ta ened tinctions. to begin confirmed t God creatures not occasionally butrepeatedly. t so mucile. It also made itinconveniently necessary to explain o succeeding eons. Clearly to extinctions ted for by a single Noacter to isfaction by suggesting t Genesis applied only to t recentinundation. God, it appeared, ract or alarm Moses extinctions.
So by teentury, fossils aken on a certain inescapableimportance, o see tunate. Suddenly, in any case, bones urning up all over. Several otunities arose for Americans to claim t all ed. In1806 tion passed tion in Montana, anarea er literally trip over dinosaur bones, and even examined failed to make anyt. Otprints icut River Valley of Neer a farm boy named Plinus Moody spied ancient tracks on a rock ledge at Soutts. Some of t least survive—notably tion of t Yale. Found in 1818, tdinosaur bones to be examined and saved, but unfortunately recognized for il 1855. In t same year, 1818, Caspar istar died, but ainunexpected immortality named ttall named a deliger anical purists still insist on spelling it aria .
By time, ological momentum o England. In 1812, atLyme Regis on t coast, an extraordinary ceen, depending on range fossilized seamonster, seventeen feet long and noeep anddangerous cliffs along the English Channel.
It art of a remarkable career. Anning ty-five yearsgato visitors. (So be tongue ter “Splesiosaurus, anoter, and one of t and best pterodactyls. tec terribly relevant at time since nobody t a dinosaur turesstrikingly unlike anyt now find.
It simply t Anning spotting fossils—tt—but t sract test delicacy and damage. If youever o visit t marine reptiles at tural ory Museumin London, I urge you to take it for to appreciate ty ofually unaided basic tools innearly impossible conditions. took en years of patient excavation.
Altrained, Anning o provide competent draions forsc even age of finds were rare and s of y.
It ory of paleontology t in fact tell and ry doctor in