Important Geologists before Darwin Nicolaus Steno 1638

Important Geologists before Darwin Nicolaus Steno (1638 – 1686) James Hutton (1726 – 1797) William Smith (1769 – 1839) William Buckland (1784 – 1856) Charles Lyell (1797 – 1857) Mary Anning (1799 – 1847)

Nicolaus Steno (1638 – 1686) Elucidated the Law of Superposition of Rock Layers and the Principles of Original Horizontality and Lateral Extension 1638 Niels Stensen (Nicolaus Steno) is born on January 1 in Copenhagen, Denmark 1648 Begins attending the Vor Frue school 1656 -59 Studies medicine at the University of Copenhagen 1660 Discovers the duct of the parotid glands 1660 -63 Studies at the University of Leiden 1662 Publishes Anatomical Observations 1664 Publishes On Muscles and Glands and receives a medical degree from the University of Leiden in absentia 1665 Presents Discourse on the Anatomy of the Brain in Paris (published in 1669)

Nicolaus Steno (1638 – 1686) 1666 Dissects the head of a great white shark in public in Florence 1667 Publishes Elements of Muscular Knowledge, including his shark head dissection report as an addendum, and converts to Catholicism 1668 Receives a summons from the Danish king to return to Denmark 1669 Publishes Dissertationis Prodromus, articulating his laws about geological strata. 1672 Arrives in Copenhagen to serve as royal anatomist 1674 -76 Returns to Florence and tutors the crown prince 1677 Is consecrated as bishop for the northern missions 1677 -86 Serves the northern European Catholic missions 1686 Dies at age 48 on November 25 in Schwerin, Germany 1988 Pope John Paul II beatifies Steno

Steno’s key laws, stated in his Dissertationis prodromus of 1669, are the basis of stratigraphy: The Law of Superposition: “. . . at the time when any given stratum was being formed, all the matter resting upon it was fluid, and, therefore, at the time when the lower stratum was being formed, none of the upper strata existed” The Principle of Original Horizontality: “Strata either perpendicular to the horizon or inclined to the horizon were at one time parallel to the horizon” The Principle of Lateral Continuity: “Material forming any stratum were continuous over the surface of the Earth unless some other solid bodies stood in the way. ” The Principle of Cross-cutting Discontinuities: “If a body or discontinuity cuts across a stratum, it must have formed after that stratum. ”

James Hutton Born 14 June 1726 in Edinburgh, Scotland Died 26 March 1797 Son of a merchant who died when Hutton was young. Educated in Edinburgh, Paris, and Leyden, receiving degree of Doctor of Medicine from Leyden in 1749.

In 1750, at age of 24, became a successful chemist, but when he inherited a farm from his father’s estate, he moved to the farm and became a farmer. This led to strong interests in meteorology and geology. By 1770 he was renting out his farm and moved to Edinburgh, becoming a key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, a friend of people like the physicist and chemist Joseph Black, the philosopher David Hume, the mathematician John Playfair, and the economist Adam Smith. By 1785 he was giving talks about his geological investigations, which had convinced him that the Earth was a dynamic planet constantly being shaped and reshaped by slow observable processes driven by heat from inside the Earth. Uplift, erosion, sedimentation were all important processes.

In a paper he read in 1785 before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he famously wrote: “The result of our present enquiry is that we find no vestige of a beginning – no prospect of an end. ” Hutton’s arguments, not surprisingly, were greatly criticized, spurring him to several more years of fieldwork then the publishing of his monumental 3 volume Theory of the Earth with Proofs and Illustrations from 1795 to 1797 (the year he died). The book was too long, too difficult, and too full of theological arguments and long quotations from French to have any impact – until his friend John Playfair produced a shorter, more readable version in 1802.

William Smith (1769 – 1839) Born to a blacksmith in Churchill, Oxfordshire, on March 23, 1769. Following his father’s death, he was raised by his uncle, also named William Smith. Enjoyed reading, and bought a copy of Daniel Fenning’s The Art of Measuring (about surveying).

When a noted surveyor, Edward Webb, was brought to West Oxfordshire to survey farmland in the area, Smith approached him with some questions that showed an aptitude for surveying, and he was hired as Webb’s assistant, quickly proving his worth. Soon he was being hired on his own, and then he was hired by the Somerset Coal Canal Company, for which he worked eight years, learning a great deal about the geology of that part of England. He came to recognize the different strata and how they were ordered and how they inclined. He then discovered that similar-looking strata could be distinguished from one another by the fossils present in the strata, which differed.

