Rocky Road: William Buckland

William Buckland

From The Great Devonian Controversy by Martin J.S. Rudwick

William Buckland may not be a household name, but to dinosaur lovers the world over, he should be. Professor of Geology at Oxford, Buckland is responsible for the world's first description of a recognized dinosaur fossil, although the term "dinosaur" didn't exist at the time. In 1824, Buckland published Notice on the Megalosaurus or Great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield.

In the same science meeting where he described Megalosaurus Buckland also announced — reassured by Cuvier that he was correct — the first fossil mammal from the Age of Reptiles. In its own way, this tiny mammal fossil was as surprising as the giant reptile he had just named. Conventional wisdom of the time said mammals came only after the great reptiles. Years later, Buckland tried to resolve the controvery he had raised by suggesting that the mammal was an "inferior" marsupial.

From Dinosaurs Past and Present: Volume II by Paul, Horner, Padian, Czerkas, Currie and Rigby

The son of an Anglican parson, Buckland fell in love with paleontology in his youth, and got ordained in order to qualify for a fellowship at Oxford. So long as he remained unmarried (a lifestyle he eventually quit), he enjoyed a modest income. His discoveries in paleontology were as varied as they were distinguished. In 1822, in An Assemblage of Fossil Teeth and Bones, he described a feeding frenzy of ancient hyenas based on fossil remains. That same year he discovered an ancient human skeleton. He initially and correctly identified it as male, but later reversed the decision and proclaimed the skeleton not only female but also (perhaps in jest) a witch! After calling it the Red Witch, he finally gave the skeleton the more palatable name of the Red Lady of Paviland.

Unlike the scriptural geologists of his day, Buckland did not hold to a literal interpretation of Genesis, especially in terms of geologic time. Though he rejected evolution, he acknowledged that the earth supported life long before the existence of humans. He was a deeply religious man who devoted much of his life to reconciling scripture and geology. One example of that effort was his two-volume work, Geology and Minerology, part of The Bridgewater Treatises on the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God as Manifested in Creation. (An illustration from the Treatise appears at right.) Published in 1836, Buckland's work examined everything from mineral deposits to fossil plants in an effort to find evidence of an intelligent creator. Though it was hardly rigorous science by today's standards, Buckland made an admirable effort to make the findings of geology palatable to the faithful. And though he wrote much about the benefits of creation to mankind, Buckland didn't assume the universe existed just for us.

I would . . . be unwilling to press the theory of relation to the human race, so far as to contend that all the great geological phenomena we have been considering were conducted solely and exclusively with a view to the benefit of man. We may rather count the advantages he derives from them as incidental and residuary consequences; which, although they may not have formed the exclusive object of creation, were all foreseen and comprehended in the plans of the Great Architect of that Globe, which, in his appointed time, was destined to become the scene of human habitation.

To make geology accessible, Buckland used color-coded diagrams relating rock strata to the kinds of fossils found in them.

From The Great Naturalists edited by Robert Huxley

Throughout his life, Buckland kept an open mind; persuaded by Louis Agassiz and his own observations, he eventually traded his belief in the diluvial theory for support of the Ice Age theory. Samuel Woodward, a fellow attendee at an 1840 Geological Society of London meeting, recounted Buckland's admission that he had set out from Neufchatel to ridicule Agassiz's theory but instead "returned converted." And Buckland was a fantastic popularizer of science who had the grace not to take himself too seriously. One of his students recounted how Buckland once

. . . rushed, skull in hand, at the first undergraduate on the front bench — and shouted, "What rules the world?" The youth, terrified, threw himself against the next back seat, and answered not a word. He rushed then on me, pointing the hyena full in my face — "What rules the world?" "Haven't an idea," I answered. "The stomach, sir," he cried.

In another lecture, Buckland happily strutted about the room imitating the gait of giant birds he believed left their footprints in ancient deposits. (The "birds" could well have been bipedal dinosaurs.) Afterwards, one of Buckland's colleagues scoffed, "the grossness of the Buffoonery acted on me like an emetic." The colleague must have been especially shocked when Buckland enthusiastically pioneered the field of coprology (the study of fossil poo).

For more information:
The Great Devonian Controversy by Martin J.S. Rudwick
The Dragon Seekers by Christopher McGowan
Terrible Lizard by Deborah Cadbury
Bridgewater Treatise VI: Geology and Minerology by William Buckland
Gideon Mantell and the Discovery of Dinosaurs by Dennis R. Dean
Bursting the Limits of Time by Martin J.S. Rudwick
The Meaning of Fossils by Martin J.S. Rudwick
The Lying Stones of Marrakech by Stephen Jay Gould
Hunting Dinosaurs by Louie Psihoyos
The Reign of the Dinosaurs by Jean-Guy Michard
Scenes from Deep Time by Martin J.S. Rudwick
To See the Fellows Fight by John C. Thackray
The Great Naturalists edited by Robert Huxley
The Ice Finders by Edmund Blair Bolles
The Dinosaur Papers edited by Weishampel and White
Dinosaurs Past and Present: Volume II by Paul, Horner, Padian, Czerkas, Currie and Rigby
Evolution by Linda Gamlin