Or, Observations On The Organic Remains Contained In Caves, Fissures, And Diluvial Gravel, And On Other Geological Phenomena, Attesting The Action Of An Universal Deluge.
Reliquiae Diluvianae Or, Observations On The Organic Remains Contained In Caves, Fissures, And Diluvial Gravel, And On Other Geological Phenomena, Attesting The Action Of An Universal Deluge.
John Murray, 1824.
Second edition. 4to. Contemporary half calf over marbled paper covered boards, the spine attractively decorated in gilt and blind, with four raised bands, a title label lettered gilt, and a previous owner's initials ("J.E.") stamped in gilt to the base of the spine. Folding table to the front and twenty-seven plates to the rear, some in colour, one folding-out. A very good copy indeed, with some light rubbing only to the binding. Internally fresh, a little offsetting from the plates. Plates 24-26 bound out of sequence by all present.
An attractive copy of the first work of palaeoecology, by the first palaeoecologist.
This is an important early work by William Buckland, who had been a lecturer at Oxford since 1813. He specialised in geology and mineralogy, and this work is based on excavations in caves in England and Germany. In 1821 at Kirkdale Cavern in Yorkshire:
"he discovered and identified numerous bones of hyenas, with those of elephant, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, ox, deer, bear, fox, water rats, and birds. Bones of exotic animals found in Britain had previously been dismissed as remnants of Roman importations or as jumbled collections swept in from tropical countries by Noah's flood: Buckland's brilliant interpretation of the cave as an 'ante-diluvial' den of hyenas which had dragged in carrion or prey caused a sensation. He backed up his hypothesis (in the face of much scepticism) by comparing rounded fossil objects from the cave with modern hyena faeces; and by feeding ox bones to captive hyenas he obtained splintered bones identical to fossil bones from Kirkdale. The results were published in his Reliquiae diluvianae of 1823." (ODNB).
Buckland later achieved greater fame as the first person to describe and name a fossil dinosaur (the Megalosaurus), and as the person who excavated and described the Red Lady of Paviland.
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