Important Geologists before Darwin

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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)
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• 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
• 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)

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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 Ret
urns 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
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Stenos 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.
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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.
6
In 1750, at age of 24, became a successful
chemist, but when he inherited a farm from his
fathers 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.
7
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. Huttons 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.
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William Smith (1769 1839) Born to a blacksmith
in Churchill, Oxfordshire, on March 23,
1769. Following his fathers death, he was raised
by his uncle, also named William Smith. Enjoyed
reading, and bought a copy of Daniel Fennings
The Art of Measuring (about surveying).
10
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 Webbs 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.
11
At Dunkertown, on January 5, 1796, he wrote a
one-sentence 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
childs 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.
12
Illustration of Lower Chalk fossils from Smiths
very rare book, Strata Identified by Organized
Fossils.
13
From 1799 to 1815 Smith worked on a great
geological map of Britain. Smiths 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. .
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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 Darwins
On the Origin of Species was published in 1859.
He also wrote a biography of his uncle, Memoirs
of William Smith (1844).
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Smiths 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 debtors 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 and worked as an itinerant
surveyor for over a decade.
17
In 1828 the Rotunda Museum of Geology was built
in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, to a design by
William Smith, with funding by Sir John 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.
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Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England
19
William Smith Father of English Geology One of
Smiths employers, Sir John Johnstone, knowing of
his work, decided to bring him the recognition he
deserved, and began to promote his case to
English geologists. Smiths reputation grew
quickly, and in 1831 he was awarded the
Geological Society of Londons 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.
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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 Noahs time but did not support
flood geology.
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William Buckland lecturing. He made heavy use of
maps, charts, illustrations, and fossil specimens
always insisting on working from facts and
evidence.
22
Bucklands 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 one on
Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference
to Natural Theology.
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Bucklands 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.
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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.
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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
1820s. 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 Kings College, London. Lyells monumental and
influential Principles of Geology (3 volumes,
published 1830 1833) underwent 11 editions
during his lifetime, and he was making revisions
for the 12th 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
Marys sisters.
26
Lyells Principles of Geology Principles of
Geology was a three-volume work that first
appeared 1830 1833 but was continually revised
during Lyells lifetime. Volume 1 (1830) was
purchased by Robert FitzRoy, Captain of HMS
Beagle, who (at the time at least) liked Lyells
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.
27
Lyells Principles of Geology The full title of
this work was Principles of Geology, Being an
Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the
Earths 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.
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Frontispiece to Lyells Principles of Geology
showing the four main types of rocks. Aqueous
sedimentary volcanic plutonic igneous.
29
Uniformitarianism The basic thrust of Lyells
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 Huttons 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.
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Catastrophism Uniformitarianism replaced the
alternate theory of catastrophism, that the earth
had been shaped by sudden, quick, catastrophic
forces such as those in Noahs flood, maybe once,
maybe many times.
Noahs Ark by Edward Hicks
31
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.