Geology Flashcards
Living and Fossils Elephants is a writing about which famous scientist?
Cuvier
What historical events lead to the perfect situation for Cuvier to establish himself as a scientist in Paris?
The French Revolution and the end of the Reign of Terror
many well known and connected scientists had either fled Paris or been killed so the need to break into a well established network was diminished - kind of a blank slate for Cuvier to get into the field
How did the National Museum of Natural History in Paris survive the Reign of Terror according to Living and Fossils Elephants?
It reformed itself at the height of the revolution with a more politically correct position and renamed itself
How did Cuvier start at the National MoNH?
junior position as an understudy to Merstrud, an undistinguished prof of animal anatomy
How did Cuvier put his science on the map and establish himself as a force to be reckoned with (Living and Fossils Elephants)?
his concept of animals as machines, while not new, was much more focused and thorough on the functionality of animal machines
Who was the youngest member of the First Class at the Museum of NH (Living and Fossils Elephants)?
Cuvier, after his inaugural lecture
What types of animals did Cuvier work on at the NMoNH?
He began with continuing his studies on anatomy of the poorly understood invertebrates (molluscs specifically) then changed to vertebrates and mammals
eventually he came to address questions about fossils
What was the major question Cuvier eventually came to trying to address?
While it was not a new question, he also came to wonder: how was it possible that large fossil bones and teeth were being discovered in northern latitudes in deposits close to ground surface when these animals were known to be inhabitants of tropical (lower latitude) areas?
Which large mammal bones were being discovered in northern latitudes?
elephants and rhinos
Which known scientists were contributing largely to the debate about the fossils before Cuvier (Living and Fossils Elephants)?
Louis Jean Marie Daubenton (1716-99): a professor of mineralogy at the museum who had been a major contributor to the fossil debate prior to the revolution
George Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-88): fossils were a key component to his theory of the earth
What was Cuvier’s major empirical advantage over his predecessors?
spoils from the revolution included major natural history collections of the former ruler of the conquered Netherlands
What did the Netherlands natural history collection provide for Cuvier?
in addition to the collection at the museum, it allowed him to confirm his hypothesis that the living African elephant was not the same as the Indian elephant which had been previously thought
AND that the fossil elephant, or ‘mammoth’ was also different from both the living Indian and African elephant
Did Cuvier include a discussion or acceptance of evolutionary theory in his description/reporting of the 3 elephant species?
he dismissed the idea that the differences between the 3 species may be due to the transformation of one into the others (evolution) - a concept being actively debated in Paris - he did this almost passively
What was significant, or what did Cuvier know was significant, about his work to the field of geology?
he knew his comparative anatomy provided more solid evidence and a stronger argument for the theory of the earth or geology
How did Cuvier’s comparative anatomy of the 3 elephant species undermine Buffon’s ‘Theory of the earth’ ?
Buffon had argued that the earth originated from some very hot celestial body in space which had cooled gradually and that the bones in northern latitudes but the presence of elephants in tropical latitudes were because they had to move to seek warmer climates
Cuvier undermined the argument of the earth cooling and the animals moving because he determined the mammoth was a different species altogether which may have had adapted to different climates such as the cold one where its bones were found
Which new problems arose from Cuvier’s argument?
most importantly: what caused the difference between all the known fossil species and those alive today?
How did Cuvier dramaticize his claim about the distinction between fossils and living species?
He made the sweeping claim that fossils were completely distinct species from living ones and that this also extends to marine organisms, as well as terrestrial
What was the counter argument to Cuvier’s inclusion of marine organisms in his fossil v. extant organisms argument?
conchologists rejected his idea that fossils are different species entirely from extant because they had found that marine molluscs had exact ‘analogues’ among fossils
What did Cuvier claim about the origin of the world/the earth’s prehuman history and origin?
without a sufficient argument, he thought that the world had been ‘destroyed’ by a sudden catastrophic event - this theme was pervasive throuhgout the rest of his work
What evidence did Cuvier discuss for his claim that the living and fossil elephants were different species?
molar teeth of elephants
elephant skulls with teeth
fossils of mammoths (tusks)
comparative anatomy!
What branch of science is Cuvier best known for?
comparative anatomy
T or F: Cuvier determined that comparative anatomy is an essential tool to support geology
true
What type of questions were at the root of geology? give examples
practical and theoretical
ex.
where can we find minerals and metals?
how did mountains form?
where do rivers come from?
what are fossils?
how did earth form? was it divine creation or natural?
