the rise and progress of palaeontology

The Rise and Progress of Palaeontologyby Thomas Henry HuxleyThat application of the sciences of biology and geology, whichis commonly known as palaeontology, took its origin in the mindof the first person who, finding something like a shell, or abone, naturally imbedded in gravel or rock, indulged inspeculations upon the nature of this thing which he had dug outthis "fossil"and upon the causes which had brought it intosuch a position. In this rudimentary form, a high antiquity maysafely be ascribed to palaeontology, inasmuch as we know that,500 years before the Christian era, the philosophic doctrines ofXenophanes were influenced by his observations upon the fossil...

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