Paleontology

[Sinopaleus]

I never thought of this until now... Who discovered Paleontology, when and how?

Perhaps the mid 16' hundreds?

Thomas Jefferson, maybe?

[Kosmoceras]

People have collected fossils for hundreds of years. In the past, people have thought they were the bones of dragons, and even creatures that died in “the great flood”, which did not get onto Noah’s ark.

Collecting and cataloguing fossils only started occurring about 300 years ago, by Greek philosophers attempting to understand the world they lived in.

[Kosmoceras]

Going back to the last 10,000 years, fossils have been part of people lives. They have helped enhance beliefs and legends, like unicorns.

Spines from echinoids were thought to bring luck. This myth has been around since 650 B.C. Echinoids, fossil sea urchins were thought to be thunderstones, fallen out of the sky during thunderstorms. There were believed to prevent milk from turning sour.

Belemnites, the internal guard from fossil squid, were thought to be thunder bolts, thrown down from the heavens during a thunderstorm.

Even fossil sponges which had natural holes through the centre were used as beads in Bronze-Aged jewellery. And a fossil shell, known to the present day as Gryphaea, was thought to be the devils toenails. This came about from the devil apparently having hoofed feet.

They have always been collected by people through the ages for various reasons.

You can find more information here: Link

[jkfoam]

I agree with what Kosmoceras has said. I remember read a book years ago that addressed this question. Unfortunately I cannot remember its title or author. What I remember is that early paleontology was an interest to religious leaders in proving bibical accounts of Genesis. There was one account of a large fossilized lizzard found in France that was described by the Priest that found it initially as a man, one of the "Lost Sinners" from Noah's flood. The fact that it looked like a lizzard and not a human was no deterent to the proclamation of the finder.

Jim

[erose]

Wikipedia has a good page on Paleontology. Human-kind's interest/curiosity goes back 10's of thousands of years if we consider the few fossils found at archeological sites. But the term "paleontology" was only coined in the late(?) 18th century.

[Fossildude19]

Erich beat me to it, but here is the link.

I think Thomas did a great job explaining it.

Regards,