DOI: 10.5061/dryad.wh70rxwv0
title: Data from: The fossil insect assemblage associated with the Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) Oceanic Anoxic Event from Alderton Hill, Gloucestershire, UK

description: Extreme global warming and environmental changes associated with the
 Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) Oceanic Anoxic Event (T-OAE, ~183 Mya)
 profoundly impacted marine organisms and terrestrial plants. Despite the
 exceptionally elevated abundance of fossil insects from strata of this
 age, only assemblages from Germany and Luxembourg have been studied in
 detail. Here, we focus on the insect assemblage found in strata recording
 the T-OAE at Alderton Hill, Gloucestershire, UK, where &lt;15% of
 specimens have previously been described. We located all known fossil
 insects (n = 370) from Alderton Hill and used these to create the first
 comprehensive taxonomic and taphonomic analysis of the entire assemblage.
 We compared the Alderton Hill assemblage with the only other significant
 T-OAE assemblage insect assemblage in the UK at Strawberry Bank, Somerset
 UK. All insects from Alderton Hill, in addition to those from the coeval
 palaeoentomofauna of Strawberry Bank, Somerset, UK within the collections
 at the Natural History Museum, London, UK, were photographed.
 Well-preserved specimens from the smaller collections at seven other
 museums were also photographed. Most of the Strawberry Bank insects are at
 the Somerset Heritage Centre, Taunton, UK, and are poorly preserved so
 they were not photographed. The best-preserved specimens within each taxon
 (n = 39) from Alderton Hill are presented as figures 3-5 in the associated
 publication, and the remainder of the specimen photographs (n = 300) from
 Alderton Hill and Strawberry Bank are presented here. We show that
 Alderton Hill has a diverse palaeoentomofaunal assemblage, comprising 12
 orders, 21 families, 23 genera, and 21 species. The palaeoentomofauna from
 Strawberry Bank, Somerset is less diverse with 9 orders, 12 families, 6
 genera, and 3 species.
description: Additionally, 386 rock specimens, which possessed fossilised
 insects from Strawberry Bank, Somerset, UK, were also located within four
 museum and institutional collections. While the majority (n = 359) of the
 Strawberry Bank insects are housed within the collections at Somerset
 Heritage Centre, Taunton, UK (TTNCM), additional specimens (n = 27) from
 Strawberry Bank were also discovered during this study within the
 collections of NHMUK (n = 18), Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge, UK (CAMSM, n =
 8) and Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Bristol, UK (BRSMG, n =
 1). Through direct observation and high-resolution
 photographs, the taxonomy of each specimen from Alderton Hill was revised
 to the finest taxonomic resolution possible. The Strawberry Bank insect
 material, originally identified by Williams et al. 2015, was also
 re-examined, and in some cases, the taxonomy was also refined. All of the
 insect material from Alderton Hill and Strawberry Bank, including the
 revised taxonomy, specimen numbers, museum/institution, types, name of the
 original collectors, and references were compiled into databases. These
 two databases have been uploaded as part of this dataset.
