A forgotten theory on the origin of fossils: Daines Barrinaton's concept (1781)

Abstract

The occurrence in rocks of the remains of creatures, either resembling those still living or distinctively different from them, generated many theories, from a belief that they were relics of the Noachian flood to the concept that they were products of crystallization processes within rocks. Daines Barrington (1727–1800) challenged the idea that they were relics of the flood and instead proposed that they were products of the activity of insects underground.