The Big One! Asteroid impact site in Chicxulub, Yucatan. Graphic from Atlantic.
BOOM! or maybe it was boom…boom…fshhhh..whap booma-booma…boom..bubble boom glub glub Boom…
Which was it? Luis Alvarez had one story, and he was laughed out of the paleontologist’s room. Until he wasn’t. Gerta Keller, who disagreed with him, has been laughed out of the same rooms. She’s won prizes for her research. Can they both be right?
There are multiple stories here. First, there is a story of a scientist who had a crazy idea and some data, which took decades for scientists to confirm. Then, there’s a second story, of a scientist still fighting for her own version, one which would upend those decades. Plus, there’s the underlying story, of what killed off all the dinosaurs. Between story one and story two, there’s still uncertainty about story three.
It’s been called “The Nastiest Feud in Science.” It’s still ongoing, even though now they do know where the asteroid hit. The crater is in the Yucatan.
Darwin’s diary, speculating about species development. Wikipedia.
I hope this doesn’t burst anyone’s bubble, but Charles Darwin did not entirely invent the theory of evolution. Many biologists–or naturalists as they called them then–had an idea that life had changed over time. Darwin added his own special sauce, in his argument On the Origin of Species, but it was part of a chain of scientific proposals. Some of these proposals preceded or ignored the fossil findings. Others tried to fit them within grander narratives, despite evidence that said differently.
The origin of the dinosaurs can be considered from two frameworks. One is about the history of those who found fossils, a topic that has been brushed lightly before. The other is about the first dinosaur itself, a truth that is at the mercy of the fossils themselves. Then, there is the question of what came after, what animal origins emerged once the ruling dinosaurs were forced to bow before E.T. and his Merry Asteroid. Different kinds of origin stories.
Cuvier drawing of elephant parts, wikpedia.
The Origin of Evolution
Evolution and the resistance to evolution was not just about monkeys. The radical notion about change in general was that there had been change to live creatures, and it had lasted millions of years. The Bible had dictated different terms. Seven days. All the creatures, flora and fauna, created in just a part of that time span. As naturalists started digging up things, the idea that million of years had past didn’t fit the religious narrative.
Author’s Note: I just realized that I have an excellent book that covers the story of Gideon Mantell and the iguanodons. This book, Terrible Lizard by Deborah Cadbury, contains all sorts of juicy details about the scientific rivalries, the tooth, and the horn. Unfortunately, I haven’t read it entirely yet, so this post will be based on bits and pieces of what I have cobbled. They’re still tasty bits. Dinosaur Cobbler.
Model of the originally envisioned Iguanodon, in a Dinosaur Museum in Colorado. Photo by kajmeister.
Gideon Mantell was thrilled to find the palm-sized rock that seemed unnaturally pointed and curved. He knew it came from an animal–probably an ancient animal. It seemed logical that it might be similar to a horn, like the one on a rhinoceros.
Oh, what a howling error! Mantell would be known forevermore for his mistake. Was it his fault, given that the foremost naturalist of his day insisted the animal was a rhinoceros? He also was pooh-poohed by the other scientists, only to have them become famous for his initial ideas. Maybe history should be kinder to Gideon. Still, he also dissed his wife. It was Mary who found the fossils, let him fill their dining room with samples, organized his papers, drew illustrations for his book, raised his children … and then was forced to move out when the house was turned into a museum. On second thought, let’s not cut him any slack.
Who Found the Tooth?
Iguanodon was only the second dinosaur to be discovered and named formally by the scientific community that runs such things, which in the early 19th century was in England. The idea of dinosaurs, the extent of dinosaurs rule over the planet, and their huge variation in function and design was all yet to be discovered in 1820. When the quarry near Gideon’s medical practice started revealing unusual fossil bones, there was some ambiguity about what animal it might have come from.
