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hello everyone welcome to video number
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three where we're going to be looking at
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the age of enlightenment so we're now
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reaching the period of time where
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geology as a discipline and also
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paleontology there wasn't initially much
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of a distinction between these two um
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different fields of science were born so
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we're into a period that we call the Age
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of Enlightenment and so an obvious
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question to ask is what is the age of
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enlightenment so this is um kind of the
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Shand
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for a philosophical movement which
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dominated the world of ideas in Europe
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in the 18th century so that's in the
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1700s it was a philosophical move
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movement which
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um was based around the use of reason as
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an source of authority so an example of
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that is the use of evidence within
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science and it was um kind of part and
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parcel of that included in this movement
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were other ideals such as the ideas of
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Liberty and tolerance these are nicely
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summed up by these quotes on this Slide
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by voler um who was a famous
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Enlightenment thinker and said things
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such as those who can make us believe in
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absurdities can make us commit
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atrocities I should
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say um so it is this movement where a
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lot of the way that we do science kind
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of developed over this period an obvious
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um example of that is the Royal Society
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the Learned Society um that still runs
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today um that's based in London which
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was the first real vehicle by which um
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journals were used to disseminate
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science so the fact that we use Journal
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papers to disseminate science today
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really has its origins in the Age of
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Enlightenment
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um often in the Age of Enlightenment uh
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other interesting things that you may
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wish to know I certainly find them
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interesting are that meetings occurred
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in coffee houses so you can see an
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example of a London scene in the middle
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here um with some of these Rowdy coffee
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houses so this was kind of an at times
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an anti-authoritarian movement where
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people met up to discuss Big Ideas in
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informal rather than formal settings and
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it may be interesting to you to note
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that the USA is essentially an
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Enlightenment Society the US
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Constitution um which is shown being
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signed here on the right was based on
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these ideals and this philosophy and so
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the USA as a nation many of its founding
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fathers were Enlightenment thinkers and
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kind of included that in the US
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Constitution so I think that's really
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interesting so that's the framework of
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what was going on in 18th century Europe
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when geology was being born and
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so if we're thinking about that how that
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happened one of the earliest big players
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was a gentleman called Robert Hook
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that's shown in a modern portrait in the
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left hand side of this slide this man
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was English he was a natural philosopher
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and he was a polymath meaning he did
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lots of different things he made major
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advances in physics and astronomy in
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chemistry biology and also and why we're
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interested in geology but he also
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doubled in for example architecture and
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Naval
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technology he's relatively obscure today
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um because he was quite erasable in life
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he didn't get on easily with other
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people and Isaac Newton who is famous
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for his work in um physics in particular
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um and he had a large falling out and
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Isaac Newton actively did quite a lot to
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try and obfuscate his legacy to try and
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make sure people didn't really remember
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him but a famous example that you may
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have heard of um is Hook's law if you
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ever covered that in physics which is
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named after this
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gentleman in kind of the biologic on the
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life sciences he was one of the first
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people to um document cells cuz he was
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one of the the earliest users of
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microscope his illustration of cells I
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believe in Cork um the wood is shown on
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the right here and he noted that
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fossilized wood had this same structure
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he also um made comparisons between
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fossil shells and those of living mollis
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you can see some illustrations in the
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middle of here of um extinct members of
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the um mollusk group The seapods which
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are included in some of his Publications
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he concluded that the fossil shells he
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were looking at were once alive and also
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the dead wood could be turned into stone
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by the action of water rich in dissolved
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minerals which would deposit minerals
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throughout that wood as part of this
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work he recognized different modes of
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preservation for example he could tell
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the different between difference between
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a cast and a mold and he concluded that
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some fossils represented organisms that
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no longer existed on the earth in fact a
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direct quote I've written down here for
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you is there have been many other
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species of creatures in former ages of
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which we can find none at present and
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that is not likely also but then there
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may be diverse new kinds now which have
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not been from the beginning so these
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were actually quite Advanced thoughts
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for the turn of the um 18th
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century so Robert Hook was an important
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gentleman who made a lot of important
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observations the next person I want to
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introduce you to is um will sorry James
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Hutton this is a Scottish gentleman Farm
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he was a geologist he was a physician he
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was a chemical manufacturer naturalist
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and an experimental agriculturalist he
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studied medicine in Edinburgh in
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Scotland and at this time Edinburgh was
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kind of a center in the UK of
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Enlightenment thought then he moved to
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Paris he then returned and set up a
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chemical Works in Ur and played an
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active part in the Scottish
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Enlightenment in the early 1750s he
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moved to a lowland farm he had inherited
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um for reasons that are not entirely
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clear to us um there may have been some
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kind of Scandal um surrounding this we
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know he'd already fathered an
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illegitimate child in
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1747 um and some of his letters suggest
