Because of their large size and pronounced ornament, fossil trigoniid bivalves have long attracted interest. Jean Guillaume Bruguiere was the first person to describe an example of "Trigonia" in 1789. Lamarck later figured specimens from the Oxfordian of France. In England the physician James Parkinson (the discoverer of Parkinson's disease) described examples of "Trigonia" and "Myophorella". Later, James Sowerby and James De Carle Sowerby began to catalogue British examples in earnest. Etheldred Benett added several Upper Jurassic species, although her work was not primarily recognised due to the academic status of women at that time.