William Buckland

William Buckland (12 March, 1784 - 24 August, 1856) was a prominent English geologist and palaeontologist who wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur, a proponent of Old Earth creationism and Flood geology who later became convinced by the glaciation theory of Louis Agassiz.

Megalosaurus and marriage

He continued to live in Corpus Christi College and in 1824 he became president of the Geological Society of London. Here he announced the discovery at Stonesfield of fossil bones of a giant reptile which he named Megalosaurus (great lizard) and wrote the first full account of what would later be called a dinosaur.

Related Topics:
1824 - Geological Society of London - Megalosaurus - Dinosaur

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In 1825 he resigned his college fellowship to take up the living (post as a clergyman) of Stoke Charity in Hampshire, but before he could take up the appointment he was made a Canon of Christ Church, a rich reward for academic distinction without serious administrative responsibilities. In December of that year he married Mary Morland of Abingdon, Oxfordshire, an accomplished illustrator and collector of fossils. Their honeymoon was a year touring Europe with visits to famous geologists and geological sites. She continued to assist him in his work as well as having nine children, five of whom survived to adulthood. His son Frank Buckland became a famous naturalist in his own right. On one occasion she helped him decipher footmarks found in a slab of sandstone by covering the kitchen table with paste while he fetched their pet tortoise and confirmed his intuition that tortoise footprints matched the fossil marks.

Related Topics:
1825 - Stoke Charity - Hampshire - Abingdon - Oxfordshire - Frank Buckland

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In 1832 he presided over the second meeting of the British Association, which was then held at Oxford.

Related Topics:
1832 - British Association

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He was a prominent exponent of zoophagy.

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