At Dunkertown, on January 5, 1796, he wrote a onesentence note to himself on a single sheet of paper; the note, with its underlined phrase, has been preserved. “Fossils have long been studied as great curiosities, collected with great pains, treasured with great care and at a great expense, and showed and admired with as much pleasure as a child’s rattle or a hobby-horse is shown and admired by himself and his playfellows, because it is pretty; and this has been done by thousands who have never paid the least regard to that wonderful order and regularity with which Nature has disposed of these singular productions, and assigned to each class its particular stratum. ”

Illustration of Lower Chalk fossils from Smith’s very rare book, Strata Identified by Organized Fossils.

From 1799 to 1815 Smith worked on a great geological map of Britain. Smith’s great map – the first real geological map – was 8 feet high and 6 feet wide. It is recognized as the first real geological map ever made. His use of color was spectacular in making the surface geology understandable. .

John Phillips (1800 – 1874) Smith had a sister Elizabeth who married a man named John Phillips, and they had a son, also named John Phillips. When first the father died, followed soon after by Elizabeth, little John Phillips was left an orphan. William Smith then brought him into his home and raised him. The young John Phillips followed his uncle around and became interested in rocks, minerals, and geology. So interested that he himself eventually became a prominent geologist in his own right. John Phillips became a professor of geology at Dublin University and Oxford University, received many honorary degrees, won the prestigious Wollaston Medal in 1845, and was president of the Geological Society of London in the year 1859 – 1860, when Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was published in 1859. He also wrote a biography of his uncle, Memoirs of William Smith (1844).

Smith’s map was published in 1815, but some of the more aristocratic geologists in the Geological Society, who had not invited Smith to become a member, plagiarized some of his early drafts of it and produced their own map and sold it cheaper, depriving Smith of revenue he deserved and driving him into debt. One debtor had Smith committed to a debtor’s prison in London for 11 months in 1818 – 1819 until some of his assets could be seized and sold. Smith returned to his home of 14 years at 15 Buckingham Street to find it had been seized. His nephew, now 19, had left a note on the door telling where he was. With his wife and nephew, Smith left for northern England worked as an itinerant surveyor for over a decade.

In 1828 the Rotunda Museum of Geology was built in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, to a design by William Smith, with funding by Sir Johnstone of Scarborough. Along the inside walls were fossils arranged in order (oldest at bottom). It eventually fell into disrepair, but has recently been refurbished.

Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England

William Smith: “Father of English Geology” One of Smith’s employers, Sir Johnstone, knowing of his work, decided to bring him the recognition he deserved, and began to promote his case to English geologists. Smith’s reputation grew quickly, and in 1831 he was awarded the Geological Society of London’s first Wollaston Medal, the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in geology. On that occasion, Adam Sedgwick generously called Smith “the Father of English Geology, ” although “Father of English Stratigraphy” would have been more appropriate. In 1835 he went to the British Association meeting in Dublin and was surprised – and greatly pleased – with an honorary doctorate from Trinity College. Smith died in Northampton in 1839 at the age of 70.

William Buckland Born 12 March 1784 Died 14 August 1856, age 72 Son of the Rector of Templeton Educated at Oxford “Old Earth” Creationist, who believed in extinctions and creations of plants and animals. Believed in global deluge in Noah’s time but did not support flood geology.

William Buckland lecturing. He made heavy use of maps, charts, illustrations, and fossil specimens – always insisting on working from facts and evidence.

Buckland’s Scientific Work … Found a cave full of animal bones and at first thought they had been deposited there in a great flood but later showed they were brought there by feeding hyenas (accepted theory today). Described from bones discovered at Stonesfield (mainly after 1815) the first giant reptile fossil (Megalosaurus – “Giant Lizard”) – the first dinosaur fossil. Became convinced of the correctness of Louis Agassiz’ theory that glaciation was responsible for many surface features in Europe, including Britain. Wrote one of the eight Bridgewater Treatises “On the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God, as Manifested in the Creation, ” the on “Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology. ”

Buckland’s Famous Eccentricity … Unusual habit/hobby: eating his way through the animal kingdom, to know what everything tasted like. (His son Frank Buckland, a naturalist, continued this habit. ) Dinner guests reported having panther, crocodile, and mouse at his house. He reported the worst-tasting animals as moles and bluebottles (an English housefly); he did not serve these to guests. At a museum in Nuneham (near Oxford) he reportedly ate the heart of a French king (Louis XIV? ) kept in a silver casket, exclaiming that he had eaten many strange things, but never the heart of a king. Also familiar with the tastes of different dirts in England.

