William
Buckland is remembered as the first man to identify and name a dinosaur (although
the name dinosaur had not yet been coined by Richard Owen).
This was the megalosaur. Partly in response to the controversial
works of Cuvier, Buckland wrote Reliquiae Diluvianae
(1823) in which he argued that the evidence of geology alone demonstrated that
a great flood had covered the entire globe. This move helped to make geology
look more respectable in a religiously conservative England and perhaps to advance
Buckland's own career at Oxford by making geology appear to be a respectable
companion to the classics.
Buckland was also one of the authors chosen to write a Bridgewater treatise.
Further reading
Buckland. Reliquiae Diluvianae; or, Observations on the Organic Remains Contained in Caves, Fissures, and Diluvial Gravel, and on other Geological Phenomena, Attesting the Action of an Universal Deluge (1823).
Rudwick , M. The Great Devonian Controversy
Rudwick , M. The Meaning of Fossil
Secord, J. Controversy in Victorian Geology: The Cambrian-Silurian Debate. Princeton, 1986
Last modified 2 October 2002