Early attempts at fossil assembly?

September 1, 2006 10:54 AM

Is there a book or website that details early attempts to assemble fossilized bone into animals/dinosaur skeletons?

I recently found an old print of a somewhat misassembled mammoth (?) skeleton/fossil. This lead to the thought that the history of fossiled skeleton reconstruction must be filled with false starts and honest mistakes (putting aside intentionally fabricated monkey-fish mermaids for the moment...). What I am looking for is a history or narrative of the attempt to reconstruct this unknown, from a position of limited knowledge. Any ideas? -Thanks

posted by R. Mutt to Science & Nature (4 answers total)

Bill Bryson makes some mention of this in A Short History of Nearly Everything
posted by djb at 11:26 AM on September 1, 2006

This is a self-link but the links in there may give some background about the first model builder (Benjamin Waterhouse Watkins). I'm not sure this is exactly what you want but it is directly related.
posted by peacay at 12:22 PM on September 1, 2006

What you want is The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times. Fascinating book.
posted by cog_nate at 1:18 PM on September 1, 2006

I enjoyed a book called Scenes From Deep Time. It's more focused on pictorial representations but it touches a lot on model making. It gives a very detailed account of early-modern scientific attempts to visualize fossils as living creatures.
posted by macinchik at 4:59 PM on September 1, 2006