The paleontology of invertebrates in the Revista of the Museum of La Plata: 1891-2018

Abstract

The number and content of the papers published in the Revista del Museo de La Plata (RMLP) on Invertebrate Palaeontology is related to the development of its institutional context. Four periods are recognized: the foundational period (1884 - 1905), the beginning of the university epoch (1906 - 1934), the Invertebrate Paleontology and Paleobotany Division period (1934-1966) and the Invertebrate Palaeontology Division period (1966 - present). Between 1890, the year in which the RMLP began to be printed in the Museum, and 1905, the year in which the Museum became part of the National University of La Plata, institutional publications were characterized by their quality. During that first period the RMLP and the Anales del Museo de La Plata were almost the only national means of publication for the studies on invertebrate faunas carried out in the Museum. Santiago Roth contributed to the RMLP with his discoveries of important fossil invertebrate sites, some of which were studied by C. Burckhardt. In the fifteen years following the incorporation of the Museum to the National University of La Plata there were no new publications on fossil invertebrates in the RMLP. Between 1922 and 1930 only some mentions on fossil invertebrates would appear in the RMLP, which were related to works by W. Schiller and S. Roth. In 1934 J. Frenguelli was appointed Secretary and in 1935 Director of the Museum, and the quality and periodicity of existing publications improved. The RMLP, with 34 published volumes, was continued as a new series and reached its maximum relevance, not only by the quality and quantity of the articles but also by its printing quality, as well as by the regularity of its publication. A group of three researchers, E. Fossa Mancini, H. J. Harrington and A.F. Leanza, and a few associate researchers external to the institution, published numerous contributions in the RMLP on Paleozoic and Mesozoic invertebrates. The publications of Museo de La Plata were also affected by a lack of continuity of institutional policies. In 1966 the Division of Invertebrate Paleozoology and Paleobotany was split into two divisions, A.J. Amos became its head and the fourth historical period began. Amos assembled a team of researchers that worked mostly on the paleontology and stratigraphy of the Paleozoic. Nevertheless, papers published in the RMLP from the 1960s to the1980s were few due to the existence of other local and international publishing media. Those articles published in the RMLP were mostly synthesis of doctoral theses that, due to their length, were not easily publishable in other media. Only in the 1980s, especially after 1983, there was an attempt to renovate the RMLP, but only four papers on fossil invertebrates were published. Only five papers were published on Paleontology between 1990 and 1992, of which only one on invertebrates. Subsequently, six papers on Ch. Darwin were published in 2012, some of which mentioned fossil invertebrates. Since 2016 the RMLP abandoned the format maintained in the New Series since 1936 and began a new numbering with a single volume per year that included articles on different branches of the natural sciences. In this version of the RMLP only one paper on fossil invertebrates was published, although a volume with contributions dedicated to the History of Geology included some that dealt with historical aspects of invertebrate paleontology in Argentina. The RMLP also devoted an issue to the participation of researchers of Russian origin, including paleontologists, in Earth Sciences activities developed in Latin America.