Sir Charles Lyell Geologist Born 14 November 1797 in Kinnordy, Angus, Scotland Died 22 February 1875 and buried in Westminster Abbey 12 years older than Darwin, died 7 years before him. Eldest of 10 children of a prominent lawyer and amateur botanist, also named Charles Lyell.

Lyell was a student at Oxford, where he took geology from William Buckland, but he became a lawyer and worked as a lawyer in the early 1820 s. His interest in geology was very strong, and by 1827 (at the age of 30) he was a full-time professional geologist, supporting himself on his teaching and writing. Became Professor of Geology at King’s College, London. Lyell’s monumental and influential Principles of Geology (3 volumes, published 1830 – 1833) underwent 11 editions during his lifetime, and he was making revisions for the 12 th edition at the time of his death. In 1832 he married Mary Horner, daughter of the Scottish geologist Leonard Horner. After Darwin returned from his voyage on the HMS Beagle, Lyell met Darwin, took a strong liking to him, and tried to get him interested in marrying one of Mary’s sisters.

Lyell’s Principles of Geology was a three-volume work that first appeared 1830 – 1833 but was continually revised during Lyell’s lifetime. Volume 1 (1830) was purchased by Robert Fitz. Roy, Captain of HMS Beagle, who (at the time at least) liked Lyell’s ideas, and was given to Charles Darwin, who read it and found it useful in explaining the geological features he saw on the voyage of the Beagle. Volumes 2 and 3 made their way to Darwin during the voyage. Volume 2 dealt with past organic life and its fossils, and in the first edition was decidedly anti-evolution. It took Darwin years to convert Lyell into an evolutionist.

Lyell’s Principles of Geology The full title of this work was Principles of Geology, Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth’s Surface, by Reference to Causes Now in Operation. The opening words of volume 1 defined geology: “Geology is the science which investigates the successive changes that have taken place in the organic and inorganic kingdoms of nature; it enquires into the causes of these changes, and the influence which they have exerted in modifying the surface and external structure of our planet. ”

Frontispiece to Lyell’s Principles of Geology showing the four main types of rocks. Aqueous = sedimentary; volcanic + plutonic = igneous.

Uniformitarianism The basic thrust of Lyell’s geology was uniformitarianism, that the earth and its geology had been shaped by processes identical to those currently operating on the earth. This was essentially Hutton’s idea, but Lyell developed it fully. For example, the forces that build and later erode mountain ranges were the same in the distant geological past as those occurring today.

Catastrophism Uniformitarianism replaced the alternate theory of catastrophism, that the earth had been shaped by sudden, quick, catastrophic forces such as those in Noah’s flood, maybe once, maybe many times. Noah’s Ark by Edward Hicks

Mary Anning: Noted Fossil Finder Born in Lyme Regis, England, 21 May 1799 Died in Lyme Regis, England, 9 March 1847 Her father, a cabinet maker, hunted fossils as a hobby, but he died when Mary was 13 and the family became destitute, living off charity and what they received from buyers of the fossils they found.

The Anning family gained a reputation for their wonderful fossil finds, attracting tourists to Lyme Regis as well as wealthy fossil buyers. Mary always engaged visitors, especially the scientists, in conversation to learn more about geology and fossil species. Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Birch became patron of the family, advertising their successes and donating important fossils to museums, always crediting Mary Anning with their discovery, in contrast to most rich fossil donors who did not credit the discoverer. In 1838 the British Association for the Advancement of Science granted her an annuity for the rest of her life. Her obituary was published in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 57 years before the Geological Society admitted its first woman member. Mary Anning died of breast cancer in 1847.

Lady Harriet Silvester visited Anning in 1824 and recorded in her diary: “the extraordinary thing in this young woman is that she had made herself so thoroughly acquainted with the science that the moment she finds any bones she knows to what tribe they belong. . by reading and application she has arrived to that greater degree of knowledge as to be in the habit of writing and talking with professors and other clever men on the subject, and they all acknowledge that she understands more of the science than anyone else in this kingdom. ”

Important Discoveries by Anning The first specimen of Ichthyosaurus acknowledged by the Geological Society in London. The first nearly complete example of Plesiosaurus The first British Pterodactylus macronyx, a fossil flying reptile Squaloraja fossil fish, a transitional link between sharks and rays Plesiosaurus macrocephalus. Others? Museums always credited fossils to the person who donated them, not to the original finder.