|
In 1812, Mary Anning, a poor woman from Lyme Regis, discovered the
skeleton of a monster beneath the cliffs of Dorset. Her remarkable
find set in motion a quest to understand the strange, buried world
thought to exist before Noah's Flood. At Oxford University, the
eccentric naturalist, the Reverend William Buckland, eagerly used
his research into fossil remains in an attempt to prove the accuracy
of the biblical record.
Meanwhile, another naturalist , Gideon Mantell, a shoemaker's
son, uncovered giant bones in a Sussex quarry and became obsessed
with the ancient past which he became to realise must once have
been teeming with creatures up to 70 feet long. Initially spurned
by the scientific establishment, he risked everything to reveal
his vision of the lost world of the reptiles.
Despite all their efforts, it was the eminent anatomist Richard
Owen, patronised by Royalty , the Prime Minister and the aristocracy,
who scooped the credit for the discovery of dinosaurs. Through guile,
political intrigue and brilliant scientific insight Owen rose from
the surgeon's apprentice in Lancaster to the highest echelons of
society and was fêted as the man who gave the extinct creatures
their name.
In The
Dinosaur Hunters, Deborah Cadbury re-creates the bitter feud
between Mantell and Owen, which drove one of them to despair and
secured for the other unrivalled international acclaim. Their struggle
was to create a new science that would forever change man's perception
of his place in the universe and that brought to light a prehistoric
era that was more strange and awesome than anyone could have imagined.
|
