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Paleontology or a Systematic Summary of Extinct Animals and Their Geological Relations
Owen was the founder of the Natural History Museum, bringing the collections over from the British Museum. Although he was a supporter of evolutionary theory, he was reluctant to accept Darwin's version of evolution. This volume examines fossil evidence for change in species over time.
420 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1980
About the author
Richard Owen
118 books8 followersSir Richard Owen KCB was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and palaeontologist.
Owen is probably best remembered today for coining the word Dinosauria (meaning "Terrible Reptile" or "Fearfully Great Reptile") and for his outspoken opposition to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. He agreed with Darwin that evolution occurred, but thought it was more complex than outlined in Darwin's Origin. Owen's approach to evolution can be seen as having anticipated the issues that have gained greater attention with the recent emergence of evolutionary developmental biology. He was the driving force behind the establishment, in 1881, of the British Museum (Natural History) in London. Bill Bryson argues that, "by making the Natural History Museum an institution for everyone, Owen transformed our expectations of what museums are for".
Owen is probably best remembered today for coining the word Dinosauria (meaning "Terrible Reptile" or "Fearfully Great Reptile") and for his outspoken opposition to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. He agreed with Darwin that evolution occurred, but thought it was more complex than outlined in Darwin's Origin. Owen's approach to evolution can be seen as having anticipated the issues that have gained greater attention with the recent emergence of evolutionary developmental biology. He was the driving force behind the establishment, in 1881, of the British Museum (Natural History) in London. Bill Bryson argues that, "by making the Natural History Museum an institution for everyone, Owen transformed our expectations of what museums are for".
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March 26, 2025
OWEN’S SUMMARY OF EXTINCT FORMS, COMPARATIVE ANATOMY, ETC.
Richard Owen (1804-1892) was an English biologist and anatomist. He wrote in the introductory section of this 1860 book, “Paleontology is the science which treats of the evidences in the earth’s strata of organic beings, which mainly consist of petrified or fossil remains of plants and animals, belonging, for the most part, to species that are extinct. The endeavor to interpret such evidences has led to comparisons of the forms and structures of existing plants and animals, which greatly and rapidly advanced the science of comparative anatomy, especially as applied to the animal kingdom, and more particularly to the hard and enduring parts of the animal frame, such as corals, shells, spines, crusts, scales, scutes, bones, and teeth.” (Pg. 1)
He continues, “Paleontology has shown that, from the inconceivably remote period of the deposition of the Cambrian rocks, the earth has been vivified by the sun’s light and heat, has been fertilized by refreshing showers, and washed by tidal waves; that the ocean not only moved in orderly oscillations regulated, as now, by sun and moon, but was rippled and agitated by winds and storms… With these conditions of life, paleontology demonstrates that life has been enjoyed during the same countless thousands of years; and that with life, from the beginning there has been death. The earliest testimony of the living thing… in the oldest fossiliferous rock, is at the same time proof that it dies… perhaps the most important and significant result of the paleontological research has been the establishment of the axiom of the continuous operation of the ordained becoming of living things.” (Pg. 3)
He suggests, “if it ever be permitted to man to penetrate the mystery which enshrouds the origin of organic force in the wide-spread mudbeds of fresh and salt waters, it will be, most probably, by experiment and observation on the atoms which manifest the simplest conditions of life.” (Pg. 17)
He observes, “There are now individuals [such as P.H. Gosse’s book ‘Omphalos’]… who prefer to try to make it be believed that God had recently, and at once, called into being all of these phenomena; that the fossil bones, scales, and teeth, had never served their purpose… were never truly developed, but were created fossil; that the creatures they simulate never actually existed… that the geological evidence of superposition, successive stratification, and upheaval were, equally with the paleontological evidences, an elaborate design to deceive and not instruct!” (Pg. 136)
He states, “We cannot, from present knowledge, assign to any past period of the earth’s history a characteristic derived from a fuller and more varied development of the entire class of fishes than has since been manifested, nor predicate of the present state of the class that it has degenerated in regard either to number, bulk, powers, or range of modifications … A retrospect of the genetic history of fishes imparts an idea rather of mutation than of development, to which the class has been subject in the course of geological time. Certain groups, now on the wane, have existed in plenary development…” (Pg. 150)
He asserts, “The comparative anatomist dissecting a shark… or a Lepidosteus, would point to the structures… as being of a higher or more reptilian character than the corresponding parts would present in ... other fishes. But the paleontologist would point to the persistent notochord, and to the heterocercal tail in Paleozoic and many Mesozoic fishes, as evidence of an ‘arrest of development,’ or of retention of embryonic characters in those primeval fishes… One other conclusion may be drawn from a general retrospect of the mutations in the forms of fishes at different epochs of the earth’s history---viz, that those species … have greatly predominated at the period immediately preceding and accompanying the advent of man; and that they have superseded species which… were much less fitted to afford mankind a sapid and wholesome food.” (Pg. 151)
