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hoggroup.bsky.social
History of Geology Group
@hoggroup.bsky.social
150 followers 65 following 100 posts
The History of Geology Group is for anyone, any level of knowledge and anywhere across the globe who is interested in #HistGeo
We are affiliated to @geolsoc.bsky.social
Posts, reposts & replies are our own.
https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/hogg
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Reposted by History of Geology Group
tomsharperocks.bsky.social
9 November 1812: local newspaper reports the discovery of a fossil 'crocodile' 17 feet long at Lyme Regis. This was the recovery by Mary Anning of parts of the post-cranial skeleton related to a fossil skull found by her brother a year before. It was described and figured by Everard Home in 1814.
Extract from a newspaper: 'A few days ago, immediately after the late high tide, was discovered, under the cliffs between Lyme Regis and Charmouth, the complete petrifaction of a crocodile, 17 feet in length, in a very perfect state. It was dug out of the cliff nearly on a level with the sea, about 100 feet below the surface of the earth.' 1814 illustration of the fossil 'crocodile' skull found in 1811 with its large bony eye and long tapering snout with many small conical teeth. 1814 illustration of part of the fossil skeleton recovered in 1812 showing vertebrae, ribs and some shoulder and limb bones. 1814 illustration of a section through 3 vertebrae of the fossil showing their hour-glass shape.
November 9, 2025 at 5:55 AM
Reposted by History of Geology Group
richardfallon.bsky.social
A powerful bookplate.
Bookplate of geologist Oliver M. B. Bulman, with a print of himself with gown and geological hammer.
November 6, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by History of Geology Group
scottishgeology.bsky.social
Have you seen the amazing Hutton Hat?

Handmade from Shetland Wool, showcasing three key Hutton Geosites - Edinburgh, Siccar Point, and Glen Tilt.

You can bag one of these in exchange for a donation to our crowdfunder - hurry, there are only 10 left!
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/siccar-point
November 6, 2025 at 4:55 PM
hoggroup.bsky.social
And here is an insightful analysis and contextual evaluation that gives meaningful interpretation to the poem and accompanying cartoon:
scholar.archive.org/work/ffqptqg...
Btw....can you spot the palaeontological ignorance of the illustrator and recognise the bowler-hatted/caped figure?
extinctblog.bsky.social Extinct blog @extinctblog.bsky.social · 11d
Some trilobite poetry for a lazy Sunday (of a rotten year, of a depressing decade). Courtesy of May Kendall, a satirist and radical sociological thinker, originally writing for Punch magazine
November 3, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Reposted by History of Geology Group
historyofgeology.bsky.social
October 31, 1791, French adventurer Diedonné de Dolomieu writes a letter to Swiss mineralogist Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure requesting help in identifying a strange "grayish limestone"
...
October 31, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by History of Geology Group
historyofgeology.bsky.social
October 29, 1882, birthday of Scottish mineralogist and petrologist Samuel James Shand.
At college his first interest was chemistry, to this he soon added an avid curiosity about geology, combing both in his study of igneous rocks and mineral assemblages
...
October 29, 2025 at 7:40 PM
hoggroup.bsky.social
Ganly (1809–1899) worked for Richard Griffith at the Valuation Office, Dublin but was de facto a geological rather than land/valuation surveyor. The detail on later editions of Griffith's impressive Geological map of Ireland (1852, 1853 & 1855) was due to Ganly. It should be the Griffith/Ganly map!
Geological cross-section by Ganly, showing the basal Carboniferous and Old Red sandstone strata at Toberlatan, Co Galway, drawn in 1838 in a letter to Richard Griffith. Source = Jean Archer's 1980 excellent paper Patrick Ganly: Geologist. The Irish Naturalists' Journal Vol. 20, No. 4, 142–148
October 30, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Reposted by History of Geology Group
tomsharperocks.bsky.social
30 October 1846: a newspaper reported that a fund had been set up by the geologists at that year's @britsciassoc.bsky.social meeting in Southampton to raise money for ailing fossil dealer #MaryAnning, 'an old woman' (she was 47), following a fire at her home in Lyme Regis.
Portrait of Mary Anning wearing a green cloak and straw bonnet. Extract from a newspaper about a subscription raised to help Mary Anning after a fire at her home.
October 30, 2025 at 7:31 AM
Reposted by History of Geology Group
ferwen.bsky.social
#Halloween Special X: The legend of a Patagonian Monster 🧪⚒️ #histsci
wp.me/p3ihHu-3xF
Halloween Special X: The legend of a Patagonian Monster
On December 10, 1823, Mary Anning discovered the first complete Plesiosaur skeleton at Lyme Regis in Dorset. Noticed about the oddity of the specimen, George Cuvier wrote to William Conybeare sugge…
wp.me
October 25, 2025 at 9:05 PM
hoggroup.bsky.social
A couple of days ago, a HOGG member paid an homage visit to Comrie, Perthshire, Scotland. 'Shaky Toon', as it is known, is v. important in the history of seismology. It boasts the oldest seismological observatory in the world: 'The Earthquake House', built in 1874. 🧵1/2
October 24, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by History of Geology Group
historyofgeology.bsky.social
The exact date given by the Ussher-Lightfoot*-Chronology for the creation of Earth is October 23, 4004 B.C. in the early morning hours.
*John Lightfoot strongly influenced Ussher with his chronology published 6 years earlier
October 23, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by History of Geology Group
alisabokulich.bsky.social
#HPS #HOPOS
hane.bsky.social Hane @hane.bsky.social · 20d
I'll be giving a Royal Institute of Philosophy Public Lecture at Lancaster next month.

