AUTHOR: Klein, Jacob Theodor (1685-1759) TITLE: Descriptiones tubulorum marinorum: in quorum censum relati lapides Caudae Cancri Gesneri, & his similes; Belemnitae; eorum que alveoli, secundum despositionem musei Kleiniani. Addita est dissertatio epistolaris de Pilis Marinis. IMPRINT: Gedani [i.e. Danzig]: apud Knochium, 1731. COLLATION: 28 cm. 4º: A-E4 )(2 pp. [4], x, 26, [4] p., 10 leaves of plates: ill. NOTES: Plates are signed “Uhlich sc.,” “PB sc.,” “C. Fritesch sc. Hamb.” “Rare first edition and early description of fossil Belemnites which were kept in Klein’s own museum in Danzig, when he was a court secretary from 1714. DSB VII, 401: ‘Klein’s taxonomic method was based entirely on external characteristics, such as the number and position of limbs and the mouth; and he vigorously opposed any method, including the Linnaean system, based on characteristics not visible externally.’ The fine plates were engraved by the Nuremberg collector and artist Georg Wolfgang Knorr (1705-1761), famous for his outstanding palaeontological work Die Sammlung von Merkwürdigkeiten der Natur.” — Dieter Schierenberg catalogue 74 REFERNCES: BM(NH); Nissen, C. Zoologische Buchillustration 2203; Zittell, Geschichte der Geologie p. 186. KEYWORDS: 1. Paleontology. I. Knoch, printer. II. Uhlich, illustrator. III. Fritesch, C., illustrator. LOCATION: QL381.K64 OTHER CALIFORNIA LOCATIONS: California Institute of Technology; UC Berkeley