Richard Owen

Sir Richard Owen was an anatomist and biologist of the 19th century. Today, he is principally remember for being first to coin the term “dinosauria” (in 1842), from which we get the word “dinosaur”, as well as his work in establishing the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London, England.

Owen was born in Lancaster, England in 1804. He attended a local school, the University of Edinburgh, and St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. He originally planned to take up a career in medicine. However, Owen was more interested in a career in anatomical research, and when the opportunity arose to take up a position as assistant to the conservator of the Royal College of Surgeons, he abandoned his medical practice.

In 1836, Owen became a Hunterian profession, and in 1849 Owen became rose from assistant to the conservator, to the conservator of the Royal College of Surgeons. Then in 1856, he became superintendent to the natural history department of the British Museum – and it was in this position that he lobbied for the building of a new natural history museum – the museum that is today the Natural History Museum.

During his career, Owen wrote many scientific papers concerning the anatomy of all kinds of different creatures. He noticed that many creatures had common features, but saw this as evidence of “archetypes” in God’s mind, rather than as evidence of common descent. Thus when Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection” in 1859, Owen gradually became involved in a bitter and personal dispute with Darwin and his followers, that lasted until the end of Owen’s life in 1892.