“The Valley of Gwangi“* (1969) is considered one of the most notable prehistoric-monster-movies of all times – this fame is based on the unusual story (adapted from a script by special effects pioneer Willis “King-Kong” O’Brien) but more so on the stunning creature effects featured in the movie and produced by special effects legend Ray [...]

April 19, 1770 British Captain James Cook reached for the first time the south-eastern coast of Australia. The continent of Australia had been “discovered” by Europeans already in 1606, but only in 1642 the size of the new “island” was realized. However the first geological descriptions of the new continent happened only at the beginning [...]

In a letter dated to March 30, 1759 the Italian mining engineer Giovanni Arduino (1714-1795) proposed to the physician and fossil collector Prof. Antonio Vallisnieri the subdivision of earth’s crust in various classes of rocks. Based on his observations along the foothills of the Alps, Arduino recognized a stratigraphic column with 4 classes: unstratified or [...]

“William Smith Never saw a coccolith But using macrofossil data He ordered all the English strata” An anonymous clerihew dedicated to W. Smith William Smith, born March 23, 1769, introduced in his “Strata – Identified by organized Fossils” (1816) the “principle of faunal succession” into stratigraphy. Geological maps before Smith mapped and catalogued rocks based [...]

Dana Hunter is compiling a list of Pioneering Women in the Geosciences, so here a name  closely linked with the geology of the Dolomites. The Scottish Maria Matilda Ogilvie Gordon (1864-1939, the photo shows her in 1900, image in public domain), or simply May, was the oldest daughter of a clergy family with eight children, [...]

“And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.” “Beyond Good and Evil“, Aphorism 146 (1886) by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) Since prehistoric times humans ventured into caves, as proved by the discovery of rock art even in remote parts of many European cave systems. In historic times and [...]

The first postage stamp featuring a prehistoric beast was a stamp from India (1951), celebrating the centenary of the Geological Survey of India it showed the reconstruction of the fossil elephant species Stegodon ganesca. In 1958 Cuba released a stamp dedicated to the naturalist Carlos de la Torre y Huerta (1858 – 1950), showing the [...]

“Geologising in a Volcanic country is most delightful,…[]” Geologist Charles Darwin in a letter to his father Darwin is today remembered for his gradualistic view of earth’s history, an essential prerequisite for his view of life, as he concludes in 1859 ” from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have [...]

The flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14 and especially the past and present Russian meteors are impressive reminders that the terrestrial biosphere can be affected also by extraterrestrial forces. However contrary to headlines by the general media the connection between mass extinctions and large meteor impacts is still poorly understand. The Scaglia Variegata and Scaglia Cinerea [...]

“Therefore on my return to Shropshire I examined sections and coloured a map of parts round Shrewsbury.” Darwin in his autobiography (1876) “A map is always a decisive criterion of they who aspire to the rank of geologists [E]very one who has not compiled a map, wants the necessary talent of combination . The spirited [...]