Fossil (Imprints of the primordial world)

Author: Yvette Gayrard-Valy (Yvette Gayrard-Valy)
Translator: Zheng Kelu / Country: France/France
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2000-07-01
Features: About 5,000 years ago, Greek sailors discovered a huge pile of enormous bones resembling giant skeletons in a cave at the foot of Mount Etna on the island of Sicily in modern-day Italy. They must have been terrified. Enormous skulls with only one eye socket scattered throughout the cave—these must be the fearsome Cyclopes, who might have lived on the island before. Now, the sailors had desecrated the tomb of the giants and would surely bring misfortune upon themselves. They should flee as quickly as possible from this land. The Greeks listened intently to the traveler's account, imagining the appearance of these grotesque creatures. Knowing that they were far removed from themselves, they set their minds at ease. Thus, the Greeks believed that there were Cyclopes living in the west, who were obstructing the establishment of Greek colonies on Sicily. This story was passed down from generation to generation. By the 5th century, the Greek historian Thucydides (Thucydide) identified the slopes of Mount Etna as the dwelling place of the Cyclopes; in Homer's epics, the unfortunate Ulysses (Ulysse) witnessed the son of the sea god Poseidon (Poséidon)—the Cyclops Polyphemus (Polyphme)—devouring several of his companions. At the same time, the philosopher Empalocle (Empalocle) also supported this view. However, both of them were mistaken. Homer's description of the land of giants was not in Sicily but further north, near Naples. For several centuries, people firmly believed in the existence of Cyclopes and even added other members to the giant family. The ancient Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder mentioned that the remains of the Greek mythological giant Orion (Orion) were found in Crete, measuring 13 meters long. According to the Greek historian Herodote (Hérodote), another mythological giant, Oreste (Oreste), had much smaller remains, only 3.5 meters long. It was said that the remains of the mythological hero Ajax (Ajax) were also found in Salamis (Salamine), Greece. The Arabs also believed in the existence of Cyclopes. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the legend of giants became even more widespread, as explorers continued to discover numerous giant skeletons on Sicily. The so-called "Cyclopes," these creatures, indeed existed millions of years ago. However, they had enormous molars but never tasted human flesh. In reality, they were herbivores with a pair of calm, small round eyes! That mysterious "eye socket" of the giants was actually a nostril—they had long noses in life. In fact, these enormous creatures were pygmy elephants, who never harmed other animals. They lived in the Mediterranean islands during the early Quaternary period, about 2 million years ago. When humans encountered their remains, the pygmy elephants had long since gone extinct, and other elephant species in Europe shared the same fate. In human imagination, they were transformed into terrifying giants. With the arrival of the Renaissance, a group of cultural elites emerged, eager to explore various phenomena in nature. This wave of exploration grew stronger over the following centuries. From then on, not only monks but also secular individuals became educated. Secular scholars were not only versed in medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and engineering but were also often skilled in alchemy and witchcraft—two skills that could bring substantial income. Scholars enjoyed high prestige and, under the protection of patrons, had ample financial resources to devote themselves entirely to observation, research, and contemplation. These scholars gradually formed schools, attracting students and disciples. As a result, a new generation of amateur scholars emerged, traveling and exchanging letters to discuss various issues and disseminate new theories. By the late 15th century, the invention of printing and cheap paper pulp further fueled this research trend. People became deeply fascinated with natural sciences, and "strange" discoveries multiplied endlessly. Richly collected curiosities were often indiscriminately mixed together, forming eclectic "cabinets of curiosities": fossils alongside paintings, sculptures, crystal vessels, and a variety of animals, skeletons, and specimens (some genuine oddities, others pieced together from unidentified remains) were displayed side by side. At the time, everything dug up from the ground was called a fossil, including various biological remains, petrified matter, minerals, and even prehistoric tools. Someone began compiling catalogs of these collections. A fossil collection was published in 1561, and a catalog of fossils—the Saxon (Saxe) fossil collection catalog—was published in Zurich in 1565, compiled