He points out, “Those who deny the existence of design in the construction of any part of an organized body, and who protest against the deduction of a purpose from the valves of the veins or the lens of the eyeball, repudiate the reasoning which the paleontologist carries out from the hoof to the grinder … through the guidance of the principle of a pre-ordained mutual adaptation of such parts; but such minds are not, nor have been, those who have contributed to the real advancement of physiology or paleontology.” (Pg. 301)
Later, he adds, “The writer would merely remark, that in the degree in which the reasoning faculty is developed on this planet and is exercised by our species, it appears to be a more healthy and normal condition of such faculty… to admit the instinctive impression of a design or purpose in such structures as the … mechanism of the eye. In regard to the few intellects … who do not receive that impression and will not admit the … existence of final causes in physiology, the writer has elsewhere expressed his belief that such intellects are not the higher and more normal examples, but rather manifest some … defect of mind…” (Pg. 313-314)
He suggests, “One willingly admits the proof so afforded of the former existence of animals now unknown; but one may demur to the conclusion that their extinction was due to some sudden catastrophe.” (Pg. 347)
He explains, “On the problem of the extinction of species, little, demonstratively, can be said; and on the more mysterious subject of their coming into being, no light has yet thrown by experiment or observation. As a cause of extinction in times anterior to man, it is more reasonable to assign the chief weight to those gradual changes in the conditions affecting a due supply of sustenance to animals in a state of nature which must have accompanied the slow alternations of land and sea brought about in the eons of geological time… That species … have ceased to exist, and have successively passed away, is a fact no longer questioned. That they have been exterminated by exceptional cataclysmic changes of the earth’s surface has not been proved… It is more probable… that the extinction of species, prior to man’s presence or existence, has been due to ordinary causes… of agreement with the laws of organization and the never-ending mutation of the geographical and climatical conditions on the earth’s surface… But recent discoveries indicate that, in the case of the last two extinct quadrupeds, a rude primitive human race may have finished the work or extermination, begun by antecedent and more general causes.” (Pg. 397-401)
He observes, “No doubt the type-form of any species is that which is best adapted to the conditions under which such species at the time exists… But, if those conditions change, then the variety of the species at an antecedent date and state of things will become the type-form of the species at a later date, and in an altered state of things. Mr. Charles Darwin had… pondered over and worked at this principle… I can see no more reason to doubt that these causes in a thousand generations would produce a marked effect, and adapt the form of the fox or dog to the catching of hares instead of rabbits, than that the greyhounds can be improved by selection and careful breeding.” (Pg. 405-406)
He concludes, “I have fulfilled one object which I had in view… to set forth the beneficence and intelligence of the Creative Power… we must be the more strikingly impressed with the unity of that Cause, and with the wisdom and power, which could produce such variety, and at the same time perfect adaptations and endowments, out of means so simple… in organic nature we see the means not only subservient to an end, but that end accomplished by the simplest means. Here we are compelled to regard the Great Cause of all… as an active and anticipating intelligence.” (Pg. 413)
This book will be great interest to those studying the history of science.
Richard Owen (1804-1892) was an English biologist and anatomist. He wrote in the introductory section of this 1860 book, “Paleontology is the science which treats of the evidences in the earth’s strata of organic beings, which mainly consist of petrified or fossil remains of plants and animals, belonging, for the most part, to species that are extinct. The endeavor to interpret such evidences has led to comparisons of the forms and structures of existing plants and animals, which greatly and rapidly advanced the science of comparative anatomy, especially as applied to the animal kingdom, and more particularly to the hard and enduring parts of the animal frame, such as corals, shells, spines, crusts, scales, scutes, bones, and teeth.” (Pg. 1)
He continues, “Paleontology has shown that, from the inconceivably remote period of the deposition of the Cambrian rocks, the earth has been vivified by the sun’s light and heat, has been fertilized by refreshing showers, and washed by tidal waves; that the ocean not only moved in orderly oscillations regulated, as now, by sun and moon, but was rippled and agitated by winds and storms… With these conditions of life, paleontology demonstrates that life has been enjoyed during the same countless thousands of years; and that with life, from the beginning there has been death. The earliest testimony of the living thing… in the oldest fossiliferous rock, is at the same time proof that it dies… perhaps the most important and significant result of the paleontological research has been the establishment of the axiom of the continuous operation of the ordained becoming of living things.” (Pg. 3)
He suggests, “if it ever be permitted to man to penetrate the mystery which enshrouds the origin of organic force in the wide-spread mudbeds of fresh and salt waters, it will be, most probably, by experiment and observation on the atoms which manifest the simplest conditions of life.” (Pg. 17)