  All of the Alderton Hill and Strawberry Bank insects within the
 collections at NHMUK were photographed using a Canon EOS 5DS R with a
 single headlight source with an adjacent reflector in order to best
 capture the preserved wing venation. Within the smaller museum collections
 (CHAGM, BRSMG, BGS, CAMSM), the insect material was often poorly preserved
 and fragmentary, and therefore only well-preserved specimens were
 photographed (using a Nikon D3200 with Nikon Micro-Nikkor 40mm F/2.8 macro
 lens). All of these photographs are included in the zip file, aside from
 those from CHAGM (due to the cost of copyright and reproduction). The four
 insect specimens from Alderton Hill, documented as being held at WARMS, in
 addition to the single specimen from the NMW, could not be re-examined or
 photographed, as the collections were inaccessible at the time of this
 study. The specimen held within the collections at PALE could not be
 re-examined in person but can be viewed on the ‘MCZBASE: The Database of
 the Zoological Collections’ [Accessible from:
 https://mczbase.mcz.harvard.edu/Specimens.cfm]. The
 Strawberry Bank insects at TTNCM were not photographed due to the poor and
 fragmentary preservation of the majority of the material (see Williams et
 al. 2015 for the best-preserved examples). Within the smaller museum
 collections (BRSMG and CAMSM), the Strawberry Bank insects were again
 poorly preserved and fragmentary, and therefore only selected
 better-preserved specimens were photographed. These photographs are
 included in the zip file.  This dataset is comprised
 of: <strong>(1) </strong>Two spreadsheets,
 one detailing all fossil insect specimens from Alderton Hill,
 Gloucestershire, UK, and the other detailing all fossil insect specimens
 from Strawberry Bank, Somerset, UK collated for this study. Each
 spreadsheet provides a revised taxonomy, specimen numbers,
 museum/institution, and abbreviation, whether it is a type specimen, name
 of original collector, references, and whether the photograph is part of a
 figure in the publication or part of the zip file.  
 <strong>(2) </strong>Photographs (excluding those
 featured in Figs 3 – 5 of the associated publication) of each insect
 specimen within the NHMUK collection from Alderton Hill recorded for this
 study. Additionally, the best-preserved specimens from BRSMG, BGS, and
 CAMSM are also included. Photographs of the Strawberry Bank insects
 discovered during this study within the collections of NHMUK, in addition
 to the best-preserved specimens from BRSMG and CAMSM, are also included
 here.  Note: for the photographs, the total length of
 the smaller scale bar (used in the majority of the photographs) is equal
 to 1 cm, each tick is 1 mm, while the total length of the larger scale bar
 (with individual values on, only used for larger specimens) is equal to 5
 cm. <strong>References</strong>
 Williams M, Benton MJ, Ross A. 2015. The Strawberry Bank
 Lagerstätte reveals insights into early Jurassic life. Journal of the
 Geological Society. 172: 683-692. doi:10.1144/jgs2014-144.
description: # Data from: The fossil insect assemblage associated with the Toarcian
 (Lower Jurassic) Oceanic Anoxic Event from Alderton Hill, Gloucestershire,
 UK
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.wh70rxwv0](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.wh70rxwv0) The following are the museum and institutional abbreviations used in the abstract, methods, and uploaded databases: **BGS**, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, UK; **BRSMG**, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Bristol, UK; **CAMSM**, Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge, UK; **CHAGM**, Wilson Museum, Cheltenham, UK; **NHMUK**, Natural History Museum, London, UK; **NMW**, National Museum Wales, Cardiff, UK; **PALE**, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, USA; **TTNCM**, Somerset Heritage Centre, Taunton, UK; **WARMS**, Warwickshire Museum, Warwick, UK.   There are two Microsoft Excel spreadsheet files. One detailing all fossil insect specimens from Alderton Hill, Gloucestershire, UK, and the other detailing all fossil insect specimens from Strawberry Bank, Somerset, UK collated for this study.   A zip file containing photographs of fossil insect specimens from Alderton Hill and Strawberry Bank from museum collections. These comprise:   * Each insect specimen within the NHMUK collection from Alderton Hill recorded for this study (excluding those featured in Figs 3 – 5 of the associated publication) * The best-preserved Alderton Hill specimens from BRSMG, BGS and CAMSM * The Strawberry Bank insects within the collections of NHMUK discovered during this study * The best-preserved Strawberry Bank specimens from BRSMG and CAMSM   Each file is named according to the identifier for the specimen in each museum. These photographs are in PDF format. For the photographs, the total length of the smaller scale bar (used in the majority of the photographs) is equal to 1 cm, and each tick is 1 mm, while the total length of the larger scale bar (with individual values on, only used for larger specimens) is equal to 5 cm.