From the award-winning author of The Feminisation of Nature comes
The Dinosaur Hunters (A True Story of Scientific Rivalry and the
Discovery of the Prehistoric World). This account chronicles the
hopes, speculation and setbacks experienced by amateurs and experts
alike in the early part of the 19th century, when they began
discovering evidence of the prehistoric era. They gradually found
out that fossil creatures were very different from any living
animals and therefore had a highly significant bearing on history.
Written from the perspective of the knowledge at the time, Cadbury
describes scientists puzzling over fossilized bones, and struggling
to form a coherent theory for their presence. Several characters
were instrumental in these momentous finds in various parts of the
English countryside. In Lyme Regis an amateur fossil-hunter, Mary
Anning, found a ready market for the many specimens she discovered
on the beaches and cliffs. An Oxford naturalist, the Reverend
WIlliam Buckland, was researching fossil remains, but the
interpretation of his findings was often distorted by his religious
beliefs. Although a competent geologist, he rejected evolutionary
theories and felt obliged to make his finds fit into the accepted
biblical wisdom of the Deluge and Creation. A naturalist, Gideon
Mantell, a Sussex doctor, strove for years to overcome prejudice
and the snobbish attitudes of the elitist scientific fraternity
before he finally managed to convince his fellow scientists that a
giant herbivorous lizard once roamed around the English
countryside. However, it was Richard Owen, an unscrupulous
anatomist who managed to insinuate himself into the best circles,
who employed all the hard-earned knowledge to his own disadvantage
and unfairly was credited with the discovery of the dinosaurs. This
book gives a fascinating insight into the drawing of knowledge
about prehistoric times. (Kirkus UK)
The story of two nineteenth-century scientists who revealed one of
the most significant and exciting events in the natural history of
this planet: the existence of dinosaurs. In 'The Dinosaur Hunters'
Deborah Cadbury brilliantly recreates the remarkable story of the
bitter rivalry between two men: Gideon Mantell uncovered giant
bones in a Sussex quarry, became obsessed with the lost world of
the reptiles and was driven to despair. Richard Owen, a brilliant
anatomist, gave the extinct creatures their name and secured for
himself unrivalled international acclaim.
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