What terrestrial phenomenon did Sir Isaac Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation explain that was previously inexplicable?
the daily tides
How did Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation inspire the geological questions that followed the understanding of the daily tides?
the development of cosmogony
What is cosmogony?
theories of the origin of the universe and the earth and the physical laws that govern it
Who was Archbishop of Armagh, James Ussher? What did he contribute?
Ussher developed the Genesis view of the origin of the earth
he published a chronology of human history including events in the bible
When did divine creation begin according to Ussher and the Genesis view? how did he determine this?
divine creation was recent and began at 12PM on October 23, 4004 BC (so specific)
he did extensive biblical and non-biblical research to create his 2000 page chromology of human hisotyr
what was the implication of the Genesis view?
only one geological event in history significantly shaped the earth and that was the Great Flood of Noah
What event, according to the Genesis view, greatly shaped the earth?
Great Flood of Noah
What did early scientific models of the earth try to incorporate into the account of earth’s origins and history?
new knowledge of physics and astronomy
usually into a biblical/genesis framework
Who was William Whiston (c. 1667-1752)? what did he do?
he was a mathematician and he tried to explain biblical events through cometary events
ex. Haley’s comet
What was Whiston’s principle regarding the bible?
accept it as literally true unless you have reason to believe otherwise
What was Whiston’s take on the 6 days of creation in Genesis?
he thought that Genesis was told through the POV of the surface of the earth and not the entire cosmos - ie., it’s not an account of the origin of everything
What did Whiston think happened before Genesis starts the narrative? ie., the creation of the actual earth?
earth was a comet with a highly elliptical orbit and became more circular by god - God used physical laws outlined by Newton as tools to shape the earth
god cleaned the atmosphere to let the sun hit the earth’s surface = ‘see’ the sun to allow life on earth
What did Whiston think about the Fall of Man?
the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden was accompanied by a comet hitting earth causing it to spin and tilt = diurnality and seasonality
What did Whiston attribute the Flood of Noah to?
he thought the flood occurred from a close encounter between the earth and the water in the tail of a passing comet
the comet caused tidal forces on the earth to open cracks in its surface = upward surge of subterranean water = flood
What did Whiston believe to be the next large catastrophe after the Flood of Noah? ie., what was the coming conflagration?
he thought there will be another comet that will approach Earth, strip the atmosphere, raise molten interior material and make the Earth’s orbit more elliptical
What was the consummation to Whiston?
Christ will reign for a thousand years, the battle of Armageddon will be fought, the righteous win and go to heaven
Earth will be directly hit with another comet and knocked back into a highly elliptical orbit and every thing perishes the end
What is the Telliamed (1748) book about? Who wrote it?
Benoit de Maillet (1656-1738) is a book describing his conversation with a philosopher from the East in which he included his radical ideas about the earth’s creation
How did de Maillet avoid trouble with the authorities while still voicing his radical ideas in his book Telliamed?
he voiced his opinions through a fictional character rather than directly speaking about them
ALSO it was published posthumously - he died in 1738, it was published in 1748
What were 3 basic ideas in Telliamed?
- the Earth has seen eternal cycles of creation and destruction
- Oceans once covered the earth
- the origin and evolution of life starts from seeds and evolves from acquired inheritance
How did Buffon try to integrate a theory of Earth’s origins with a theory of geological change?
he thought that the earth was once a super hot body in space that was forever cooling
What was the problem of fossils?
why were marine fossils being found at mountain tops?
What did fossil skeptics argue?
they thought that fossils were not the remains of organisms and were uninformative about past life
extinction was theologically untenable (inconsistent with the idea that god created beings with a purpose)
What was the problem with extinction?
it contradicted that a rational, wise, all-knowing divine creator could have created species just to destroy them
What were some religious peoples’ defense for god against the problem with extinction?
maybe he deliberately buried the extinct organisms for us to find
maybe he practiced before Creation and buried his mistakes
it was not possible for people to fathom why a wise, all knowing god would create organisms just to kill them
Did Genesis palaeontologists believe fossils were remains of organisms?
yes but they tried to fit them into a biblical framework
Who was Nicholas Steno (1638-1686)? What was his focus?
he was a 17th century biblical palaeontology that struggled with the concept of ‘solids within solids problem’ with reference to tongue stones
What are tongue stones? how were they the problem of ‘solids within solids’?
shark teeth
how can the solid remains of an organism be put into a solid rock? this stumped a lot of people who thought about geology
Who was Robert Hooke (1635-1703)?