"Polymath from Lancaster: The Life and Philosophy of William Whewell"

Wednesday 19th November 2025, 7pm–8pm
Storey Lecture Theatre, Meeting House Lane, Lancaster, LA1 1TH
photo of a sculpture of William Whewell on the Victoria Monument in Dalton Square, Lancaster
October 24, 2025 at 10:46 AM
hoggroup.bsky.social
HOGG will be at the GA FoG, discussing history of geology matters with friends & colleagues old & new, giving out our postcards & we'll have top-notch books for sale at bargain prices, & if we can squeeze into the crowd on the stairway we'll point out key things to see on the Smith & Greenough maps.
October 18, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by History of Geology Group
allochthonous.bsky.social
Reading William Whewell's 1832 review of Lyell's Principles of Geology, Vol 2, in which he coined "uniformitarianism", and I just love this passage summarizing what in many modern geological textbooks would describe as the principle of uniformitarianism.

babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hv...
Screenshot of part of a scanned page from a 19th century scientific journal. Text reads: "Now it appears that, in the present order of things, certain changes do go on, both in the position of portions of the earth, and in the forms of certain organised beings. The volcano and the earthquake are seldom long idle; the ocean is an unremitting assailant of the solid earth; the countless host of streams and showers second his attack, on the other side, by efforts formidable from their multitude and perseverance. The coast yields; the crest of the mountain descends; large tracts of the earth tremble and change their elevation: the volcanic island lifts its head above the waves. Here, at least, are some elements of mutations in the form of the earth and of the bed of the sea. The more we examine such causes, the more constant the more extensive, the more powerful, does their operation appear. In the course of progressive ages, what effects may they not produce? And what limit are were to place to the time during which their work has proceeded? We know that this past period must be long; we know not how long. Who shall prove to use that the forces which we ourselves witness are too weak, or unfit, to produce all the facts of position which the earth's crust exhibits? Such is the reasoning of the advocate of the geological adequacy of the existing dynamical laws of the world."
October 15, 2025 at 4:29 PM
hoggroup.bsky.social
Interesting and well-crafted French animation film of Mary Anning - great for watching with children or grandchildren and for learning French! We wonder if this will be dubbed into English at some stage? We suspect that is a high probability.
October 15, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Reposted by History of Geology Group
tomsharperocks.bsky.social
#AdaLovelaceDay: that Ada's contemporary, Mary Anning, was much more than a fossil dealer is clear from her letters with her observations on coprolites, the orientation of Pentacrinites and their association with fossil wood, and her dissection of living marine molluscs to understand fossil sepia.
Mary Anning's account of dissecting a modern animal: '... the second one I disected at Miss Philpots it first had a shell this shape [sketch] very like a smooth pectin only more concave, also a sack or ink bag exactly resembling the fossil one you borrowed from Miss Philpot...' Mary Anning's observations on coprolites: 'I have no doubt myself but that they were dropped quietly where we now find them and that Ichthyosauruses fed on scaly fish'. Mary Anning's observations on Pentacrinites: 'the pentacrinite lies with the head downwards invariably with the footstalk uppermost on which lies the lignite...'
October 14, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Reposted by History of Geology Group
oxuniearthsci.bsky.social
