Hippochrenes amplus

The first fossil to be given a binomial name.

Hippochrenes amplus is a kind of fossil conch shell (a gastropod mollusc). This is the type specimen, described and named by Daniel Solander in 1766.

Daniel Solander used Linnaean nomenclature to name the fossil. The original name was Strombus amplus but the species has since been transferred to the genus Hippochrenes.

Solander (1733-1782) was a pupil of Carl Linnaeus and the publication describing this species may be the first time Linnaean nomenclature was used to name a fossil. Solander return to the British Museum in 1763 and his publication on the Eocene Barton Beds of Hampshire was published in 1766.

Collected from Eocene deposits in Hordel, Hampshire in 1749, the collector of this specimen is unknown. The specimen was given to the Museum as part of the fossil shell collection of Gustavus Brander (1720–1787) a Trustee of the British Museum.

Explore other key objects related to Naming nature >