Richard Owen - Paleontologist. Life Sciences Research Paper

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Biography: Richard Owen and His Contributions to Paleontology
Discoveries
Throughout history, humans have come across fossilized remains of dinosaurs during the prehistoric era. This may be of different myths such as the dragons and other creatures. Sooner, a scientist has formulated a proper description for these fossilized remains, which occurred in the seventeenth century. By the nineteenth century, scientists have attributed these fossilized remains to a creature known as "dinosaur" and started naming each species (Brett-Surman, Michael, Thomas, et al.).
Richard Owen, an English biologist, comparative anatomist, and palaeontologist, was the first person to discover the association among the dinosaur species. He categorized them into three genera based on their prey, namely, the Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, and Hylaeosaurus which are carnivores, herbivores, and the last is of a different description, which is an armoured dinosaur. He named his taxon as Dinosauria.
Moreover, Owen coined the word "homology" that is widely used nowadays to describe the existence of similar organs with identical functions found inside the body of different animals (Panchen). Owen also named a giant bird from a fossil from Germany as the Archaeopteryx lithographica (Taylor). However, this discovery has been falsified by the scientists in the 1950s, making the discovery a hoax. Other species that he discovered is the gorilla in 1847(Conniff).
Publications
Some of the books that Richard Owen published include the following: 1) Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Physiological Series of Comparative Anatomy. This work is contained at the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London since 1833. Here, Owen illustrated the different fossils and their actual forms when they were alive. Thus, contributing to the knowledge that we currently study on comparative anatomy (Owen); 2) On the Nature of the Limbs published in 1849. Here, Owen describes the vertebrate frame that is made up of a series of vital and similar segments. Each of these segments has different positions which denote the function. Moreover, he described that humans evolved from the fish which led to the criticism thrown at him in the Manchester Spectator secondary to denying the belief that humans were made by God.; and 3) Owen's Memoir on the Pearly Nautilus (Owen).
Notorieties
Due to the publication of Charles Darwin's, On the Origin of the Species in 1859, some of Owen's works have been disproved, leading to the loss of his fame and reputation as a biologist, comparative anatomist, and palaeontologist. Darwin has worked tarnished Owen's senses, prompting Owen to discredit the works of Darwin, but ultimately failed (MacLeod).
Career
Owen studied under the Lancaster surgeons in 1820 at the Lancaster Grammar School. He persisted his medical background by st...