Paleontology

An Illustrated History

David Bainbridge

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9780691235929
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Geology & Earth Sciences

An illustrated look at the art and science of paleontology from its origins to today Humans have been stumbling upon the petrified remains of ancient animals since prehistoric times, leading to tales of giant dogs, deadly dragons, tree gods, sea serpents, and all manner of strange and marvelous creatures. In this richly illustrated book, David Bainbridge recounts how legends like these gradually gave rise to the modern science of paleontology, and how this pioneering discipline has reshaped our view of the natural world.Bainbridge takes readers from ancient Greece to the eighteenth century, when paleontology began to coalesce into the scientific field we know today, and discusses how contemporary paleontologists use cutting-edge technologies to flesh out the discoveries of past and present. He brings to life the stories and people behind some of the greatest fossil finds of all time, and explains how paleontology has long straddled the spheres of science and art. Bainbridge also looks to the future of the discipline, discussing how the rapid recovery of DNA and other genetic material from the fossil record promises to revolutionize our understanding of the origins and evolution of ancient life.This panoramic book brings together stunning illustrations ranging from early sketches and engravings to eye-popping paleoart and high-tech computer reconstructions.

Chapter One

ORGANIC REMAINS OF A FORMER WORLD

1800–1860

Joseph Dinkel (1806–1891), Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society, London, vol. 13, 1861; Holotype skull of Scelidosaurus harrisonii from the Lower Lias (early Jurassic), Charmouth, Dorsetshire.

ORGANIC REMAINS OF A FORMER WORLD

1800–1860

“It is certainly a wonderful instance of divine favour – that this poor, ignorant girl should be so blessed … she understands more of the science than anyone else in this kingdom.”

Harriet Silvester

It could be argued that modern paleontology started in 1811 when a twelve-year-old girl excavated a fossil on the south coast of England. Mary Anning (1799–1847; see here) was born into a poor family who lived in Lyme Regis on what is now called, thanks largely to her, the Jurassic Coast. In fact, the family lived so close to the sea that their first home was destroyed by waves during a storm. Mary was one of just two siblings out of ten who survived childhood—it had been her brother, in fact, who first discovered the fossil of a marine creature that proved to be of such significance in the field of paleontology. Their father had recently died and Mary was trying to continue the family’s meager fossil-selling business, simultaneously teaching herself biology and dissecting animals that had been stranded by the tide. This new fossil turned out to be an ancient, strikingly dolphin-shaped marine reptile, 17ft (5.2m) long, which is now displayed in the Natural History Museum in London. Mary was to make other spectacular discoveries in the future, but it was the otherworldliness of her Ichthyosaurus (fish-lizard) which changed science. It was a striking creature, obviously an extinct one, and it was discovered as attitudes to the history of life were changing.

James Parkinson (1755–1824), Organic Remains of a Former World: An examination of the mineralized remains of the vegetables and animals of the antediluvian world; generally termed extraneous fossils, vol. 1, 1811; Fossil of a Crinoid (a type of marine invertebrate related to starfish).

Belemnites, from J. S. Miller, “Observations on Belemnites,” Transactions of the Geological Society, New Series, series 2, vol. 2, plate IX, 1826.

The idea that animal types might sometimes be extinguished was not new. Indeed, in the previous decade scientists had started to classify fossils into those which resembled existing species living nearby, those which resembled existing species now living far distant, and those which seemed like nothing now alive. Also, Jean Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829) of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris had become an influential proponent of the idea that animal species change and split over time in response to their environment. Thanks to his 1809 Philosophie Zoologique, the concepts of extinction and evolution were very much in the contemporary scientific mind.

Yet paradoxically George Cuvier (1769–1832), one of the driving forces behind early-nineteenth-century paleontology, was very much against the nascent theory of evolution. Also working in Paris, he agreed that periodic cataclysmic extinction events were important in the history of animal life, but not gradual change in individual species. Most importantly, though, Cuvier began to apply the science of comparative anatomy to fossils—as early as 1800 he had argued that fossils are extinct species of animals and began to characterize them by comparison with living forms. He studied a giant “beast from Paraguay” (actually Argentina) which he realized was an enormous sloth, compared mammoths and mastodons from the USA and Russia to modern elephants, and also characterized a variety of mammals excavated in nearby Montmartre. In addition, he described and named a “ptérodactyle,” which he characterized as “un reptile volant.” This, and the “Beast of Maastricht” (see here) which he identified as a giant marine reptile, led him, in his 1812 Recherches Sur Les Ossemens Fossiles de Quadrupèdes, to speculate that the Earth was once dominated by reptiles. And Cuvier’s name appears again and again in the early story of paleontology, touring the fossil collections of Europe to help identify specimens: certainly he was excited by Mary Anning’s discovery.

Thomas Landseer (1795–1880), The Voyage of the Beagle, 1839; H.M.S. Beagle laid ashore, Santa Cruz River, April 16, 1834.

Cuvier also examined fossils unearthed by William Buckland (1754–1856). Buckland had discovered giant bones in Stonesfield quarry, in Oxfordshire, in 1815, which Cuvier realized were those of a giant lizard, and indeed they represent the first scientifically described dinosaur, Megalosaurus. In fact, it is somewhat surprising that so much of the early history of dinosaur hunting occurred in Britain, as it actually possesses a rather meager selection of spe...