William, Mary and fossils from the Himalaya

This talk is about connections. It will look at the Bucklands, their significance in early 19th century Quaternary palaeontology and their work concerning an early 19th century collection of Siwalik fossils sent to Oxford from the foothills of the Himalaya. This collection was likely the first of its kind to be sent to the UK but was only investigated recently and published in 2022. We will consider the donor of the collection and its colonial context before describing examples of the amazing fossil animals of the Siwaliks, which remain understudied and underappreciated to this day.