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| | Natural History: When Fossils Were Young |
 | | When we survey Bauhin's more than 200 fossil drawings, the largest single cache of sixteenth-century paleontological illustrations, we note the origin of several conventions that, although superseded today (and therefore unknown to most modern scientists), seriously impeded, for nearly two centuries, a proper understanding of the nature of fossils and the history of life. |
 | | The recognition of Bauhin's illustrations as conventional rather than natural, and their replacement, by the end of the eighteenth century, with "modern" figures that clearly depict fossils as ancient organisms, virtually defines the primary shift in understanding that led to our greatest gain in knowledge during the early history of paleontology. |
 | | In Bauhin's day, the word "fossil"--derived from the past participle of the Latin verb fodere, meaning "to dig up"--referred to any object of distinctive form found within the Earth, thus placing the remains of ancient organisms in the same general category as crystals, stalactites, and a wide range of other inorganic objects. |
| www.findarticles.com /p/articles/mi_m1134/is_8_108/ai_56183365/pg_3 (1236 words) |
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