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hello and welcome to video number two of
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our rump through the history of
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paleontology so in this video um we're
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going to be um looking at how humans
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have tried to explain fossils both
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without and within a scientific
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framework so as opposed to the last
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video when we were looking at folklore
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um in this video we're going to kind of
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chart um some of the explanations that
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humans use to explain the presence of
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fossils in Rock
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um in a way which um gradually takes us
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towards um the kind of methodological
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naturalism the use of evidence to
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explain these structures that we use in
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science today so so let's move on and
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let's start by talking about classical
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Antiquity so on the left hand side here
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you can see xenophanes of caon this was
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a Greek philosopher and poet and he
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realized the fossil shells suggested
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that the rocks that host those shells
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had originated in the sea he suggested
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that the world had formed from the
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condensation of water he described it as
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a primordial mud and he's the first
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person to use fossil evidence um in a
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theory of the history of the earth so
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that justifies his inclusion in this
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lecture in the middle you can see
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Herodotus this is a famous Greek
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historian and he could have been
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describing we're not sure but he may
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well have been describing fossilized
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mammal bones when when he spoke of
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remains in the mocan mountains of Arabia
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so modern day Egypt that he thought may
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have belonged to Wing serpents so he
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didn't try and explain these Beyond more
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folkl based explanations but he did
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mention things in his writings the mean
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fossils on the right hand side here you
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can see Aristotle hanging out with his
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Chum Plato who Tau him everything he
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knew or not as the case may be so
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Aristotle had a theory involving um the
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origin of fossils which suggested that
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fossil objects grew in rocks in situ as
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a response to the actions of an organic
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essence or seed not the idea that we
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believe is necessarily true today but
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nevertheless you can't blame him for
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coming up with that as an idea because
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based on what he knew at the time was
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perfectly sensible thing to
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say so that's what people thought in
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classical Antiquity if we move on to to
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into the what we may want to consider
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the Middle Ages just as a way of of
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naming that particular period as early
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as the 6th Century the Chinese scholar
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Lee taan described a site that um he
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called stone fish this was a a um a site
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which he documented that described
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fossil fish in minute detail in his
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writings and in those writings he
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accepted these as true fish so they were
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the remains of fish but he offered no
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thoughts as how they came to be where
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they where he found them so there was no
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kind of um uh explanation of the process
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or the mechanism by which these fish
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were found in in a rock the next person
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um that I came across from my reading at
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least to really think about the origins
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of fossils was a Persian polymath who in
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his angiz name we called aena he in the
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book of healing which was um dates back
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to 1027 suggested that fossils may
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result from the action of petrifying
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fluids so these are fluids that may move
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through a rock and um replace structures
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that were already there with fluids and
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this was picked up by some but as we
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will see not all figures in Europe so
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this gentleman on the right hand side
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Here is known as albertus Magnus he was
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a Dominican frier so a Christian
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religious man he followed this teaching
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and he wrote that in places where a
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petrifying forces exhaling the body of
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such animals are changed into the
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dominant element namely Earth mixed with
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water and then the mineralizing power
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converts this mixture into stone he said
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that this means that parts of the body
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of organisms that that are found in a
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rock retain their shape inside and
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outside just as they were before so this
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is a really interesting um kind of uh a
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pattern of of a few people that have
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suggested that actually and relatively
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early on in our historical narrative
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that fossils are the remains of once
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living organisms so that's pretty cool I
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think during or just after this time
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period um well I suppose just after
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depends what you mean by just but we
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have this period in um the history of
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Northern Europe that we call the
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Renaissance so this was a movement for
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the from the 14th to the 17th centuries
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that was centered around Italy
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which ultimately spread across Europe
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that included the rediscovery of
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classical Greek philosophy and a
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Resurgence of learning based on
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classical sources an example of one of
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the scholars of the Renaissance was
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Leonard D Vinci Da Vinci sorry who lived
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from 1452 to 1519 and as shown in this
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self-portrait on the left hand side here
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in the middle and the right are some of
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his sketches he was big on anatomy and
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these are some sketches of some rocks
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because he also thought about rocks as
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well um it's one of his field sketches
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in fact and in his um writing and his
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thoughts about rocks we know that he he
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saw he discovered shells on mountaintops
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and Fishbones in caves and he posited he
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thought that these must be the remains
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of animals from when those places were
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covered in the sea his writings make it
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clear that he thought a Biblical flood
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so a flood as featured in the Christian
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Bible was an inadequate quate
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explanation for the structures that he
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was seeing and he suggest suggested as a
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result that the surface of the Earth
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must have changed over time and where
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there is now land there must have once
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been sea so that's quite uh a g sorry a
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leap of logic is the phase that I'm
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looking for there um so he actually said
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that okay we've got land now but once
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that was sea he also suggested that the
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movement of water in rivers is a strong
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natural force and um that's a force he
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said that sculpts the very features of
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our Landscapes and he builds this
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picture in his writings of slow and
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Relentless natural processes which we
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may really identify with today as we're
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learning about geology as opposed to
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Divine instantaneous acts that were
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described in say Genesis in the
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Christian Bible um and
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so some of these explanations really um
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Echo mirror and indeed are the origins
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of some of the the thoughts that we have
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today about the way that geology and uh
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works and the way that fossils are
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preserved so that's particularly of
