6th century B.C. — The
pre-Socratic Greek philosopher
Xenophanes of Colophon argues that fossils of marine organisms show that dry land was once under water.[1]
1320-1390 — Avicenna's theory of petrifying fluids is elaborated on by
Albert of Saxony.[2]
c. 1500 —
Leonardo da Vinci uses ichnofossils to complement his hypothesis concerning the biogenic nature of body fossils.[5]
17th century
1665 — In his book MicrographiaRobert Hooke compares
petrified wood to wood, concludes that petrified wood formed from wood soaked in mineral-rich water, and argues that fossils like Ammonite shells were produced the same way, sparking debate over the organic origin of fossils and the possibility of
extinction.[6]
1669 —
Nicolas Steno writes that
some kinds of rock formed from layers of sediment deposited in water, and that fossils were organic remains buried in the process.[6]
1699 -
Edward Lhuyd names the new sauropod genus and species "Ruttelum implicatum". By doing so, he names the first prehistoric creature that is recognizable as a dinosaur.[citation needed]
1789 — The skeleton of a large animal is unearthed in Argentina. In 1796 Cuvier reports that it had an affinity to modern tree
sloths and names it Megatherium. [9]
1796 — Cuvier presents a paper on living and fossil
elephants that shows that
mammoths were a different species from any living elephant. He argues that this proved the reality of extinction, which he attributes to a
geological catastrophe.[10]
1800 — Cuvier writes that a drawing of a fossil found in
Bavaria shows a flying reptile; in 1809 he names it Pterodactyl.
19th century
1804 — Cuvier writes about fossils of extinct mammals from the
Paris Basin, arguing that they are similar to other mammals such as ruminants but also differ by dental and postcranial morphologies. He named two genera Palaeotherium and Anoplotherium.
1808 — Cuvier and
Alexandre Brongniart publish preliminary results of their survey of the geology of the Paris Basin that uses the fossils found in different strata to reconstruct the geologic history of the region.[11]
1812 - Cuvier draws skeletal reconstructions of "Palaeotherium" minor (= Plagiolophus minor), "Anoplotherium medium" (= Xiphodon gracilis), and, most famously, Anoplotherium commune based on known fossil remains (of which A. commune was the most nearly complete) and publishes them in his 1812 summary of fossil mammals from Paris. He also drew speculative reconstructions of the muscles of A. commune to showcase its robustness but did not publish them out of concern of negative perceptions on speculations.
1822 — The editor of the French journal Journal de Phisique,
Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville, invents the word "paleontologie" for the reconstruction of ancient animals and plants from fossils.
1823 — Buckland finds a
human skeleton with
mammoth remains at Paviland Cave on the
Gower Peninsula, but at the time it is not accepted that this showed they coexisted.[12]
1824 — Buckland finds lower jaw of the carnivorous dinosaur Megalosaurus.
1829 — Buckland publishes paper on work he and Mary Anning had done identifying and analyzing fossilized feces found at Lyme Regis and elsewhere. Buckland coins the term "
coprolite" for them, and uses them to analyze ancient
food chains.[13]
1831 — Mantell publishes an influential paper entitled "The Age of Reptiles" summarizing evidence of an extended period during which large reptiles had been the dominant animals.[14]
1832 — Mantell finds partial skeleton of the dinosaur Hylaeosaurus.
1836 —
Edward Hitchcock describes footprints (
Eubrontes and
Otozoum) of giant birds from Jurassic formations in Connecticut. Later they would be recognized as dinosaur tracks.
1841 — Anatomist
Richard Owen creates a new order of reptiles, dinosauria, for animals: Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, and Hylaeosaurus, found by Mantell and Buckland.
1841 — The first global
geologic timescale is defined by
John Phillips based on the type of fossils found in different rock layers. He coins the term "
Mesozoic" for what Mantell had called "The Age of Reptiles."
1905 — Dippy the diplodocus is exhibited in London's Natural History Museum; its multiple casts and high profile make the word dinosaur a household name
1972 —
Niles Eldredge and
Stephen Jay Gould propose
punctuated equilibrium, claiming that the evolutionary history of most species involves long intervals of stasis between relatively short periods of rapid change.
1974 —
Donald Johanson and Tom Gray discover a 3.5 million-year-old female hominid fossil that is 40% complete and name it "
Lucy."
1982 —
Jack Sepkoski and
David M. Raup publish a statistical analysis of the fossil record of marine invertebrates that shows a pattern (possibly cyclical) of repeated
mass extinctions.
1984 — Hou Xianguang discovers the
Maotianshan Shales Cambrian fossil site in the
Yunnan province of China.
1993 — Johannes G.M. Thewissen and Sayed Taseer Hussain discover fossils of the amphibious whale ancestor Ambulocetus in Pakistan.
1996 — Li Yumin discovers a fossil of the
theropod dinosaur Sinosauropteryx showing evidence of feathers in the
Liaoning province of China.
^Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth. Caves Books Ltd. p. 614.
ISBN0-253-34547-2.
^Baucon, A. 2010. Leonardo da Vinci, the founding father of ichnology. Palaios 25. Abstract available from the
author's homepage
^Head, Jason J.; Jonathan I. Bloch; Alexander K. Hastings; Jason R. Bourque; Edwin A. Cadena; Fabiany A. Herrera; P. David Polly; Carlos A. Jaramillo (2009). "Giant boid snake from the paleocene neotropics reveals hotter past equatorial temperatures". Nature. 457 (7230): 715–718.
doi:
10.1038/nature07671.
PMID19194448.
