The Industrial Revolution changed the world forever, but did you know that one result of all that early-19th-century digging to create canals and mines and quarries was the revelation that dinosaurs once roamed the earth? In this utterly delightful book, Edward Dolnick re-creates what it must have been like to discover these huge bones and footprints preserved in ancient mud and then piece together the meaning of it all. The author wisely focuses on the characters who chased after the fossils, from the plucky Mary Anning, who as a teenager in Lyme Regis dug up what scientists dubbed ichthyosaurus (fish lizard), 17 feet long with enormous jaws and fearsome teeth, to Richard Owen, a famed scientist who knew Queen Victoria but had the misfortune, as Dolnick describes him, as looking like Uriah Heep.
Awarded money to write a report on “fossil reptiles of Great Britain” in 1837, Owen dealt first with seagoing creatures, such as Anning’s discovery, and then land-based creatures, which he named “dinosaurs,” derived from the Greek words for “terrible” and “lizard.” (In those days, “terrible” was akin to “formidable,” and not so much to “really awful.”) How did Owen then use his findings to disprove the new theory of evolution? That saga alone is worth the price of this hugely entertaining book.
