Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
across the neatly kept lawns to the nearby Chapter House, you may
find his final resting place. It bears little witness to Conybeare's earlier
activities as a geological and palaeontological pioneer.
Like many men of learning at this time Conybeare was heavily
involved with the local scientific and literary society, the Bristol
Institution, which opened its doors in 1809. He became interested in
ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs, a group of wonderful marine reptiles
found in the Liassic rocks in Somerset and on the southern coast of
England at Lyme Regis where they were collected and brought to the
awed attention of the general and scientific communities by Mary
Anning (1799-1849). What were these animals like? Superficially
ichthyosaurs resembled modern dolphins: they were streamlined,
had four paddles, two front and two rear, and had a powerful posterior
fin. The head carried a huge eye on either side, while the snout, which
was drawn-out and elongate in shape, carried upwards of two hundred
simple peg-like teeth. Plesiosaurs were broadly similar except that
they possessed a very long neck, which in some species was nearly
half the length of the body. These physical attributes would havemade
these animals fierce predators in the Liassic oceans, and they are
known to have eaten fish and ammonites. A close examination of
coprolites, the fossilised remains of their dung, provides conclusive
proof of this. Although long gone, representations of these animals
stand in the grounds of the Crystal Palace in Sydenham in south
London, where people can see for themselves and marvel at the
remarkable reconstructions of various prehistoric animals. Perhaps
the most famous of these is the model of Iguanodon in which
twenty-two eminent Victorian scientists and palaeontologists
enjoyed a sumptuous dinner on New Year's Eve 1853, hosted by
Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (1807-1899), the sculptor who had
fabricated the models.
Ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs had been first found in Britain as
early as 1605, but it was not until the celebrated Lyme fossil collectors
Mary and her brother Joseph began to find complete skeletons in the
local cliffs, from about 1811 onwards, that the scientific community
