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Richard Owen: A Forgotten Icon, Devan Henriott

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Despite being one of the most famous naturalists of the nineteenth century, Richard Owen is an obscure figure today. This paper delves into how such an influential person to the beginnings of paleontology and biology could have been written out of history. Owen worked his way into the world of comparative anatomy by finding work at the Hunterian Museum. From there, Owen earned respect for his exciting lectures on fossil discoveries and for his research interpreting fossils and reconstructing extinct species. Owen utilized his renown to spread his theories on the creations of species, but mostly kept his evolutionary ideas …