Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Geological Exploration of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains, 1840 and 1841
(Keyworth: British Geological Survey, Occasional Publication 2, 2004).
For accounts of the competing Diluvialist, Fluvialism and Glacial theories
see Davies, The Earth in Decay (1969), Charles C. Gillispie, Genesis and Geology
(1996); and Dennis R. Dean, 'The rise and fall of the deluge', Journal of Geological
Education 33 (1985), 84-93. The most valuable assessment of William Buckland's
geological work is that by Nicolaas A. Rupke, The Great Chain of History: William
Buckland and the English School of Geology 1814-1849 (Oxford University
Press, 1983).
An early account of the use of colour in geological maps is given by J. E.
Portlock in his monumental Geological Report on Londonderry, and Parts of
Tyrone and Fermanagh (Dublin: Andrew Milliken, 1843), pp. 8-12. David
McMahon described the earliest geological map in 'The Turin Papyrus map: the
oldest known map with geological significance', Earth Sciences History 11, number
1 (1992), 9-12.
Chapter 9. 'Formed stones' and their subsequent role in
biostratigraphy and evolutionary theory
Recent papers that discuss the earliest examples of life on Earth include those
by J. W. Schopf, 'Microfossils of the Early Archean Apex chert: new evidence of
the antiquity of life', Science 260 (1993), 640-646, and S. J. Mojzsis, G. Arrhenius,
K. D. McKeegan, T. M. Harrison, A. P. Nutman and C. R. Friend, 'Evidence for
life on Earth before 3,800 million years ago', Nature 384 (1996), 55-59. However,
some of the conclusions regarding early life have been questioned: C. M. Fedo and
M. J. Whitehouse, 'Metasomatic origin of quartz-pyroxene rock, Akilia, Greenland,
and implications for Earth's earliest life', Science 296 (2002), 1448-1452; and
M. D. Brasier, O. R. Green, A. P. Jephcoat et al. 'Questioning the evidence for
Earth's oldest fossils', Nature 416 (2002), 28.
Useful treatments of the subject of fossils and folklore include M. G. Bassett,
'Formed Stones', Folklore and Fossils, National Museum of Wales Geological
Series 1 (1982) 1-32, and the papers by Kenneth P. Oakley, 'Folklore of fossils',
Antiquity 39 (1975), 9-16; 117-125; M. E. Taylor and R. A. Robison, 'Trilobites in
Utah folklore', Brigham Young University Geology Studies 23 (1976), 1-5; and
G. Zammit Maempel, 'The folklore of Maltese fossils', Papers in Mediterranean
Social Studies 1 (1989), 1-29. Paul D. Taylor of the Natural History Museum, London
has established a webpage devoted to the subject (http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-
online/earth/fossils/fossil-folklore/). The early use of fossils associated with burials
has been documented by Patrick N. Wyse Jackson and Michael Connolly, 'Fossils as
