Patrons of Paleontology by Davidson Jane P

Author:Davidson, Jane P.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2017-01-10T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 4.1. Edward Drinker Cope. The Vertebrata of the Cretaceous Formations of the West. 1875

Figure 4.2. Cope. 1875. Vertebrata of Clidastes and Platycarpus. Drawn by E. D. Cope. (Please select from image 5703 or image 5704).

Figure 4.3. Cope. 1875. Portheus molossus. Drawn by E. D. Cope.

Notes

1. Herries Davies listed “official” fossil collectors working for the Irish Survey. That a position like this existed tells much about the importance of fossils. The fossil collectors were, in chronological order James Flanagan, 1845–1859; Charles Galvan, 1855–1870; Alex McHenry, 1861–1877; and Richard Clark, 1877–1901. In addition, De la Beche was involved. Director Joseph Beete Jukes (1811–1869) was at times interested in paleontology, although he seems to have been in conflict with De la Beche (1839) in this regard.

2. The author copy of White and Newton (1878) was presented by the British government to the New York Natural History Society “on the part of Her Majesty’s Government.” It was an example of the Geological Survey’s practice of disseminating knowledge. The volume then passed into the holdings of the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Museum of Natural History, and eventually into private hands.

3. For Billings, see Whiteaves (1878), and for Whiteaves, see Encyclopedia Britannica (1911).

4. For an example of Walcott’s publications on the Burgess Shale, see Walcott (1931).

5. See article on Oldham in Dictionary of National Biography, 1895. Vol. 42: 111–112.

6. I am relying largely here on Johns (1976), History and Role of Government Geological Surveys in Australia.

7. Corsi, Pietro. 2003. “The Italian Geological Survey: The Early History of a Divided Community,” 255–279. In Gian Battista Vai and William Cavazza. Eds. Four Centuries of the Word Geology: Ulisse Aldrovandi 1603 in Bologna. Bologna: Minerva Edizoini. Passim.

8. A translated excerpt from Wagner (1861) can be found in Weishampel and White (2003, 271ff.). Weishampel and White devoted a section of their commentaries on various excerpts to Compsognathus and to the importance that this dinosaur would have in later years as an important indicator of possible stages of dinosaur evolution. The case is clear once more. Very many paleontological discoveries of extreme importance were made by default and disseminated through the aegis of governments.

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