An english polymath, physicist, astronomer, geologist, meteorologist and architect
What did Robert Hooke think of Genesis? for what reasons / what did he believe?
he was a skeptic
- sedimentary rocks are not the remains of “the Flood”
- movements of the earth reform the surface to create layers and expose marine layers
- extinction is real
What is Neptunism? What century was it popular?
18th century idea to understand geological formations (mountains especially)
thought formations were a result of the recession of oceans causing the precipitation of minerals
Who was Neptunism named after?
Neptune, the Roman god of the waters and seas
Did Neptunism include reference to the bible or the great flood?
no it was not biblical but entirely natural
What is the stratigraphical principle of superimposition? who established it?
Neptunists
this principle describes the formation of geological features like mountains as a result of the oceans receding and sea level dropping and as sea level drops, minerals are deposited as sedimentary layers
What did the stratigraphical principle of superimposition and Neptunism suggest about the age of the earth?
The process by which geological formations such as mountains formed on the earth’s surface as posed by Neptunists introduced the concept of DEEP TIME - these processes would have taken a very long time - the earth must be older than previously thought
Which 17th century geologist/palaeontologist is the origin of the stratigraphical principle of superimposition of Neptunism attributed to?
Nicholas Steno (he was a Genesis palaeontologist)
What is Plutonism? Who is it named after? What century did it develop?
late 18th century concept that described the formation of geological features like mountains being driven by internal heat
named after Pluto, the Greek and Roman god of the underworld
Who founded Plutonism? What did he publish to establish this idea? Why didn’t it take off? Who made it a best seller?
James Hutton (1726-1797)
he published “Theory of the Earth with Proofs and Illustrations” in 1795
it was really convoluted and hard to read, not well written until John Playfair in 1802 rewrote it for a broader audience and published it as “Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth”
What were Hutton’s 2 principles of Plutonism?
- uniformitarianism: geological change is slow and constant and occurs at the same rate over time and still occur today
- geological cycles and a steady-state Earth:
- mountains erode and deposit sediment into oceans;
- sediment builds up pressure to form molten magma;
- magma bubbles up to seafloor and forms new continents;
- continental mountains erode, etc
there is no long-term directional change to the earth (ie., it is a net zero process)
Does Plutonism describe the earth’s geological change as directional? explain this
no, it suggests there is no long-term directional change to earth - ie., net zero change but change is occurring
What was the significance of Hutton’s work?
it represented a shift from focusing on trying to explain the origin of earth to understanding the changes that occurred after
Who was Charles Lyell (1797-1875)? What were his beliefs and what were his contributions?
He sided with Hutton and uniformitarianism and wrote Principles of Geology (1830-33) - a 3 volume work that became the most prominent geology textbook in the 19th century
How do the 3 different schools of geology (Genesis, Buffon + Neptunists, Hutton + Plutonists) represent long-term changes in the earth?
GENESIS: high state of earth, dramatic decrease due to a single catastrophic event, recovery to a stable but lower state
BUFFON/NEPTUNISTS: constant decline in state over time
HUTTON/PLUTONISTS: unknown start and end, but repeated change in state but no net-change
Who assembled the first stratigraphical column? When?
Georges Cuvier and William Smith in 1800-20
What did the stratigraphical column show? Which established principle of geology does it employ?
it employs the Neptunist principle of superimposition - no single fossil or strata shows the entire history of life, but instead show a chronological story
fossils are not just randomly jumbled either, they tell a chronological story and they can be used to determine relative dates of geological strat
What does the logic of the stratigraphical column depend on?
- principle of superimposition
- each strata is unique like a fingerprint and the assemblage of fossils differs
What does it mean for studying geological time and fossils that each strata has a unique assemblage of fossils?
strata at different locations can be compared to determine relative dates or to confirm the identify of a newly discovered stratum
What was the biological significance of the stratigraphical column?
LIFE CHANGES OVER TIME
How are different strata sites related temporally?
knowing the age of some strata can help you determine the age of other ones in a different site:
A D
B E
C F
D G
E H
You know that stratum A is younger than stratum E in the first column, so from that you can determine that it is also younger than strata F, G and H even though A never appears in the same series
because of overlapping strata
What was the 19th century debate about the RATE of geological change (ie., against uniformitarianism)?
uniformitarianism vs. catastrophism
uniformitarianism: slow, constant geological change
- Hutton + Lyell
catastrophism: geological change is NOT constant over time, there are periods of rapid, large-scale change separated by periods of stable changelessness
- Cuvier
What was the 19th century debate about the DIRECTION of geological change (ie., against cyclic steady-state)? Which argument won out?
directional geology vs. cyclic steady state
cyclic steady state: cyclic periods of change which results in no net change over time
- Hutton and Lyell
directional geology: as the earth is cooling, the surface is changing / declining?
