides valuable information on central Texas, settlement efforts, people and life at the frontier, and presents his observations on Texas geology, palaeontology, botany, and zoology. He also included the first geologic map of Texas showing the regional geology of present east and central Texas. The main body of text (362 p.*; Engl. translation, 1935) is followed by a virtually not known 'Natural Science Appendix' (102 p.) of which I prepared an English translation** and which gives specific information on early Texas and its geology. It includes: (1) the first, extensive text on the regional geology of Texas (26 p.), (2) a listing and discussion of the fossils Roemer observed and collected, incl. 11 Palaeozoic and 118 Cretaceous fossils (31 p.), (3) comments on his geologic map of Texas (3 p.), (4) an inventory (by Adolph Scheele) of a herbarium containing 301 Texan plants (24 p.), and (5) a zoological contribution (14 p.), with a listing of observed or collected invertebrates (14, plus 91 mollusks) and 61 vertebrates (fishes, reptiles, birds, mammals).

Fragments of Roemer's collections have survived the times and are located in Germany, mainly in the Roemer-Museum (Hildesheim), the Museum für Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universität (Berlin), the Institut für Paläontologie der Friedrich-Wilhelm Universität (Bonn), and the Systematisch- Geobotanisches Institut der Georgia-Augusta Universität (Göttingen).

* original pagination ** to be published (2001)