- Timeline of paleontology
Timeline of
paleontology *
1027 - The Persian naturalist,Avicenna , explains how the stoniness offossil s is caused in "The Book of Healing ", proposing the theory of petrifyingfluid s ("succus lapidificatus").citation|title=The Meaning of Fossils: Episodes in the History of Palaeontology|first=M. J. S.|last=Rudwick|year=1985|publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=0226731030|page=24] cite web|author=Munim M. Al-Rawi andSalim Al-Hassani |title=The Contribution of Ibn Sina (Avicenna) to the development of Earth sciences|publisher=FSTC|url=http://www.muslimheritage.com/uploads/ibnsina.pdf|date=November 2002|accessdate=2008-07-01]
*1031 -1095 - The Chinese naturalist,Shen Kuo , uses the evidence of marine fossils found in theTaihang Mountains to infer the existence of geologicalprocesses ofgeomorphology and shifting of seashores over time, [Shen Kuo ,"Mengxi Bitan" (梦溪笔谈; "Dream Pool Essays ") (1088 )] and using his observation of preserved petrifiedbamboo s found underground inYan'an , he argues for a theory of gradualclimate change .cite book|last=Needham|first=Joseph|authorlink=Joseph Needham|title="Science and Civilization in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth"|publisher=Caves Books Ltd|year=1986|isbn=0-253-34547-2|page=614]
*1320 -1390 - Avicenna's theory of petrifying fluids ("succus lapidificatus") is was elaborated on by Albert of Saxony in the 14th century.
* 1500s - The theory of petrifying fluids ("succus lapidificatus") is accepted in some form by mostnaturalist s by this time.
*1770 - Thefossil ised bones of a huge animal (later identified as aMosasaur ) are found in a quarry nearMaastricht in theNetherlands .
*1795 -Georges Cuvier identifies the bones found in the Netherlands in 1770 as belonging to an extinct reptile.
*1811 -Mary Anning discovers the fossilised remains of anichthyosaur atLyme Regis .
*1821 -William Buckland finds the remains of ahyena s' den inYorkshire , containing the bones oflion s,elephant s andrhinoceros .
* 1821-22 - Mary Anning discovers the world's firstPlesiosaur skeleton atLyme Regis .
*1822 -Gideon Mantell discovers the fossilized skeleton of an "Iguanodon " dinosaur
*1823 - Human bones are found with those of the woollymammoth at Paviland Cave on theGower peninsula , proving that the two had lived on earth at the same time.
*1836 - Edward Hitchcock describes the footprints of giant birds from Jurassic formations in Connecticut
*1841 -Richard Owen coins the word "dinosaur "
*1855 - The first "Archaeopteryx " fossil found inBavaria ,Germany .
*1858 - The first dinosaur skeleton, "Hadrosaurus ", is excavated in theUnited States and described byJoseph Leidy
*1869 -Joseph Lockyer starts thescientific journal "Nature"
*1871 -Othniel Charles Marsh discovers the first Americanpterosaur fossils.
*1878 - The first "Diplodocus " skeleton is found at Como Bluff,Wyoming
*1905 - "Tyrannosaurus rex" is described and named byHenry Fairfield Osborn
*1909 - Discovery of theBurgess Shale Cambrian fossil site
*1912 -Continental Drift proposed byAlfred Wegener , leading toplate tectonics and explanation of many surface features.
*1920 - Andrew Douglass proposesdendrochronology dating
*1920 -Milutin Milanković proposes that long term climatic cycles may be due to changes in the eccentricity of the Earth'sorbit and changes in the Earth's obliquity
*1947 -Willard Libby introduces carbon-14 dating
*1970 - The Ghugua Fossil Park set up in Madhya Pradesh, India after the discovery of Plant and Fish fossils found in the area dating back to more than six crore years back. Fossilized remains of variegated plant life are intact - frozen in stone after the volcanic activities that occurred leading to preservation of predominant plants of the Gondwanaland, lending credence to the theory of the Continental Drift.
*1974 -Donald Johanson and Tom Gray discover a 3.5 million-year-old female hominid fossil that is 40% complete and name it "Lucy"
*1980 - Luis Alvarez, Walter Alvarez, Frank Asaro, and Helen Michel propose that a giant comet or asteroid may have struck the Earth approximately 65 million years ago thereby causing massive extinctions and enriching theiridium in theK-T layer
*1984 - Hou Xianguang discovers the Chengjiang Cambrian fossil siteReferences
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.