Article ID: CBB001251738

Louis Agassiz and the Fossil Reefs of Iowa (2012)

unapi

Louis Agassiz's public lectures in population centers on the east coast of the United States are well known, but he also took his ideas to smaller towns in the heart of the continent. These visits by `the people's naturalist' were sometimes touted by local press in these relatively young settlements as a validation of their communities' cultural sophistication. In 1864, Agassiz gave a lecture on fossil Devonian `reefs' at Iowa City, Iowa. According to local tradition, the lecture inspired so much public enthusiasm that a neighboring settlement was subsequently named Coralville. Agassiz tied the Iowa fossils to his own work on modern reefs in Florida, arguing that Devonian expansion of the North American continent had proceeded by coral growth in a manner not unlike the more recent formation of the Florida peninsula. Agassiz's coral work was a centerpiece of his public attacks on the idea of evolution, but it also served to popularize the idea that the Earth had a long history prior to the appearance of humanity.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001251738/

Similar Citations

Book Dobbs, David; (2005)
Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral (/isis/citation/CBB000500280/)

Book O'Connor, Ralph; (2007)
The Earth on Show: Fossils and the Poetics of Popular Science, 1802--1856 (/isis/citation/CBB000830501/)

Thesis Emma Jo Priesendorf; (2021)
Trilobites and the Culture of Wonder in Antebellum America (/isis/citation/CBB708237122/)

Book Dingus, Lowell; Norell, Mark A.; (2010)
Barnum Brown: The Man Who Discovered Tyrannosaurus Rex (/isis/citation/CBB001023269/)

Thesis Sponsel, Alistair William; (2009)
Coral Reef Formation and the Sciences of Earth, Life, and Sea, c. 1770--1952 (/isis/citation/CBB001561159/)

Book Petraitis, Peter Steven; (2013)
Multiple Stable States in Natural Ecosystems (/isis/citation/CBB001421446/)

Chapter Stefano Dominici; Elisabetta Cioppi; (2018)
All is not lost: History from fossils and catalogues at the Museum of Natural History, University of Florence (/isis/citation/CBB784047995/)

Article Robert W. Jackson; (2005)
Extant Approach Spans of the Dunleith and Dubuque Bridge (/isis/citation/CBB281968075/)

Article Jordan D. II Marché; (2018)
Edward Hitchcock, Roderick Murchison, and rejection of the alpine glacial theory (1840-1845) (/isis/citation/CBB113445617/)

Book Michele Currie Navakas; (2017)
Liquid Landscape: Geography and Settlement at the Edge of Early America (/isis/citation/CBB794123640/)

Article Brown, Barbara E.; (2007)
The Legacy of Professor John Stanley Gardiner FRS to Reef Science (/isis/citation/CBB000760059/)

Article Brice, William R.; Figueirôa, Silvia F. de M.; (2001)
Charles Hartt, Louis Agassiz, and the Controversy over Pleistocene Glaciation in Brazil (/isis/citation/CBB000102220/)

Chapter Jørgensen, Dolly; (2013)
Environmentalists on Both Sides: Enactments in the California Rigs-to-Reefs Debate (/isis/citation/CBB001420340/)

Book Richard C. Carpenter; (2013)
A Railroad Atlas of the United States, Volume 5: Iowa and Minnesota (/isis/citation/CBB120356890/)

Article Roberts, Jon H.; (2011)
Louis Agassiz on Scientific Method, Polygenism, and Transmutation: A Reassessment (/isis/citation/CBB001220635/)

Article Adelman, Juliana; (2007)
Eozoön: Debunking the Dawn Animal (/isis/citation/CBB000850046/)

Authors & Contributors
Marché, Jordan D., II
Joseph H. Hartman
Richard C. Carpenter
Priesendorf, Emma Jo
Fallon, Richard
Petraitis, Peter Steven
Concepts
Fossils
Earth sciences
Corals
Reefs
Paleontology
Popularization
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
21st century
20th century, early
18th century
Pleistocene
Places
United States
Iowa (U.S.)
Great Britain
Great Barrier Reef
Nebraska (U.S.)
Mississippi River (North America)
Institutions
Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment