Richard Owen

For other uses, see Richard Owen (disambiguation).

Sir
Richard Owen
KCB FRMS FRS
Portrait of Owen, c. 1878
Born(1804-07-20)20 July 1804
Lancaster, England
Died18 December 1892(1892-12-18) (aged 88)
Richmond Park, London, England
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Edinburgh
St Bartholomew's Hospital
Known forCoining the term dinosaur, presenting them as a distinct taxonomic group
British Museum of Natural History
AwardsWollaston Medal (1838)
Royal Medal (1846)
Copley Medal (1851)
Baly Medal (1869)
Clarke Medal (1878)
Linnean Medal (1888)
Scientific career
FieldsComparative anatomy
Paleontology
Zoology[1]
Biology[1]

Sir Richard Owen KCB FRMS FRS (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and palaeontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils.

Owen produced a vast array of scientific work, but is probably best remembered today for coining the word Dinosauria (meaning "Terrible Reptile" or "Fearfully Great Reptile").[2][3] An outspoken critic of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, Owen agreed with Darwin that evolution occurred but thought it was more complex than outlined in Darwin's On the Origin of Species.[4][page range too broad] Owen's approach to evolution can be considered to have anticipated the issues that have gained greater attention with the recent emergence of evolutionary developmental biology.[5]

Owen was the first president of the Microscopical Society of London in 1839 and edited many issues of its journal – then known as The Microscopic Journal.[6] Owen also campaigned for the natural specimens in the British Museum to be given a new home. This resulted in the establishment, in 1881, of the now world-famous Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London.[7][page range too broad] Bill Bryson argues that, "by making the Natural History Museum an institution for everyone, Owen transformed our expectations of what museums are for."[8]

While he made several contributions to science and public learning, Owen was a controversial figure among his contemporaries, both for his disagreements on matters of common descent and for accusations that he took credit for other people's work.

  1. ^ a b Shindler, Karolyn (7 December 2010). "Richard Owen: the greatest scientist you've never heard of". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 10 December 2010. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Owen 1841 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Sir Richard Owen: The man who invented the dinosaur". BBC. 18 February 2017.
  4. ^ Cosans, Christopher E. (2009). Owen's Ape & Darwin's Bulldog: Beyond Darwinism and Creationism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 1–192. ISBN 978-0-253-22051-6.
  5. ^ Amundson, Ron (2007). The Changing Role of the Embryo in Evolutionary Thought: Roots of Evo-Devo. New York: Cambridge University of Press. pp. 1–296. ISBN 978-0521806992.
  6. ^ Wilson, Tony (2016). "175th Anniversary Special Issue: Introduction" (PDF). Journal of Microscopy. doi:10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2818.
  7. ^ Rupke, Nicolaas A. (1994). Richard Owen: Victorian Naturalist. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 1–484. ISBN 978-0300058208.
  8. ^ Bryson, Bill (2003). A Short History of Nearly Everything. London: Doubleday. pp. 1–672. ISBN 978-0-7679-0817-7.