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that there was a love affair that went
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wrong in the 1750s that meant he just
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left Edinburgh and went to live in the
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lowland so this is the the area south of
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the Highlands in Scotland and he just
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took to being a farmer and observing
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soil and rocks
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one of the things he did during this
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period was um to establish the theory of
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uniformitarianism this is the idea that
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the Earth is very very old and what
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happened in the past still happens today
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and he suggested the features of the
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Earth's crust um that we can see today
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have um developed by means of natural
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processes over geological so vast
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periods of time the Earth could be
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understood he made the case through
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sedimentation and erosion in deep time
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and it was Perpetual um and that's very
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much um reflected in this famous
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unconformity that's shown on the right
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hand side here that encompasses this
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idea of vast periods of time what's
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happened to create this rock deposit is
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that these rocks here have been laid
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down flat they've been lithified they've
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been made into rock they've been
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uplifted tilted and eroded and then
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these new rocks have been deposited on
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top and it was through observation of
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formations like this that he built up
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these ideas here is the handsome
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gentleman shown on the left hand side
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here he even preempted some of the ideas
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of evolution V natural selection and
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this is really interesting because his
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Pros his writing was so poor that nobody
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listened or noticed so actually his
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ideas were really revolutionary but um
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they didn't really stick because he
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didn't communicate them
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well other important people in the
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development of geology of at this time
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with Charles Lyle who kind of picked up
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these ideas and ran with them and was um
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a great inspiration to um Charles Darwin
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and William Buckland who I think we'll
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be getting on to later in this series of
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videos but described lots of fossils and
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had some interesting ideas about the
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world next person I wanted to highlight
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is a gentleman called William Smith so
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this is another English geologist he's
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shown on the top left hand side here he
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was interesting because he was the son
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of a blacksmith so he was of humble
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origin his day job was as a surveyor
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first in mindes and then for canel's the
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image on the right hand side is actually
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of Manchester ship canal being um built
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this is quite a bit later than William
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Smith but I just I really liked the
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painting so I decided to put it in Sor
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about that um but it shows you this
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process of of digging canals and by
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digging canals you're forced to look at
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rocks of and soils and what William
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Smith did with his observations was that
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he noticed that the layers of rock that
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he saw when traveling throughout the UK
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digging canals were arranged in a
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predictable pattern so he noticed for
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example that rocks from the Triassic
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period in the UK are generally dipping
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more steeply than younger rocks in the
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same in the UK and that these have the
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same relative position I S one of the
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keys to his success later in life as a
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scientist is that he noted that each
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layer could be identified by the fossils
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it contained some an example of some of
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his illustrations are shown on the left
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hand side here he came up with this idea
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which we now call the principle of foral
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succession basically it just reflects
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that life evolves through time and the
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fossils you find in rocks of different
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ages vary through time and fossils
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became his principal line of evidence
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for a very famous map of the geology of
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the UK that he created that's shown on
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the slide here this was the first
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geological map mapping where rocks of
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different ages are found on the ground
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in the UK and was a real intellectual
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achievement that was even more
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impressive given his Origins um which
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were outside the established system of
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Education in the UK and indeed due to
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those humble Origins learned educated
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Society in the UK didn't really find out
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about his work which was plagiarized by
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others he was eventually financially
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ruined spent time in a dea's prison um
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and really had a tough period towards
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the end of his life but latest later in
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his life before he died his
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contributions were actually recognized
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so there's there's an element of a happy
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ending to his story there but it I think
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it's um very telling about Society in
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this period what happened to William
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Smith so a a real um
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[Music]
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innovator the next person I wanted to
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introduce to you to is George kuier with
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apologies for my um French French
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pronunciation his full name is actually
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Jean leapold Nicola Frederick kuier he
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was um a French naturalist and zoologist
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and from 1795 he was assistant and then
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a professor of animal Anatomy at the
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Natural History Museum in uh France he
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was not in Paris sorry I should say um
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he was notable for serving under three
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different opposing French governments so
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uh under the revolution then the
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Napoleonic governments and the monarchy
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all of those without being beheaded
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which was quite unusual for scientists
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in this time period And as you can see
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from this picture on the left hand side
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of his slide he was very pleased with
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himself um at his achievements I don't
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know if that's actually true that is
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quite a a sassy
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picture essentially we can say that this
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gentleman was the founder of vertebrate
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paleontology so looking at things with
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backbones he grouped vertebrates using
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comparative anatomy and that includes
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living organisms but he um incorporated
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into his scheme fossils he established
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by studying fossils the extinction um
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had occurred he proved that vertebrate
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fossils that were found in the rocks of
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Northern Europe were not the same
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species as um living equivalents that
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were then found in the tropics and they
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thus they must be extinct organisms