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note the explanations that I gave you in
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the last video those on folklore those
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are by almost by definition they're very
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local people um and folklore is very
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concentrated in particular
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regions in in broader regions you tend
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to have an educated minority and in this
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early modern period that we're on to now
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so we're talking the 17th the 18th
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centuries um so after the Renaissance
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we've moved forward a bit in time this
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educated minority in Europe at this time
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saw fossils as anti- diluvian relics so
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that means they are relics of the
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biblical floods um so these are um
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animals in origin people suggested but
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they had been transported and then
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buried by the flood that we know um from
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the Bible and an example of this is the
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Swiss scholar Johan Scher um he was a
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fellow of the raw Society in the UK and
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he is um known for describing a fossil
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giant salamander that now Bears his name
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it's called Andreas sharai um and he
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described this as a fossil
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um you can see this um initial um
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illustration of this on the right hand
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side here as a fossil called homo diluvi
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testis this is the Latin for man a
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witness of the
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Deluge and he suggested that this fossil
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was in fact a man that a human being
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that had drowned in the biblical flood
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and that was kind of uh very
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representative of the edicated minority
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from the Renaissance uh until the
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enlightenment period And as well meet in
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the next video about what people thought
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about the origin of
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fossils the other person that I've
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mentioned here is Conrad gestner and um
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this I have just highlighted um I have
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highlighted this person just because he
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was the first publisher the first person
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to publish a book that is known to
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illustrate fossils so that is also of
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note in this area if we move T forward a
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tiny bit in time we can look quickly
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into Nicholas dintino this is a Danish
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scientist who was around in the middle
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of the 1600s he was a Pioneer in both
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anatomy and also in geology he became a
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p Catholic bishop in his later years
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despite being born a a Lutheran so he
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moved from being a Protestant Christian
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to a Catholic Christian which was I
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suspect a relatively unusual shift in
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the time period he was living at in um
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and
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what's interesting is um as alongside
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this religious background he believed
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that uh we should interpret natural
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phenomena um via evidence and not
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necessarily using the biblical texts
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that he was um used to and and educated
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in um based on his religious upbringing
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you can see illustration of the man on
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the left here and in the middle um you
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can see some very famous laws that he um
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he came up with um which are related to
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stratigraphy the study of um layers of
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rock so those were quite important in
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the founding of geology but he also made
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Moves In what we now consider to be
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paleontology an example of this is that
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in October
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1666 two fishermen caught a huge shark
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near leono in Italy where steno had
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settled in
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1666 they captured this shark and they
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sent the head of the shark to steno who
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dissected it and published his findings
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in 1667 and that the illustrations from
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that publication are shown on the right
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here he noted that those teeth from this
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shark resembled Stony objects called
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glop or Tong Stones which have been had
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been found in rocks before this time but
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had previously been believed to have
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fallen from the sky or naturally grown
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in rocks he actually argued in contrast
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to that view that those were shark teeth
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and they were from the mouths of once
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living but now dead sharks and that they
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had come to be buried in model sand in a
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um a sediment a kind of a pre rock as it
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were that has now become dry
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land and he suggested that the
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difference in composition between the
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teeth of a living shark and these
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objects that he found in rocks were due
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to alteration in chemical composition
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without a change in in the form of these
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structures so that's actually very
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perspicacious it's very insightful and
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um again is it it reflects many of the
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ideas that we have about fossils today
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so Nicholas stino was a very important
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gentleman that plays a key role in our
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story the other person I've mentioned on
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this side is Robert Plant he was a
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keeper of the ash molian Museum in
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Oxford and he is notable for um making
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the first known illustration of dinosaur
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he attributed attributed it to a giant
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human uh whereas actually we now believe
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today it was a representative of the
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dinosaur
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Megalosaurus um so he didn't necessarily
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recognize the Zoological animal origin
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of that structure but nevertheless he
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did um illustrate what we now know to be
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a dinosaur bone so that was quite
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important and at the same time as these
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development were developments were
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happening there were also um
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religious um advances in in the way um
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that the organized church so this is the
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Christian church because we're talking
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primarily northern Europe here tackled
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geological questions an example of this
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is the gentleman that's shown on the
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left hand side here this is James Usher
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he lived from 1581 to 1656 and he was an
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Irish
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Archbishop um based in armar he was a uh
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very religious man and in 1650 he
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published a um a book called The analis
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FES Testament a prima Munda origin dedu
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apologies for my pronunciation though
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because my Latin is incredibly poor I'm
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sure but this was um this transliterates
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to anels of the Old Testament deduced
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from the first origins of the world and
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he based his study on the Bible and the
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chronology of Old Testament um
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characters and his knowledge of ancient
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history
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and by placing all of those together
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ancient history and then biblical
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characters he calculated in this book
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that the date of creation as represented
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in the Christian um Book of Genesis and
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represented by this image on the right
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here Adam and Eve and the snake um he
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suggested that the the date of creation
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would have been Nightfall on the 22nd of
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October 404 BC so quite precise but not
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necessarily matching what we believe
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about the Antiquity of the Earth today
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and that brings us to the origin of our
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video number two and we're going to get
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on to more things about the origin um of
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paleontology as a science as we know it
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today in a video number three shortly I
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will see you there
