The Ancient Life History of the Earth

Fourteen essays on how paleontology reached the public, from Victorian museum halls to Gertie the Dinosaur and Jurassic Park. It shows how the science of deep time turned into popular culture, and what that did back to the science.

Chris Manias

Huxley's popular lectures on evolution, fossils and geologic time, written to be understood without a science degree. His essay on the method of Zadig is still one of the clearest accounts of how a paleontologist reasons from a bone to an animal.

Thomas Henry Huxley

A Victorian narrative of Earth history from the Precambrian to the arrival of humans, written by a working geologist for general readers. Dawson argued against Darwin, so the book also shows how the fossil record was fought over in its own day.

John William Dawson