History of Palaeontology

[N.Monks@xxxxxxxxx (Neale Monks)]

Dear All,

Thanks to those of you that have been helping me track down the palaeozoic
minivertebrates of Mr Okamura...

I'm trying to put together some notes on Palaeontology (such as it was) in
pre-Enlightenment times, and especially in the Classical World. In doing
so, I have found some interesting references to the subject outside of the
"Western Tradition", such as China, PreColumbian America, and the Arab
world, and not least Okamura himself!

If anyone out there teaches this kind of stuff, or has a personal interest
in this sort of thing, I'd be grateful if they could let me have a few
references. The idea is to teach the history of palaeontology to
undergraduate humanities students; so details are not as important as the
development of a scientific theory of palaeontology. Also, to show how our
modern viewpoint is derived from the Hellenistic, Classical and Mediaeval
ones.

Thanks for any help,

Regards,

Neale.



>From  Neale Monks' PowerBook, at...

Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, London, SW7 5BD
Internet: N.Monks@nhm.ac.uk, Telephone: 0171-938-9007

"...now Nature is having the last laugh. The freaky stuff is turning out to
be the mathematics of the natural world"

from 'Arcadia', by Tom Stoppard