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indeed he went on to suggest that
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extinctions occurred as a result of
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periodic catastrophic floods this is an
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idea that became known as c
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catastrophism um and that was for a
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while kind of banded about as the polar
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opposite to uniformitarianism that we've
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met with James Buton um and nowadays we
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recognize that there are elements of
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Truth to both of those ideas he was the
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first person to uh correctly identify a
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Bavarian fossil that's shown on the
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right hand side here as a small flying
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reptile which he named terod tilus and
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he speculated correctly that there had
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been a time when reptiles rather than
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mammals had been the dominant forer in
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the skies he didn't mention but I will
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do cuz I work on them that that was an
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even longer time period before both
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those where insects were the only game
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in town when it came to Flying organisms
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but let's let's move on beyond that
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that's a personal bug
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bear but we've got to recognize that you
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know people are three-dimensional so is
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history and he was by no means a perfect
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gentleman or a perfect scientist or
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human perfect human being as none of us
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are in in his particular case he made
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contributions to Scientific racialism um
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with work on the origins of different
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human races which we would consider by
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today's standards to be very very
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questionable um and he his work led to
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even more problematic stances down the
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line he also didn't believe in any form
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of evolution he didn't think the
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morphology could change over time so
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scientifically some of his ideas were
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incorrect as well the other person I've
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mentioned as another player on this um
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slide is Alexander bat um who with
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cuvette established the straty of the
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Rocks around Paris based on fossils in a
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similar manner to that of William Smith
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in the UK which we met on the last
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slide I wanted to finish this video by
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introducing Mary Anning Mary Anning was
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an English collector of fossils largely
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in the Jurassic Marine rocks around lime
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Regis and Dorset in the southwest of
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England this is another um unusual um
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kind of person from UK society that I'll
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mention because she was from a poor
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family her father was a cabinet maker
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and he died di when she was 11 she
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struggled financially for much of her
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life she was collecting fossils at a
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time when it was fashionable in the late
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18th and early 19th century and this was
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a valuable means of income for for poor
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families such as hers to supplement
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their income from other areas and this
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is the primary reason that Anning did it
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the only portrait from her during her
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life with her trusty dog who was her
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companion in fossil collecting is shown
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on the left hand side here and some of
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her notes are shown in the middle and
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these reflect that her discoveries
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included marine reptiles she found one
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of the first iosaur skeletons and the
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first two plesiosaur skeletons she found
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the first terrasaur skeleton to be
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discovered so flying reptile outside of
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Germany and she discovered important
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fish fossils as
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well and it's also of note that this is
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our first woman the first woman that
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I've mentioned in any of these videos
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and it's worth reflecting on why that is
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because that is because in the 19th
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century the scientific community in
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Europe was largely made of religious
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gentlemen these were um people um that
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had lots of spare time on their hands
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because being say a priest or a Vicor
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was not necessarily a full-time
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occupation and generally to be a
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scientist outside of these very specific
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circumstances that I've just me
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mentioned for Mary Anning you also had
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to be independently wealthy because
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there was no way of making a Woman by
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doing this and as a result of this
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framework there was an in-group versus
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outgroup thing going on and women rarely
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received full credit or even any credit
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for their scientific contributions they
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were B barred they weren't even allowed
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to join the Learned societies of this
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time period And so that was one of the
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reasons why many of the discoveries of
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Mary Anning were first um Illustrated as
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shown on the right hand side
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here and um were described by other male
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scientists at the time who bought her
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discoveries of her her position in
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society was also made a bit more um kind
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of she was less prominent and easy to
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take advantage of because she was a
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religious denter she was not a member of
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the Church of England and this further
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marginal Ed her in UK societies so at
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this time period even if as a woman she
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had been allowed to attend University
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which she wasn't but even if she was the
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centers were not allowed into
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Universities at this time per during
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this time period you had to be a member
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of the Church of England and this is why
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Anning was consulted on issues of
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anatomy and of fossil collecting by many
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members of the Gentry she collected
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fossils for many eminent male scientists
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but was never credited in her lifetime
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for her abilities and indeed many
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scientists refuse to believe that a
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young woman from such a deprived
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background could possess the knowledge
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and the skills that she seemed to
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display a fine example of this is the
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quote I've put on this slide here which
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reads that it is certainly a wonderful
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instance of divine favor that this poor
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ignorant girl should be so blessed um
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said a lady in society at the same time
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and I think that um this quote I've put
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from Mary Anning the world has used me
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so unkindly I fear it has made me
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suspicious of everyone is actually
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really quite well founded Society was
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really poor to Mary
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Anning so that brings us to the end of
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this video and in the next video we're
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going to be looking at some of the
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developments that happened in the
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Victorian era so let's move on and I'll
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see you there in video number four
