England's 'Jurassic Coast' Yields Subversive Dinosaur Fossils
Reminders of the prehistoric past keep surfacing in a rich dinosaur graveyard in southern England. What a girl named Mary Anning found there in the 1800s began to dismantle the Bible's account of creation -- and anticipated the theory of evolution....
Tens of thousands of tourists come to Charmouth each year to hunt for the remains of prehistoric fauna. Freelance biologist Colin Dawes guides hundreds of amateur paleontologists through the bizarre fossil graveyard every week. Under his guidance, even children are able to find fossils as easily as they might find shells. A cantankerous man dressed in an Indiana Jones-like outfit, Dawes regales the children with stories about the great Darwin, all the while giving them a lesson in natural selection and how it has been responsible for the constant emergence of new species. Sometimes Dawes encounters outraged parents, who prefer to have their children hear the Biblical story of creation, not the scientific version.
Tourism officials have come up with their own name for this segment of the English coast in East Devon and County Dorset: "Jurassic Coast." The region has even been named a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site, along with places like the Great Barrier Reef and the Grand Canyon. The Jurassic Coast is a history book of the earth and of life itself. More than any other place on earth, this 150-kilometer (94-mile) coastal strip discloses the Mesozoic Era, which encompasses the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, in all of its splendor and horror.
Read entire article at Spiegel Online
Tens of thousands of tourists come to Charmouth each year to hunt for the remains of prehistoric fauna. Freelance biologist Colin Dawes guides hundreds of amateur paleontologists through the bizarre fossil graveyard every week. Under his guidance, even children are able to find fossils as easily as they might find shells. A cantankerous man dressed in an Indiana Jones-like outfit, Dawes regales the children with stories about the great Darwin, all the while giving them a lesson in natural selection and how it has been responsible for the constant emergence of new species. Sometimes Dawes encounters outraged parents, who prefer to have their children hear the Biblical story of creation, not the scientific version.
Tourism officials have come up with their own name for this segment of the English coast in East Devon and County Dorset: "Jurassic Coast." The region has even been named a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site, along with places like the Great Barrier Reef and the Grand Canyon. The Jurassic Coast is a history book of the earth and of life itself. More than any other place on earth, this 150-kilometer (94-mile) coastal strip discloses the Mesozoic Era, which encompasses the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, in all of its splendor and horror.