by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner (Conrad Gesner). Among the finest collections of the time was that of Pope Sixtus V (SixtusV), appointed in 1585, curated by Michel Mercati (MichelMercati), the director of the Vatican Botanical Garden, which included prehistoric tools, fossils, and important minerals. However, this Vatican Mineral Collection was not published until 1719. The Italian naturalist Ulime Aldrovandi compiled his collection into 87 volumes, publishing his Museum of Minerals in 1648, which listed fossils of vertebrates. In the 17th century, the first scientific journals in the West appeared. In 1665, France published Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences (Communications of the Academy of Sciences), and England published Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Science began to spread among intellectuals. From then on, due to collaboration between scholars from different countries, as well as between scholars and amateur researchers, combined with the dissemination of knowledge, science continued to advance. Using comparative anatomy, a single tooth could reconstruct the entire picture of an extinct species. According to the principles of comparative anatomy by Cuvier, the following conclusions could be drawn: If we can grasp an important part of an animal's body, especially its teeth, we can reconstruct the rest of its body. Cuvier believed: "If the digestive organs of an animal are adapted for digesting fresh meat, then its upper and lower jaws must be capable of swallowing prey, its claws must be able to grasp and tear it apart, its teeth must be able to crush meat, its locomotor organs must be adapted for chasing and capturing prey, its sensory organs must be able to detect prey from a distance, and its brain must possess the indispensable instinct to know how to ambush and wait for prey to fall into a trap." He had an excellent opportunity to test this argument. One day, he found a small lower jawbone in the gypsum mines of Montmartre. Upon examination, he identified the teeth on the jawbone as belonging to a opossum. Today, this marsupial can only be found in the Americas and Australia. Cuvier planned to use this small tooth to stage a remarkable demonstration. He invited his colleagues to witness the excavation of other parts of the skeleton, and he was already certain that he would find the distinctive pouch bones of the opossum. As expected, his prediction was fulfilled before their eyes. Cuvier vividly described his feelings about the task of reconstructing the appearance of extinct organisms: "I would encounter situations where others would give me hundreds of fragments of incomplete skeletons, belonging to over 20 different animals. I had to arrange each fragment in the correct position. It was almost like bringing the dead back to life. Although I could not blow the horn of resurrection like an angel, I had a set of immutable laws applicable to living organisms. Under the principles of comparative anatomy, each bone and fragment would naturally fall into place. I cannot describe the joy this work brought me." Using comparative anatomy, Cuvier identified creatures that people decades earlier could not have imagined, such as the mammoths of the Tertiary and Quaternary periods. He called them Mastodons or Eohippus. For centuries, people firmly believed in the existence of Cyclopes and even added other members to the giant family. The ancient Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder mentioned that the remains of the Greek mythological giant Orion (Orion) were found in Crete, measuring 13 meters long. According to the Greek historian Herodote (Hérodote), another mythological giant, Oreste (Oreste), had much smaller remains, only 3.5 meters long. It was said that the remains of the mythological hero Ajax (Ajax) were also found in Salamis (Salamine), Greece. The Arabs also believed in the existence of Cyclopes. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the legend of giants became even more widespread, as explorers continued to discover numerous giant skeletons on Sicily. The so-called "Cyclopes," these creatures, indeed existed millions of years ago. However, they had enormous molars but never tasted human flesh. In reality, they were herbivores with a pair of calm, small round eyes! That mysterious "eye socket" of the giants was actually a nostril—they had long noses in life. In fact, these enormous creatures were pygmy elephants, who never harmed other animals. They lived in the Mediterranean islands during the early Quaternary period, about 2 million years ago. When humans encountered their remains, the pygmy elephants had long since gone extinct, and other elephant species in Europe shared the same fate. In human imagination, they were transformed into terrifying giants. With the arrival of the Renaissance, a group of cultural elites emerged, eager to explore various phenomena in nature. This wave of exploration grew