Skip to main content

Help us improve the National Data Library - complete this short survey

Close survey banner

Index to the UK (North) Survey collection of fossils

Publisher
British Geological Survey (BGS)
Updated
13 August 2026
Topic
Not set
Licence
Not set

Summary

This dataset is an index of the Survey Collection of fossils for Scotland and Northern England. It is the digital equivalent of the analogue (card) index. The latter contains some 31k records, c.70% of which has been transcribed. The continually growing Survey Collection comprises about 450k samples (including nearly 30k specimens from the John Smith Collection) which are individually registered in c.150 leather bound volumes. The Oracle relational database BGS_FOSSLOC is a first step in ascertaining what registered fossil materials exist for certain areas, who collected them and when, their geographical and stratigraphical details, the type of collection (whether from boreholes or exposures), and any covering technical reports. It is also a pathway to an extensive and unique collection of paper graphic logs, some 18k of which record annotated information on fossil occurrences and assemblages at certain stratigraphical levels (particularly in the Carboniferous) in Scotland and Northern England.

Data links

Link Format Preview Updated
National Geological Repository 13/8/2026

Is this data/dataset useful? Give us feedback

Additional information

Source Metadata
XML, HTML
Date added
13 August 2026
Harvest GUID
9df8df51-63b7-37a8-e044-0003ba9b0d98
Extent (Latitude)
60.8400° to 53.8800°
Extent (Longitude)
-8.6500° to -0.5300°
Dataset reference date (creation)
1997
Frequency of update
notPlanned
Access constraints
The copyright of materials derived from the British Geological Survey's work is vested in the Natural Environment Research Council [NERC]. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a retrieval system of any nature, without the prior permission of the copyright holder, via the BGS Intellectual Property Rights Manager. Use by customers of information provided by the BGS, is at the customer's own risk. In view of the disparate sources of information at BGS's disposal, including such material donated to BGS, that BGS accepts in good faith as being accurate, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the quality or accuracy of the information supplied, or to the information's suitability for any use. NERC/BGS accepts no liability whatever in respect of loss, damage, injury or other occurence however caused.
Responsible party
British Geological Survey (distributor, originator, pointOfContact, custodian)
ISO 19139 resource type
dataset
Metadata language
eng

Contact

Enquiries

enquiries@bgs.ac.uk

Freedom of information (FOI) requests

Freedom of Information (FOI) requests