Duria Antiquior: A Nineteenth-Century Forerunner of Paleoart

By Steven Wade Veatch

In a breath of inspiration in 1830, English geologist Henry De la Beche (1796–1855), while exploring new intellectual territories in the emerging fields of paleontology, painted Duria Antiquior (meaning “a more ancient Dorset”), a representation of a prehistoric Dorset coast. De la Beche’s work was groundbreaking—his artwork combined science and art in the first artistic rendering of a paleontological scene, while laying bare the secrets of the past. Before 1830, art depicting the prehistoric world did not exist and these realms were unknown to the public (Porter, n.d.). While it is true that scientists made drawings of fossil animals and exchanged them with each other in private letters, the public had no concept of how prehistoric animals looked. This painting opened people’s imagination to new visions, thoughts, and beliefs.

Fig. 1. Duria Antiquior. A watercolor painted in 1830 by Henry De la Beche who conjured up a vivid picture of an ancient world. Duria Antiquior is now in the National Museum of Wales. (Image is public domain)

De la Beche’s painting also laid the foundation for a new genre that would later be known as paleoart, an artistic genre that reconstructs prehistoric life according to the fossil record, scientific understanding, and artistic imagination. De la Bache’s brushstrokes of prehistoric time included (literally) all the information known at that time about ancient life and soon became the first teaching graphic used in the classrooms of the Golden Age of Geology, a period from 1788 to 1840 (Clary R. M., 2003). Today, this graphic would be equivalent to a PowerPoint slide in a classroom.

De la Beche’s Duria Antiquior brings the viewer face-to-face with creatures that once lived in a coastal sea where these animals fought a deadly battle for survival, a typical theme of nature in the Regency era (McGowan, 2001). The scene is remarkable: a toothy ichthyosaur bites into the long neck of a plesiosaur, while another plesiosaur tries to grab a crocodile on the shore (De la Beche’s ichthyosaur is minus the triangular dorsal fin and vertical tail fin that, from later fossils found in Germany, we now know it had).   A turtle quietly dives into the water. What would become coprolites (fossil excrement) drop from a terrified plesiosaur (Davis, 2012). Other creatures patrol the deep waters for food, while two pterosaurs dive toward each other in the sky. Belemnites appear like squids. Hollow ammonite shells rest on the bottom of the sea and crinoids (sea lilies) are portrayed in the lower right corner. Groves of palm trees grow on the shore. All of this is rendered through the painter’s use of a restrained palette of browns, greens, and blues.

Another striking feature of the painting is how it is divided. The waterline reveals the action above and below the water’s surface (Rudwick, 1992). The Duria Antiquior is the first example of what is known as the aquarium view that would become a Victorian trend several years later (Clary & Wandersee, 2005). The area above the waterline is further divided into two areas of activity—action on the land and in the sky. De la Beche wanted the viewer to be convinced of his portrayal of a prehistoric scene.

De la Beche based the Duria Antiquior on fossils found by Victorian fossil collector, Mary Anning (1799-1847), along the Dorset coast near the resort town of Lyme Regis (Brewster, 2016). Anning was from a poor family, who frequently found themselves on the far side of desperate. To ease these brutal financial circumstances, the family earned money by collecting and selling fossils. As a child, her father would take Mary Anning and her brother, Joseph, fossil hunting by the fossil-rich cliffs near Lyme Regis. They returned home with fossils and, with superior skill, cleaned and prepared them, and then sold them to tourists as curios. Anning, aged 11, continued the family business after her father died of tuberculosis and heavily in debt.

Fig. 2. Portrait of Mary Anning with her dog, Tray. This painting was owned by her brother, Joseph, and given to the Natural History Museum, London in 1935 by Mary's great-great niece, Miss Annette Anning. (Image is public domain)

By 1830, Anning was a celebrity among the leading constellation of British geologists for her knowledge and skill in collecting and preparing fossils (Cadbury, 2000). Anning is credited with finding the first ichthyosaur skeleton to be recognized and the first two plesiosaur skeletons ever found. Her discovery of these marine reptiles had created a sensation in the scientific community (McGowan, 2001).

Anning frequently found herself in financial straits due to harsh economic times in Britain, and from the unpredictability of finding and selling fossils. Being strapped for money restricted her ability to find fossils. De la Beche wanted to keep her in the field hunting fossils. To that end, he arranged to have prints of Duria Antiquior made and then sold the copies for £2 10s (approximately £213 or $279 today) each (Rudwick, 1992). De la Beche gave the profits—with great enthusiasm—to Anning, so she had more time to hunt for fossils and seashells along the seashore. The painting was a smashing success and, to meet the enormous demand for the prints, the Duria Antiquior was reprinted and redrawn several times.

The Duria Antiquior pushed the boundaries of science and art at the end of the Regency period in Britain. This avant-garde watercolor became the first scene of prehistoric animals interacting with each other in their ancient environment, all based on known science at the time. This was the earliest such art to be widely distributed and helped shape the understanding of prehistoric life on Earth. 

References

Brewster, S. (2016, July 4). Duria Antiquior, A More Ancient Dorset. Retrieved from Eastern Biological: https://easternbiological.co.uk/blogs/news/duria-antiquior-a-more-ancient-dorset

Cadbury, D. (2000). The Dinosaur Hunters: A True Story of Scientific Rivalry and the Discovery of the Prehistoric World. Foulsham.