stronger over the following centuries. From then on, not only monks but also secular individuals became educated. Secular scholars were not only versed in medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and engineering but were also often skilled in alchemy and witchcraft—two skills that could bring substantial income. Scholars enjoyed high prestige and, under the protection of patrons, had ample financial resources to devote themselves entirely to observation, research, and contemplation. These scholars gradually formed schools, attracting students and disciples. As a result, a new generation of amateur scholars emerged, traveling and exchanging letters to discuss various issues and disseminate new theories. By the late 15th century, the invention of printing and cheap paper pulp further fueled this research trend. People became deeply fascinated with natural sciences, and "strange" discoveries multiplied endlessly. Richly collected curiosities were often indiscriminately mixed together, forming eclectic "cabinets of curiosities": fossils alongside paintings, sculptures, crystal vessels, and a variety of animals, skeletons, and specimens (some genuine oddities, others pieced together from unidentified remains) were displayed side by side. At the time, everything dug up from the ground was called a fossil, including various biological remains, petrified matter, minerals, and even prehistoric tools. Someone began compiling catalogs of these collections. A fossil collection was published in 1561, and a catalog of fossils—the Saxon (Saxe) fossil collection catalog—was published in Zurich in 1565, compiled by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner (Conrad Gesner). Among the finest collections of the time was that of Pope Sixtus V (SixtusV), appointed in 1585, curated by Michel Mercati (MichelMercati), the director of the Vatican Botanical Garden, which included prehistoric tools, fossils, and important minerals. However, this Vatican Mineral Collection was not published until 1719. The Italian naturalist Ulime Aldrovandi compiled his collection into 87 volumes, publishing his Museum of Minerals in 1648, which listed fossils of vertebrates. In the 17th century, the first scientific journals in the West appeared. In 1665, France published Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences (Communications of the Academy of Sciences), and England published Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Science began to spread among intellectuals. From then on, due to collaboration between scholars from different countries, as well as between scholars and amateur researchers, combined with the dissemination of knowledge, science continued to advance. Using comparative anatomy, a single tooth could reconstruct the entire picture of an extinct species. According to the principles of comparative anatomy by Cuvier, the following conclusions could be drawn: If we can grasp an important part of an animal's body, especially its teeth, we can reconstruct the rest of its body. Cuvier believed: "If the digestive organs of an animal are adapted for digesting fresh meat, then its upper and lower jaws must be capable of swallowing prey, its claws must be able to grasp and tear it apart, its teeth must be able to crush meat, its locomotor organs must be adapted for chasing and capturing prey, its sensory organs must be able to detect prey from a distance, and its brain must possess the indispensable instinct to know how to ambush and wait for prey to fall into a trap." He had an excellent opportunity to test this argument. One day, he found a small lower jawbone in the gypsum mines of Montmartre. Upon examination, he identified the teeth on the jawbone as belonging to a opossum. Today, this marsupial can only be found in the Americas and Australia. Cuvier planned to use this small tooth to stage a remarkable demonstration. He invited his colleagues to witness the excavation of other parts of the skeleton, and he was already certain that he would find the distinctive pouch bones of the opossum. As expected, his prediction was fulfilled before their eyes. Cuvier vividly described his feelings about the task of reconstructing the appearance of extinct organisms: "I would encounter situations where others would give me hundreds of fragments of incomplete skeletons, belonging to over 20 different animals. I had to arrange each fragment in the correct position. It was almost like bringing the dead back to life. Although I could not blow the horn of resurrection like an angel, I had a set of immutable laws applicable to living organisms. Under the principles of comparative anatomy, each bone and fragment would naturally fall into place. I cannot describe the joy this work brought me." Using comparative anatomy, Cuvier identified creatures that people decades earlier could not have imagined, such as the mammoths of the Tertiary and Quaternary periods. He called them Mastodons or Eohippus.
