As promised from the redlady of paviland
On this day in William Buckland is given birth to by his mother. William was born in Axminster, Devon, on 12 March 1784, the eldest son of Charles Buckland, Rector of Templeton and Trusham, and his wife Elizabeth. One of the world's earliest palaeontologists, Buckland and his contemporaries developed the first modern theories of the history of earth's flora fauna and geology.
In 1822 he discovered the Kirkdale cave, a hyena den from prehistory, which led Buckland to believe hyenas once inhabited Britain, and led him to reject the biblical flood theory.
In 1823 he also discovered the cave in Paviland where was discovered the oldest skeletal remains found in Britain, known as the "Red Lady of Paviland".
He discovered the first dinosaur megalosaurus in 1824, and suggested that there was an ancient time full of huge lizards, which was the birth of a very familiar and popular theme of today's world. Buckland's dinosaur is now on display at the British museum.
Buckland was well positioned and well connected. He lists amongst his direct aquantancies priminister Robert Peel, early evolutionist, Charles Darwin, and early geologist Louis Agassiz. Aside from being a paleontologist he was also a Reverend, a Cannon and later a Dean of westminster abbey,his religious ideals in conflict with his scientific ones, leading him to make glaring assumptions such as the Red lady of paviland being a prostitute buried at a far later date.
By all accounts, the lectures were very lively events, with liberal use of specimens, and of large-scale geological maps and diagrams. Bucklands own colourful personality also contributed to the popularising of his lectures. Henry Acland, as a student, attended Bucklands lectures and described his lecturing style thus:
He paced like a Franciscan preacher up and down behind a long showcase ... He had in his hand a huge hyaenas skull. He suddenly dashed down the steps - rushed skull in hand at the first undergraduate on the front bench and shouted What rules the world? The youth, terrified, threw himself against the next back seat, and answered not a word. He rushed then on to me, pointing the hyaena full in my face - What rules the world? Havent an idea, I said. The stomach, sir, he cried (again mounting the rostrum) rules the world. The great ones eat the less, the less the lesser "
Roderick Murchison thus describes a visit paid to Bucklands rooms in the winter of 1824-5:
On repairing from the Star Inn to Bucklands domicile in Corpus Christi College, I can never forget the scene which awaited me. Having, by direction of the janitor, climbed up a narrow staircase, I entered a long corridor-like room
which was filled with rocks, shells and bones in dire confusion, and in a sort of sanctum at the end was my friend in his black gown looking like a necromancer, sitting on the one only rickety chair not covered with fossils, and cleaning 6 out a fossil bone from the matrix"
In the field, Buckland notoriously dressed in a rather eccentric manner, always wearing his academic gown and carrying a large blue bag from which he would draw out his latest finds such as fossil faeces of giant marine reptiles. Buckland had found and identified these 'Coprolites', the term he coined for fossil faeces, in Lyme Regis when he worked with the fossil collector Mary Anning.
William Buckland is also reputed to have ate his way through the animal kingdom, accompanied by his son Frank Buckland . He loved to eat anything unusual and regarded everything organic as a possible meal. In fact, one of his lifetime aims was to eat one of every type of animal, regularly dining on rodents, insects, slugs, hedgehogs, moles, bears, crocodiles, dogs, ostriches the more unusual the animal, the better.Toasted mice were one of his favourites and his least favourite snacks were moles and bluebottles; the latter he described as "disgusting".
Dr Buckland lived near London Zoo and often turned up there when an animal died and took it home to eat. William Buckland son Frank was a pioneer of zoöphagy: his favourite research was eating the animal kingdom. This habit he learnt from his father, whose residence, the Deanery, offered such rare delights as mice in batter, squirrel pie, horse's tongue and ostrich. After the 'Eland Dinner' in 1859 at the London Tavern, organised by Richard Owen, Buckland set up the Acclimatization Society to further the search for new food. In 1862 100 guests at Willis' Rooms sampled Japanese Sea slug (= sea cucumber, probably), kangaroo, guan, curassow and Honduras turkey. This was really quite a modest menu, though Buckland had his eye on capybara for the future. Buckland's home, 37 Albany Street, London, was famous for its menagerie and its varied menus,[5] including, at times, boiled elephant trunk, rhinoceros pie, porpoise heads, and stewed mole.[6]
I bet your folks hid the copies of National Geographic from you as a kid. 
