Remains of 17(th) century cabinets of curiosity collections are held at the Museum of Evolution, Uppsala University, Sweden. Some of the oldest date back to the 1650s, and were included in the collection of Archiater, i.e. physician to the Crown, von Bromell (1679-1731). He is also known for publishing the first series of papers in Sweden to exclusively deal with palaeontology. Throughout his life he acquired specimens by collecting, buying or receiving in exchange to add to those he inherited from his father Olaus Bromelius, a famous botanist and physician. Information on the labels gives a glimpse of his network of friends, colleagues and fellow collectors, such as Kilian Stobaeus, Lars Roberg, Emanuel Swedenborg, Elias Brenner and Johan Dobelius. When Bromell died, his vast collections of books, coins, furniture, conchs, stuffed animals, minerals and fossils were sold off. The minerals and fossils were split up and owned by various persons during the following century. Parts owned by A. Lagerberg between the years 1746 and 1776 were bought in 1796 by Johan Afzelius and donated to Uppsala University at his death. Fossils and minerals earlier described by Bromell were in the care of The Royal Society of Science in Uppsala at least by 1791. Through the Institute of Geology, fossils accumulated over the centuries at Uppsala University eventually came together under the same roof in 1932, under professor Carl Wiman's care at the then newly erected Palaeontology museum building. Today, about 300 fossils from the Bromell collection are preserved at the museum.
The hyolith assemblage from the early Cambrian of Bornholm, Denmark, shows a higher diversity than contemporary assemblages in Baltoscandia. The most common species in the Green Shales (Laesa Formation, Norretorp Member, Cambrian Stage 3), is Hyolithes [=Hyolithus] (Orthotheca) johnstrupi Holm, 1893. A specimen of this species shows a well-preserved and almost complete digestive tract, folded into an approximately 22mm long chevron-like structure comprised of at least 20 arcuate loops on the ventral side and a flattened, gently sinuous to straight anal tube on the dorsal side. The thin, phosphatic outer shell layer of the conch is crushed under the digestive tract due to compaction while the digestive tract is preserved in three dimensions and appears undisturbed. The shape of the digestive tract is similar to that of the middle Cambrian Guduguwan hardmani (Etheridge) from Australia and the lower Cambrian specimens from Russia described by Mekova & Sysoev. The Danish specimen is probably an adult, lending support to the idea that the orthothecid digestive tract becomes more complex during ontogeny. Hyolithus (Orthotheca) johnstrupi is revised and here referred to Circotheca Sysoev, 1958.
The monobathrid camerate crinoid Macrostylocrinus bornholmensis Laursen has an unfortunate history. It was published in a journal not commonly consulted by echinoderm workers and, worse, in time of war; written in a language not in common use for crinoid studies; and described by a stratigrapher, not an expert on pelmatozoans. These and other factors combined to ensure that M. bornholmensis has not been reassessed since it was first described almost 80 years ago, despite belonging to a genus well-known from the Lower Palaeozoic. Macrostylocrinus bornholmensis is Llandovery (Telychian) and not Wenlock as has been reported elsewhere. Diagnostic features include a column that does not bear radices close beneath the cup; a heteromorphic mesistele with five orders of regularly inserted internodals; three basal plates; smooth thecal plates with central folds following rays; and ten pinnulate free arms that are biserial distally. Macrostylocrinus bornholmensis is distinctly different in morphology from well-known, congeneric species described from the Lower Palaeozoic of northern Europe.
Re-examination of type specimens of Early Cambrian and early Mid Cambrian hyoliths from Sweden confirms placement of Hyolithes teretiusculus Linnarsson in Hexitheca Syssoiev, and reassignment to the order Hyolithida rather than Orthothecida. Inclusion of
The isometrically coiled mollusc Eobucania Kobayashi, 1955 is described from the Peltura scarabaeoides Zone (Furongian; late Cambrian) of Kinnekulle, southern Sweden, representing the oldest record of the genus and the first from the Cambrian of Sweden. While originally described from the Lower Ordovician strata within the McKay Group of British Columbia, Canada, additional species of Eobucania have been reported from the Lower Ordovician of Mexico, France and the Czech Republic, and ostensibly from the Lower Devonian of China. Eobucania has been widely interpreted as a bellerophontoidean gastropod, but placement within the monoplacophoran Class Tergomya is possible.
Multiple, small (diameter <20 μm) swellings on the apex of internal moulds of the laterally compressed helcionelloids Eotebenna viviannae and the new species Eotebenna danica from the middle Cambrian (Miaolingian) of Bornholm, Denmark, are interpreted as a muscle attachment scars. The scar pattern is unique amongst currently known helcionelloids both in the abundance of attachment sites and in crossing the median plane of symmetry on the supra-apical (dorsal) surface. Sites of typically two pairs of dorsal muscle scars in other helcionelloids are distributed symmetrically on the dorso-lateral areas. The recognition of four groups of muscle scar patterns in helcionelloids suggests a degree of anatomical diversity within the group that is obscured by the morphological simplicity of the enclosing cap-shaped shells, although evolutionary links to mollusc crown groups are unresolved. In addition to the muscle scars, traces of shell micro-structure are described.
A previously undocumented diversity of Cambrian palaeoscolecids is described from localities in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The material described here includes isolated sclerites as well as the first macroscopic specimens reported from the palaeocontinent Baltica. The sclerites are all of early middle Cambrian age (Ptychagnostus gibbus Biozone) and are assigned to at least four new species of Hadimopanella, two of which are formally introduced: H. incubo sp. nov. and H. oelandiana sp. nov. The two macroscopic specimens are of late early Cambrian (Ellipsocephalus lunatus Biozone) and early middle Cambrian age (Acadoparadoxides oelandicus Biozone), respectively. The early Cambrian specimen is described as Maotianshania? sp. and comprises an incomplete annulated trunk fragment which is uniformly covered with circular sclerites, indicative of the palaeoscolecid family Maotianshaniidae. This is the first record of this family outside China. The middle Cambrian specimen is almost complete and introduced as Wronascolex? johanssoni sp. nov. It is characterized by a previously undocumented distribution of its Hadimopanella-like sclerites which increase in size and change ornamentation from the anterior to the posterior end of the distinctly annulated trunk. The observed distribution pattern can explain the high variability of species of the sclerite-based genus Hadimopanella as well as the occurrence of rare morphotypes of Hadimopanella in otherwise rich samples. Available data on the ontogeny of palaeoscolecids regarding the relationship between body and sclerite size of a taxon are evaluated. It is concluded that sclerite size might be species specific and should be considered when comparing taxa with morphological similar sclerites.