Fossil merchants emerge
Amateur enthusiasts were not always selfless. With growing interest, fossils also presented business opportunities. Additionally, museums and paleontologists were seeking more research materials. As long as there were customers, merchants would naturally appear. The residents near fossil-bearing strata quickly realized that they could earn substantial income from the earth. The most famous example is the Anning family in England. They lived on the southwest coast of Lyme Regis (LymeRegis), an area rich in Mesozoic marine reptile fossils. In the late 18th century, the father of the family, Richard, sold the fossils he found to visitors to improve his family's livelihood. After his death, his two children, Joseph and Mary, along with their small dog, turned the sale of fossils into a family business, which they managed quite successfully. The coastline of this area was a vast cliff face, exposing different strata, and landslides often occurred after storms. Mary often took her dog along the cliffs to search for fossils. She sold the fossils she collected to dukes, barons, and other nobles, who were studying paleontology for the sake of fashion. These nobles often donated their fossil collections to the British Museum later. Mary and her dog made many remarkable discoveries. A fossil identified as a plesiosaur skeleton should be credited to them. The skeleton was purchased by Sir Edward Home for 23 pounds. As the fame of these creatures grew, so did their value. Four years later, another plesiosaur specimen was auctioned off for 150 pounds. In 1824, the Duke of Buckingham (DukeofBuckingham) bought an incomplete but fairly complete animal skeleton for the same price—the later-confirmed snake-necked dinosaur—also found by Mary and her dog. Incomplete skeletons were much cheaper, like the femur of a pterodactyl that Cuvier bought for only 10 pounds. Of course, not everyone was as profit-driven. For example, in the Newcastle (Newcastle) coalfields of England, a grocer named Atthey exchanged his goods with miners for fossils. Whenever he had time, he studied the fossils. He did not get rich from the fossils and even went bankrupt later, but his work earned him long-lasting respect from scientists. The German Bernhard Hauff further refined the fossil trade. Starting in the 1890s, he provided customers with "ready-made" fossils: he cleaned the animal skeletons and reassembled them on black slate, the same black slate in which the bones had originally been embedded. His laboratory was well-stocked with various fossils: crocodiles, plesiosaurs, pterosaurs, fish, and all sorts of invertebrates. His collection included particularly notable plesiosaurs, as the study of one fossil he owned led to the discovery that plesiosaurs had dorsal and caudal fins.
Encountering creatures from the primeval era
Wandering through time to encounter creatures from the primeval era is an important genre in science fiction. American novelist Ray Bradbury's works feature protagonists traveling through millions of years of time and encountering monstrous creatures from ancient worlds, often ( anxiety and panic).
The lighthouse foghorn "Ssssh!" "There's something coming up!" Macdonald said, pointing to a dark patch in the distance. "It's over there," he said to me. Sure enough, something was moving toward the lighthouse. The night was freezing cold, and the towering round tower seemed frozen. The lighthouse beam swayed back and forth, the foghorn's call piercing the thick fog. There was no way to see further or more clearly. But the sea was right in front, its waves crashing onto the shore. The land was peaceful and quiet, pitch black, like mud, and we were alone in the towering tower. Far in the distance ahead, there was a ripple in the water, followed by a row of waves, and something rose from the murky waves. Suddenly, a head emerged from the icy sea, a huge, dark head with two large eyes. The neck appeared, and then—not the body—just the neck, as if it went on forever, stretching upward. By then, the head was already over 100 meters above sea level, a slender and beautiful neck, dark in color. Only then did the body gradually emerge from the water, like a black coral island, covered with shells and crustaceans. Later, a tail could be seen rising and falling. According to my observation, this monster was about 270 to 300 meters long. I don't remember what I said, but I know I spoke. "Be brave, boy," Macdonald said beside me. "It's not a dream, Johnny. What you're seeing is life a billion years ago. It hasn't changed. What has changed is us—we and the Earth. We live in a dream. It's us." The monster swam slowly in the cold water in the distance, eerie yet majestic. Fog swirled around it, sometimes obscuring its outline. The lighthouse's bright beam suddenly shone down, illuminating the animal's eyes and reflecting colorful light—red, white, red, white—as if it were a record playing signals in an ancient code. Everything was silent, as quiet as the fog that enveloped the monster. "It's a dinosaur, or some kind of animal from that era!" I crouched down, gripping the railing of the stairs. "That's right, it's definitely an animal from that era." "But those animals are extinct!" "They're not extinct, just buried deep, very deep, at the bottom of the abyss. Inconceivably deep—those words are extraordinary, Johnny, they hold endless meaning. They can mean a world of ice and snow, the darkness at the edge of the sky, and the abyss of the world."