Page 27 - Introduction to Paleobiology and The Fossil Record

14 INTRODUCTION TO PALEOBIOLOGY AND THE FOSSIL RECORD

Figure 1.9 The first dinosaur craze in England in the 1850s was fueled by new discoveries and
dramatic new reconstructions of the ancient inhabitants of that country. This picture, inspired by
Sir Richard Owen, is based on his view that dinosaurs were almost mammal-like. (Courtesy of Eric
Buffetaut.)

start. Rich finds of fossil mammals in the
North American Tertiary were further evi- Evidence of earliest life
dence. Othniel Marsh (1831–1899) and At the other end of the evolutionary scale,
Edward Cope (1840–1897), arch-rivals in the paleontologists have made extraordinary
search for new dinosaurs, also found vast progress in understanding the earliest stages
numbers of mammals, including numerous in the evolution of life. Cambrian fossils had
horse skeletons, leading from the small four- been known since the 1830s, but the spectac-
toed Hyracotherium of 50 million years ago ular discovery of the Burgess Shale in Canada
to modern, large, one-toed forms. Their work in 1909 showed the extraordinary diversity of
laid the basis for one of the classic examples soft-bodied animals that had otherwise been
of a long-term evolutionary trend (see unknown (see p. 249). Similar but slightly
pp. 541–3). older faunas from Sirius Passett in north
Human fossils began to come to light Greenland and Chengjiang in south China

around this time: incomplete remains of have confirmed that the Cambrian was truly
Neandertal man in 1856, and fossils of Homo a remarkable time in the history of life.
erectus in 1895. The revolution in our under- Even older fossils from the Precambrian
standing of human evolution began in 1924, had been avidly sought for years, but the
with the announcement of the fi rst specimen breakthroughs only happened around 1950.
of the “southern ape” Australopithecus from In 1947, the first soft-bodied Ediacaran fossils

Africa, an early human ancestor (see pp. were found in Australia, and have since been
473–5). identified in many parts of the world. Older,