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David Barrington’s Lectures in Biology 2, 2004 The Biology of Plants: evolution, function, and ecology. The pigeon and the knotweed. Padua Botanical Garden. Goethe’s inspiration - the European Fan Palm at the Padua Botanical Garden. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749 - 1832.
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David Barrington’s Lectures in Biology 2, 2004 The Biology of Plants: evolution, function, and ecology
Padua Botanical Garden Goethe’s inspiration - the European Fan Palm at the Padua Botanical Garden Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749 - 1832
SCALE TREE TRUNK FOSSIL IN PLACE IN THE STRATA AT JOGGINS, NOVA SCOTIA DIAMETER OF TRUNK: 60 cm
COAL MEASURE SEQUENCE AT POINT ACONI, CAPE BRETON ISLAND. SHALE (MUD STONE) with scattered leaf fossils COAL SHALE with rootbearing Fossils in place
Rootbearing Fossil of the Scaletrees One inch
WILLIAM SMITH (1769-1839) and his map.
Jurassic beds near Lyme Regis on the south coast of Dorset, England, and ammonites from one of the beds. While studying these beds and others about 1800, William Smith developed the concept of "guide fossils." William Smith’s map - inferring a vertical sequence upward from older to younger rocks.
Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) and Alexandre Brongniart (1770-1847)early recognized the phenomena of restriction of distinctive fossils to particular zones, formations or series — guide fossils — and applied this tool in their stratigraphical studies. Moreover, they observed a pattern or trend in the change from level to level. Of the shells found in the upper, more recent levels, he states that the "eye of the most expert naturalist cannot distinguish from those which at present inhabit the ocean."Forms of life recovered from successively more ancient strata were observed to become progressively more strange and "peculiar" (Cuvier 1817:13, 108-109).