Prof Mike Searle’s comprehensive new geological map of the Himalayas is now complete and has been handed over to his long-time colleague Marc St-Onge at the Geological Survey of Canada for digitisation! Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting project
October 7, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Reposted by History of Geology Group
tomsharperocks.bsky.social
Last night's Hutton event at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh: Prof Colin Campbell on the Hutton 2026 Tercentenary; panel of Angus Miller (Edinburgh Geol Soc), Rachel Walcott (National Museums Scotland) & Colin Campbell (James Hutton Institute); a surprise appearance of a young Hutton; and our venue.
Prof Colin Campbell at the lectern with a slide about James Hutton on the screen. Hutton panel discussion, 3 seated panellists and host at the lectern. A young man in 18th century costume. A night time photograph of a lit up domed tent-like building.
October 7, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Reposted by History of Geology Group
tomsharperocks.bsky.social
In Edinburgh yesterday I took the opportunity to check out the fence which has closed off the Radical Road along Salisbury Craigs on Arthur's Seat for the last 6 years. Good news is that access to the classic Hutton sites should be restored next year.

www.historicenvironment.scot/about-us/new...
Photograph of a green fence and a sign indicating that a path, the Radical Road, is closed due to risk of rockfall.
October 7, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by History of Geology Group
hallucigenia.bsky.social
Very happy to announce that the Handbook of the Historiography of Earth and Environmental Sciences I coedited with Elena Aronova and Marco Tamborini is now available, for free (open access) via this link:
link.springer.com/referencewor...
Handbook of the Historiography of the Earth and Environmental Sciences
This open access handbook assesses the historiography and the future of major themes and approaches within the history of the earth sciences.
link.springer.com
October 5, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by History of Geology Group
historyofgeology.bsky.social
October 1, 1829, Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, Scottish geologist and President of the Geological Society at the time, visits the village of Predazzo in the Dolomites to study a strange outcrop
...
October 1, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by History of Geology Group
andreahart.bsky.social
Happy Departmental #Birthday to us! Our shelves are still happily full of wonderful books but I’m just wondering how on earth the ones on the top shelf got there or were retrieved?!? (Loving the ladder too even though a H&S nightmare … ) #libraries #books #NHM #Collections
October 1, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Reposted by History of Geology Group
richardfallon.bsky.social
A Planorbis discus from the Bembridge Limestone of the Isle of Wight, presented to the @sedgwickmuseum.bsky.social by none other than Lord Tennyson. There rolls the deep where grew the tree!
October 2, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by History of Geology Group
historyofgeology.bsky.social
October 2, 1902, Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" is published by Frederick Warne & Co. in London.

Potter illustrated the adventures of a rabbit child herself, but she was also a self-taught naturalist (especially an expert on mushrooms) and interested in minerals & fossils
...
October 2, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by History of Geology Group
linneansociety.bsky.social
“It tires me a great deal to sit to anyone, but I should be the most ungrateful and ungracious dog not to agree”

September's Treasure of the Month is our most famous portrait of Charles Darwin, which is now part of UNESCO's Memory of the World.
buff.ly/hQkkwPX
Collier's 1881 portrait of Charles Darwin, who stands in a large brown overcoat against a brown background. He is holding a hat and has a white beard and downcast expression.
September 29, 2025 at 10:05 AM