Clary, R. M. (2003). Uncovering Strata: an Investigation into the Graphic Innovations of Geologist Henry T. De la Beche. Retrieved from LSU Doctoral Dissertations: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/127/

Clary, R. M., & Wandersee, J. H. (2005). "Through the Looking Glass: The History of Aquarium Views and their Potential to Improve Learning in Science Classrooms. Science and Education, 579–596.

Davis, L. E. (2012). Mary Anning of Lyme Regis: 19th Century Pioneer in British Palaeontology. Headwaters: The Faculty Journal of the College of Saint. Benedict and St. John's Universtiy, 96-128.

McGowan, C. (2001). The Dragon Seekers. New York: Perseus Publishing.

Porter, S. (n.d.). Paleontology Needs Paleoart. Retrieved from Earth Archives: http://www.eartharchives.org/articles/paleontology-needs-paleoart/

Rudwick, M. J. (1992). Scenes from Deep Time: Early Pictorial Representations of the Prehistoric World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Paleontological Frontiers at the Florissant Fossil Beds: Princeton Expedition of 1877

I am very pleased and honored to be a part of the Western Interior Paleontological Society's Founders Symposium in 2011.  The symposium's theme is: The West that Was: Exploring Colorado's Fossil Past. The symposium will take place February 12 and 13 on the Colorado School of Mines Campus in Golden. I will present a paper that will look at Florissant's contributions to paleontology, which are enourmous.

The early days of scientific discovery at the fossil beds are amazing. One interesting story of the early days of exploration at the fossil beds is about the Princeton Expedition to Florissant in 1877. 





Early (1874) photo of a petrified stump at Florissant.





On Wednesday, July 11, 1877, the Princeton Expedition arrived at the fossil beds and later that day wrote in their journal: “We camped at Florissant —Judge Castello’s.  In the morning we set to work, all the department finding something to do . . . Dr. Brackett with Scott, Osborn, and Potter paid Mrs. Hill a visit and gained quite a lot of fossils, bugs, leaves, etc.  Lynde and Speir worked at the fish beds discovered the day before.  The fruit of the labor of the day was shared in the evening along with the mineralogists spoil.  A few petrified wood pieces were found in a gully. . . and some pretty specimens of chalcedony were the afternoon's spoil. The old Judge was quite a character and by his kindness our stay at Florissant was rendered pleasant as well as profitable.” The Princeton students collected and shipped plant fossils to Leo Lesquereux, insects to Samuel Scudder, and vertebrates to E.D. Cope. At least 180 of the plant and insect specimens the students collected became type specimens. Charlotte Hill, an early homesteader who lived at the site, provided specimens to the Princeton Expedition and then later that year to Scudder when he arrived.





Osborn on left, Scott on right. Both about 16 years old.

Prior to the expedition’s departure from New Jersey, two of the student organizers, William Berryman Scott and Henry Fairfield Osborn, met with Cope for advice on where to hunt for fossils.  From that first meeting, Osborn and Scott built a lasting friendship with Cope. Cope’s friendship and mentoring persuaded both Osborn and Scott to specialize in paleontology. Osborn and Scott maintained their professional relationship with Cope over the years.

Both Osborn and Scott returned from Florissant and their expedition completely committed to paleontology. Scott went on to be a professor of geology at Princeton, a post he held for the rest of his life. Osborn held a professorship at Columbia University and then headed the American Museum of Natural History from 1908-1933. Through Osborn’s efforts, the work of paleontologists reached world-wide expression in the museum where he balanced exploration, research, public exhibition, and publication. 

Florissant is one of the most taxonomically diverse fossil sites in the world. The lacustrine shales of the Florissant Formation have yielded around 1,700 described species of plants, insects, and spiders, as well as a few vertebrate fossils. These fossils range in size from tiny impressions in paper-thin shale to massive petrified tree stumps preserved by a lahar or volcanic mudflow. The petrified stumps are among the world’s largest in circumference. Florissant has one of the few known instances in the fossil record for the tsetse fly. Although butterflies are extremely rare in the fossil record, Florissant has yielded 12 species—more than any other fossil insect site.



USFS photo of the "big Stump" date 1900

The geology of the Florissant area is linked with the nearby Thirtynine Mile volcanic field (16 km west and southwest of Florissant), which included the coalescing stratovolcanoes of the Guffey volcanic center. Eruptions from the Guffey volcano produced lahars, ash, and pumice, all of which influenced the deposition of the Florissant Formation.

The Florissant fossil beds have been collected and studied for more than 130 years. Historic collections of Florissant fossils can be found in no fewer than 20 museums located world-wide. After years of tourist operations at the fossil beds, a large portion of the fossil deposits were protected from further exploitation by the establishment of the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in 1969. 

Colorado Midland Railroad Depot moved from Florissant to the fossiil beds where it served as a hotel for tourists.

Florissant’s fossils, with their high biotic diversity, preserve a latest Eocene ecosystem that existed in this area prior to the significant cooling event associated with the Eocene-Oligocene boundary. The plant and insect fossils provide information about the evolution of North American biotic communities and their response to major climate change.

A fossil record in the overlying Quaternary sediments is emerging that aids in assessing the local terrestrial paleoecology prior to the last glacial maximum. An active paleontology program at the park continues to produce new discoveries.