The Dragon Seekers by Christopher McGowan - Book Review

In The Dragon Seekers, paleontologist Christopher McGowan takes the reader back to England in the early 19th century, when Noah's flood was still considered to be a literal event in Earth's early history by the greatest scientists of the day. In dramatic fashion he tells the story of the earliest fossilists who scoured the rocky shores and caves of southern England, revealing evidence of Earth's earlier inhabitants, struggling to place their findings in a biblical context, but actually laying the groundwork for Darwin's more coherent explanation of life's origins.

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The cast of characters is a virtual Who's Who of the founding fathers of paleontology and geology: including William Buckland who named and described Megalosaurus, the first dinosaur known to science; Richard Owen, the greatest anatomist of his time and creator of the term "dinosaur"; and Charles Lyell, the founder of modern geology. McGowan tells how these men as well as other esteemed colleagues, collaborated and competed to make sense of the rocks and fossils.

She went fossiling to put bread on the table, and had been a professional collector since she was eleven.

But the real star of McGowan's story wasn't a scientific celebrity, a founding father or even an actual scientist. Mary Anning was just a local collector, but she discovered some of the most important and fascinating fossils of the time. Every day she would trudge along the rugged coastline, rain or shine (mostly rain) and search for new fossils, making a living by selling fossils to wealthy tourists or aspiring academics. While her knowledge and talents were every bit as impressive as her more acclaimed fossilist contemporaries, her status as a woman of limited means relegated her to merely footnote status in the academic world. She discovered the first plesiosaur - a giant carnivorous long-necked marine reptile - as well as the first ichthyosaur - a large fish-like reptile. The thought of these giant predators battling to the death in ancient seas stimulated immense public enthusiasm at the time, but it was only the prominent male professors and doctors who achieved fame and fortune.

McGowan does a great job of integrating the intriguing biographies with the fascinating science, placing it all against the backdrop of smog, riot and disease filled London in the throes of the Industrial Revolution. As with the most entertaining of history writing, he seamlessly transported me back to a strange place and time an engaging style. He also delves deeply into the personalities and motivations of the characters rather than just cataloging their achievements.

The best parts of the book describe the convoluted interactions among the different scientists. Rather than building up the myth of the tireless, noble researcher always searching for the truth, McGowan spends a great deal of the book outlining cases of conflict and fraud, defamation and scandal. He also doesn't hesitate to point out when the fossilists get it completely wrong. While trying to assemble the first Iguanodon, local physician Gideon Mantell used his imagination and decided to place a several inch long spiked bone on the animals nose as a horn. It wasn't until over fifty years later that subsequent finds indicated that the bone was really part of the beast's thumb.

McGowan devotes a small part of the 220 page book to a discussion of his own, equally interesting, fossil research as an ichthyosaur specialist at the University of Toronto. He frequently visits England to search for fossils on the same shores where Mary Anning searched so many years ago and where local collectors continue to search to this day. In my experience, it is rather unusual for a practicing scientist to be able to write in such an entertaining fashion, creating tension and drama throughout. His eloquent words are well supported by copious illustrations and portraits, most of them from original publications.

The Dragon Seekers is a well balanced work for either the historian or the scientist. The absorbing topic and superior writing made it hard to put down. It is a fitting tribute to Mary Anning and her dogged and painstaking pursuit of a deeper understanding of life in ancient times.

Posted with STEMGeeks