6th century B.C. — The
pre-Socratic Greek philosopher
Xenophanes of Colophon argues that fossils of marine organisms show that dry land was once under water.[1]
1320-1390 — Avicenna's theory of petrifying fluids is elaborated on by
Albert of Saxony.[2]
c. 1500 —
Leonardo da Vinci uses ichnofossils to complement his hypothesis concerning the biogenic nature of body fossils.[5]
17th century
1665 — In his book MicrographiaRobert Hooke compares
petrified wood to wood, concludes that petrified wood formed from wood soaked in mineral-rich water, and argues that fossils like Ammonite shells were produced the same way, sparking debate over the organic origin of fossils and the possibility of
extinction.[6]
1669 —
Nicolas Steno writes that
some kinds of rock formed from layers of sediment deposited in water, and that fossils were organic remains buried in the process.[6]
1699 -
Edward Lhuyd names the new sauropod genus and species "Ruttelum implicatum". By doing so, he names the first prehistoric creature that is recognizable as a dinosaur.[citation needed]
1789 — The skeleton of a large animal is unearthed in Argentina. In 1796 Cuvier reports that it had an affinity to modern tree
sloths and names it Megatherium. [9]
1796 — Cuvier presents a paper on living and fossil
elephants that shows that
mammoths were a different species from any living elephant. He argues that this proved the reality of extinction, which he attributes to a
geological catastrophe.[10]
1800 — Cuvier writes that a drawing of a fossil found in
Bavaria shows a flying reptile; in 1809 he names it Pterodactyl.
19th century
1804 — Cuvier writes about fossils of extinct mammals from the
Paris Basin, arguing that they are similar to other mammals such as ruminants but also differ by dental and postcranial morphologies. He named two genera Palaeotherium and Anoplotherium.
1808 — Cuvier and
Alexandre Brongniart publish preliminary results of their survey of the geology of the Paris Basin that uses the fossils found in different strata to reconstruct the geologic history of the region.[11]
1812 - Cuvier draws skeletal reconstructions of "Palaeotherium" minor (= Plagiolophus minor), "Anoplotherium medium" (= Xiphodon gracilis), and, most famously, Anoplotherium commune based on known fossil remains (of which A. commune was the most nearly complete) and publishes them in his 1812 summary of fossil mammals from Paris. He also drew speculative reconstructions of the muscles of A. commune to showcase its robustness but did not publish them out of concern of negative perceptions on speculations.
1822 — The editor of the French journal Journal de Phisique,
Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville, invents the word "paleontologie" for the reconstruction of ancient animals and plants from fossils.
1823 — Buckland finds a
human skeleton with
mammoth remains at Paviland Cave on the
Gower Peninsula, but at the time it is not accepted that this showed they coexisted.[12]
1824 — Buckland finds lower jaw of the carnivorous dinosaur Megalosaurus.
1829 — Buckland publishes paper on work he and Mary Anning had done identifying and analyzing fossilized feces found at Lyme Regis and elsewhere. Buckland coins the term "
coprolite" for them, and uses them to analyze ancient
food chains.[13]
1831 — Mantell publishes an influential paper entitled "The Age of Reptiles" summarizing evidence of an extended period during which large reptiles had been the dominant animals.[14]
1832 — Mantell finds partial skeleton of the dinosaur Hylaeosaurus.
1836 —
Edward Hitchcock describes footprints (
Eubrontes and
Otozoum) of giant birds from Jurassic formations in Connecticut. Later they would be recognized as dinosaur tracks.
1841 — Anatomist
Richard Owen creates a new order of reptiles, dinosauria, for animals: Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, and Hylaeosaurus, found by Mantell and Buckland.
1841 — The first global
geologic timescale is defined by
John Phillips based on the type of fossils found in different rock layers. He coins the term "
Mesozoic" for what Mantell had called "The Age of Reptiles."
1905 — Dippy the diplodocus is exhibited in London's Natural History Museum; its multiple casts and high profile make the word dinosaur a household name
1972 —
Niles Eldredge and
Stephen Jay Gould propose
punctuated equilibrium, claiming that the evolutionary history of most species involves long intervals of stasis between relatively short periods of rapid change.
1974 —
Donald Johanson and Tom Gray discover a 3.5 million-year-old female hominid fossil that is 40% complete and name it "
Lucy."
1982 —
Jack Sepkoski and
David M. Raup publish a statistical analysis of the fossil record of marine invertebrates that shows a pattern (possibly cyclical) of repeated
mass extinctions.
1984 — Hou Xianguang discovers the
Maotianshan Shales Cambrian fossil site in the
Yunnan province of China.
1993 — Johannes G.M. Thewissen and Sayed Taseer Hussain discover fossils of the amphibious whale ancestor Ambulocetus in Pakistan.
1996 — Li Yumin discovers a fossil of the
theropod dinosaur Sinosauropteryx showing evidence of feathers in the
Liaoning province of China.
^Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth. Caves Books Ltd. p. 614.
ISBN0-253-34547-2.
^Baucon, A. 2010. Leonardo da Vinci, the founding father of ichnology. Palaios 25. Abstract available from the
author's homepage
^Head, Jason J.; Jonathan I. Bloch; Alexander K. Hastings; Jason R. Bourque; Edwin A. Cadena; Fabiany A. Herrera; P. David Polly; Carlos A. Jaramillo (2009). "Giant boid snake from the paleocene neotropics reveals hotter past equatorial temperatures". Nature. 457 (7230): 715–718.
doi:
10.1038/nature07671.
PMID19194448.