He observes, “There are now individuals [such as P.H. Gosse’s book ‘Omphalos’]… who prefer to try to make it be believed that God had recently, and at once, called into being all of these phenomena; that the fossil bones, scales, and teeth, had never served their purpose… were never truly developed, but were created fossil; that the creatures they simulate never actually existed… that the geological evidence of superposition, successive stratification, and upheaval were, equally with the paleontological evidences, an elaborate design to deceive and not instruct!” (Pg. 136)
He states, “We cannot, from present knowledge, assign to any past period of the earth’s history a characteristic derived from a fuller and more varied development of the entire class of fishes than has since been manifested, nor predicate of the present state of the class that it has degenerated in regard either to number, bulk, powers, or range of modifications … A retrospect of the genetic history of fishes imparts an idea rather of mutation than of development, to which the class has been subject in the course of geological time. Certain groups, now on the wane, have existed in plenary development…” (Pg. 150)
He asserts, “The comparative anatomist dissecting a shark… or a Lepidosteus, would point to the structures… as being of a higher or more reptilian character than the corresponding parts would present in ... other fishes. But the paleontologist would point to the persistent notochord, and to the heterocercal tail in Paleozoic and many Mesozoic fishes, as evidence of an ‘arrest of development,’ or of retention of embryonic characters in those primeval fishes… One other conclusion may be drawn from a general retrospect of the mutations in the forms of fishes at different epochs of the earth’s history---viz, that those species … have greatly predominated at the period immediately preceding and accompanying the advent of man; and that they have superseded species which… were much less fitted to afford mankind a sapid and wholesome food.” (Pg. 151)
He points out, “Those who deny the existence of design in the construction of any part of an organized body, and who protest against the deduction of a purpose from the valves of the veins or the lens of the eyeball, repudiate the reasoning which the paleontologist carries out from the hoof to the grinder … through the guidance of the principle of a pre-ordained mutual adaptation of such parts; but such minds are not, nor have been, those who have contributed to the real advancement of physiology or paleontology.” (Pg. 301)
Later, he adds, “The writer would merely remark, that in the degree in which the reasoning faculty is developed on this planet and is exercised by our species, it appears to be a more healthy and normal condition of such faculty… to admit the instinctive impression of a design or purpose in such structures as the … mechanism of the eye. In regard to the few intellects … who do not receive that impression and will not admit the … existence of final causes in physiology, the writer has elsewhere expressed his belief that such intellects are not the higher and more normal examples, but rather manifest some … defect of mind…” (Pg. 313-314)
He suggests, “One willingly admits the proof so afforded of the former existence of animals now unknown; but one may demur to the conclusion that their extinction was due to some sudden catastrophe.” (Pg. 347)
He explains, “On the problem of the extinction of species, little, demonstratively, can be said; and on the more mysterious subject of their coming into being, no light has yet thrown by experiment or observation. As a cause of extinction in times anterior to man, it is more reasonable to assign the chief weight to those gradual changes in the conditions affecting a due supply of sustenance to animals in a state of nature which must have accompanied the slow alternations of land and sea brought about in the eons of geological time… That species … have ceased to exist, and have successively passed away, is a fact no longer questioned. That they have been exterminated by exceptional cataclysmic changes of the earth’s surface has not been proved… It is more probable… that the extinction of species, prior to man’s presence or existence, has been due to ordinary causes… of agreement with the laws of organization and the never-ending mutation of the geographical and climatical conditions on the earth’s surface… But recent discoveries indicate that, in the case of the last two extinct quadrupeds, a rude primitive human race may have finished the work or extermination, begun by antecedent and more general causes.” (Pg. 397-401)
He observes, “No doubt the type-form of any species is that which is best adapted to the conditions under which such species at the time exists… But, if those conditions change, then the variety of the species at an antecedent date and state of things will become the type-form of the species at a later date, and in an altered state of things. Mr. Charles Darwin had… pondered over and worked at this principle… I can see no more reason to doubt that these causes in a thousand generations would produce a marked effect, and adapt the form of the fox or dog to the catching of hares instead of rabbits, than that the greyhounds can be improved by selection and careful breeding.” (Pg. 405-406)
He concludes, “I have fulfilled one object which I had in view… to set forth the beneficence and intelligence of the Creative Power… we must be the more strikingly impressed with the unity of that Cause, and with the wisdom and power, which could produce such variety, and at the same time perfect adaptations and endowments, out of means so simple… in organic nature we see the means not only subservient to an end, but that end accomplished by the simplest means. Here we are compelled to regard the Great Cause of all… as an active and anticipating intelligence.” (Pg. 413)
This book will be great interest to those studying the history of science.
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