Events & Courses

On the 200th Anninversary of Gideon Mantell's paper on the Iguanadon – the second dinosaur to be scientifically described – join us for a special talk by historian Dr Richard Fallon in the Society's Upper Library.

Date, time and location

Thursday 13 February

Doors: 6pm, with opportunity to view Gideon Mantell exhibition 'Wizard of the Weald'

Talk starts: 6.30pm

Geological Society of London, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BG

Talk details

Richard Owen coined the word 'dinosaur' in 1842, but it would take a lot more than that to turn this obscure technical term into a household word. This talk explores the major role that Victorian writers played in putting imaginative flesh on dinosaur bones, from innovative time-travel narratives to disturbing stories set in the outposts of empire.

Speaker

Richard Fallon is a Knowledge Exchange Fellow at the University of Nottingham and a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Natural History Museum. His book Contesting Earth's History in Transatlantic Literary Culture, 1860–1935 will be published by Oxford University Press in 2025. Fallon's previous book, Reimagining Dinosaurs in Late Victorian and Edwardian Literature, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2021.

Registration

This event costs £15 to attend.