Richard Owen
English biologist, comparative anatomist and palaeontologist who coined the word Dinosauria.
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via Wikipedia: Richard Owen · see source
Richard Owen coined the term Dinosauria and was the first president of the Microscopical Society of London in 1839.[1][2]
Life and work
He described the parasite Trichina spiralis in 1835.[3] He helped create the first life-sized dinosaur models with Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins.[4] The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences elected Owen as a foreign member in 1843.[5] Owen's initial major published work, the Memoir on the Pearly Nautilus, came out in 1832.[3]
The designation Protichnites, referring to the most ancient terrestrial footprints, was given by Owen in 1852.[3] On New Year's Eve 1853, Owen held a dinner inside a concrete Iguanodon model for 21 notable scientists.[4]
What the cited sources add
A BBC News article states that Owen attended Lancaster Royal Grammar School from 1809 to 1819.[6] The same source reports that Owen's contemporary Gideon Mantell described him as "overpaid, over-praised and cursed with a jealous monopolising spirit".[6] The "Rocky road" account notes that Owen's father died when Owen was five years old.[7] That source also states that Owen delivered three lectures a week for 20 years without repeating one.[7]
The account says Owen deduced a femur fragment belonged to a giant flightless bird, and later discoveries proved him right.[7] It adds that Owen initially supported Mantell's interpretation of fossils, then publicly identified them as pterodactylian without warning Mantell.[7] The "Rocky road" source describes Owen as having an "exceptionally difficult temperament".[7]
References
- Wikipedia, "Richard Owen" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Owen, "Report on British fossil reptiles. Part II.", Report of the Eleventh Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science; Held at Plymouth in July 1841, 1841, p. 60–204; "Sir Richard Owen: The man who invented the dinosaur", BBC News, 18 February 2017; Cosans, "Owen's Ape & Darwin's Bulldog: Beyond Darwinism and Creationism", Indiana University Press, 2009, p. 1–192; Amundson, "The Changing Role of the Embryo in Evolutionary Thought: Roots of Evo-Devo.", Cambridge University of Press, 2007, p. 1–296 (we also read that en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Richard Owen" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wilson, Tony, "175th Anniversary Special Issue: Introduction", Journal of Microscopy, 2016 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Richard Owen" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Owen, "Description of the impressions and footprints of the Protichnites from the Potsdam sandstone of Canada", Geological Society of London Quarterly Journal, 1852, p. 214–225; Owen, "Description of the impressions and footprints of the Protichnites from the Potsdam sandstone of Canada", Geological Society of London Quarterly Journal, 1852, p. 214–225; Collette, "Three-Dimensionally Preserved Arthropods from Cambrian Lagerstätten of Quebec and Wisconsin", Journal of Paleontology, 2010, p. 646–667; Collette, "Protichnites eremita unshelled en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Richard Owen" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "How a Victorian Dinosaur Park Became a Time Capsule of Early Paleontology"; "How a Victorian Dinosaur Park Became a Time Capsule of Early Paleontology" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Richard Owen" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Richard Owen (1804 - 1892)", Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences; "APS Member History", search.amphilsoc.org (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Sir Richard Owen: The man who invented the dinosaur", BBC News, 18 February 2017. facts only, no text reused. bbc.co.uk
- "Rocky road: Sir Richard Owen", Strangescience.net, 28 May 2011. facts only, no text reused. strangescience.net
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Richard Owen (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Richard Owen (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the Codexery glossary, each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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