- Buffon + Neptunists
cyclic steady state won out but not by Hutton’s concept, but later on when tectonic plate movement was understood
The Professor and the Naturalist is about who?
professor: Richard Owen
Naturalist: Charles Darwin
Who was Richard Owen?
he started as an English physician and began dissecting bodies for anatomy classes when he worked in a museum (given position by Abernethy)
became a famous comparative anatomist and professor at the Royal College of Surgeons in England
How did Owen study animals?
their corpses from Zoological Gardens or preserved specimen (not live) from collections in the museum
Who did Owen most revere?
the ancient Greeks for their scope of zoology
Aristotle’s ability to connect body parts with function (ex. sharp teeth in carnivores for eating meat)
Aristotle’s recognition of homology
What did Owen think of contemporary comparative anatomists?
He thought they were just repeating what was done and known by ancient Greeks
he thought Geoffroy was particularly bad with homology
What was Geoffroy’s take on homology which Owen didn’t agree with?
he thought that animal development was restricted by a common body plan so there were always homologies
What did Cuvier think of Geoffroy’s take on homology?
Also at the museum in Paris, Cuvier didn’t agree that there had to be homologies for all animals due to a common body plan
his evidence was that there are no homologies for the fish’s operculum in mammals
he thought structure was determined by fuinction
What was Owen’s take on embryology? what did he warn his students about?
he thought that organisms, both of ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ classes had stages of embryonic development
he warned his students about equating the various embryonic developmental stages with adults of other species
What did Owen think of transmutation (evolution) of species? why?
NOT into it - outright objected it because it contradicted his Christian beliefs of a divine creator
How did Owen explain the fossil record?
he thoight that fossils showed repeated waves of creation and extinction related to changes in the physical environment on earth over time
new species are not superior, but better suited to the current earth
What did Owen think of Lyell’s idea that the fossil record showed a trend from ‘lower’ to ‘higher’ organisms?
he didn’t buy it - that suggests evolution and not for him
How many papers did Owen write during his lifetime?
at least 600
What specimen was Owen known to study?
orangutan
nautilus (extant relative of ammonite)
how come Owen was so good at interpreting extinct animals from fossils?
he had a really strong background in comparative anatomy because of his research and dissections
Whose biological specimen did Owen do his first paleontological work on?
Charles Darwins from Argentinian voyage on the Beagle via encouragement by Lyell
What was the Toxodon?
‘bow tooth’ mammal which seemed to be a cross of a rodent and an elephant
named by Owen, fossil brought to Owen by Darwin
What was the Macrauchenia?
another fossil brought to Owen by Darwin
seemed to resemble a camel or a llama
What did these two organisms become known as?
relatives in the South American mammal group: notoungulates
What was the Glyptodon?
the hippo sized animal Owen named (fossil brought to you by Darwin)
‘sculptured tooth’ body encased in a bony shell like a tortoise but it was a mammal related to modern armadillo
T or F: Darwin knew just as much about the fossils as Owen did
false, he didn’t know much at all so Owen was a great resource to learn from
What did learning from Owen about the fossils cause Darwin to question?
the cause of their extinction and their affinities to animals which still exist today
these fossils were essential to his development of the origin of species
What did Owen attribute their extinctions to? did Darwin buy it?
environmental change - Darwin did not believe this could be it
Who did Darwin discuss his ideas about transmutation with? Was this guy on board with it?
He talked to Lyell because he knew Owen was absolutely opposed to it
Lyell didn’t buy it either, but he knew he wouldn’t out Darwin
What was the current paradigm when Darwin was starting to question transmutation?
Cuvier’s belief, as advocated by Owen and Buckland, that fossils were discrete and did not believe in transmutation of one species to another
Was Darwin and his Beagle voyage recognized when Owen won a Wollaston Gold Medal for his papers on the South American fossils?
yes, it was recognized as one of the most important events for geology in many years
How did Darwin’s acquisition of biological knowledge differ from Owen’s?
Owen was a man of good connections which allowed him positions in prestigious colleges and access to many specimen = dissections and corpses
Darwin mostly learned from observing living organisms in nature
What might Owen have witnessed had he not left Lyme in 1839 to return to London?>
the most remarkable geological catastrophes of the ages - a huge landslide