Richard Owen

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Lore & Background

Owen became a surgeon's apprentice in 1820 and was appointed to the Royal College of Surgeons in 1826. In 1836, Owen was appointed Hunterian professor at the Royal College, and in 1849, he succeeded William Clift as conservator of the Hunterian Museum. He held the latter office until 1856 when he became superintendent of the natural history department of the British Museum. He then devoted much of his energies to a great scheme for a National Museum of Natural History, which eventually resulted in the removal of the natural history collections of the British Museum to a new building at South Kensington: the British Museum (Natural History). He retained office until the completion of this work, in December 1883, when he was made a knight of the Order of the Bath. Owen was the first president of the Microscopical Society of London in 1839 and edited many issues of its journal – then known as The Microscopic Journal. His first notable publication was his Memoir on the Pearly Nautilus (London, 1832). He was the first to describe Venus' Flower Basket or Euplectella (1841, 1857) and discovered Trichina spiralis (1835). In 1852 Owen named Protichnites – the oldest footprints found on land. With Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, Owen helped create the first life-sized models of dinosaurs. Owen famously hosted a dinner for 21 prominent men of science inside the hollow concrete Iguanodon on New Year's Eve 1853. He described Diprotodon (1838) and Thylacoleo (1859).

Reader's Guide

Owen's significance lies in his foundational contributions to palaeontology and comparative anatomy, most notably coining the term Dinosauria and defining the group using Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, and Hylaeosaurus. He was an outspoken critic of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, though he agreed that evolution occurred but thought it was more complex than outlined in Darwin's On the Origin of Species. His approach to evolution can be considered to have anticipated the issues that have gained greater attention with the recent emergence of evolutionary developmental biology. Owen also transformed public access to science by campaigning for the Natural History Museum, which Bill Bryson argued changed expectations of what museums are for. However, Owen was a controversial figure among his contemporaries, both for his disagreements on matters of common descent and for accusations that he took credit for other people's work. His legacy includes both his scientific achievements and his role in shaping institutional natural history.

Did You Know?

• Owen was the first president of the Microscopical Society of London in 1839.
• He named Protichnites, the oldest footprints found on land, in 1852.
• Owen hosted a dinner for 21 prominent men of science inside a hollow concrete Iguanodon on New Year's Eve 1853.
• His wife once arrived home to find the carcass of a newly deceased rhinoceros in her front hallway.
• Owen was made a knight of the Order of the Bath in December 1883.

A Lifelong Anatomist's Odyssey

Richard Owen's scientific career spanned more than five decades of relentless anatomical inquiry. After apprenticing as a surgeon's assistant in 1820 and earning his place at the Royal College of Surgeons by 1826, he rose to the Hunterian professorship in 1836 and later became conservator of the Hunterian Museum. His curiosity extended far beyond the specimens already in the collection; he seized every chance to dissect fresh subjects, including animals that died in the gardens of London Zoo. By 1831, when the Zoo began publishing its own scientific proceedings, Owen was its most prolific contributor of anatomical papers. His 1832 Memoir on the Pearly Nautilus quickly earned classic status, and he went on to describe the glass sponge Euplectella, identify the parasite Trichina spiralis, and settle the classification of brachiopods. In 1832 he also proposed dividing cephalopods into Dibranchiata and Tetrabranchiata, a framework still in use. Perhaps most remarkably, in 1852 he named Protichnites, the oldest known land footprints, and correctly inferred they belonged to an extinct arthropod resembling the horseshoe crab Limulus—more than a century and a half before any body fossil of that creature was discovered.

Naming the Terrible Reptiles

Owen's most enduring contribution to science was coining the term Dinosauria, a word built from the Greek deinos (meaning terrible or wondrous) and sauros (lizard). He arrived at this name after studying three genera of Mesozoic land reptiles uncovered in southern England: the carnivorous Megalosaurus, the plant-eating Iguanodon, and the armoured Hylaeosaurus. His comprehensive treatment of these animals was published across four volumes of History of British Fossil Reptiles between 1849 and 1884. Owen's vision extended beyond the page. Working alongside the sculptor Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, he helped design the first life-sized dinosaur models, initially created for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park. When the Crystal Palace was later relocated to South London, thirty-three of these concrete sculptures were installed in Crystal Palace Park. In a memorable gesture, Owen hosted a dinner for twenty-one leading scientists inside the hollow Iguanodon on New Year's Eve 1853. Yet even his iconic reconstruction drew criticism; Gideon Mantell, the original discoverer of Iguanodon, argued in 1849 that the animal possessed slender forelimbs rather than the heavy, pachyderm-like build Owen had proposed.

Building a Museum for Everyone

Beyond his laboratory work, Owen devoted enormous energy to a public cause that reshaped London's cultural landscape. As superintendent of the British Museum's natural history department from 1856, he championed the idea that the institution's growing collections of specimens deserved a dedicated home. His persistent campaigning ultimately led to the opening of the Natural History Museum in South Kensington in 1881, a building that has since become world-famous. Owen retained his administrative role until the project was fully completed in December 1883, at which point he was knighted in the Order of the Bath. His influence on public science education was not limited to this one achievement. In 1839 he served as the founding president of the Microscopical Society of London and edited numerous issues of its journal, then called The Microscopic Journal. The writer Bill Bryson later argued that by making the Natural History Museum an institution open to everyone, Owen fundamentally transformed society's expectations of what museums exist for. His advocacy for accessible, publicly funded science remains a cornerstone of his legacy.

A Controversial Figure in Victorian Science

For all his brilliance, Owen was a deeply divisive presence among his scientific peers. He was an outspoken opponent of Charles Darwin's mechanism of natural selection, though he accepted that evolution itself was a real process. Owen believed the story was far more complex than Darwin outlined in On the Origin of Species, and his alternative views have been noted by some as anticipating questions that would later become central to evolutionary developmental biology. His colleagues also accused him of appropriating credit for work done by others, a charge that coloured his reputation throughout his career. His personal life had its eccentricities; his wife once came home to find the carcass of a freshly dead rhinoceros in the front hallway, a consequence of his right of first refusal on any animal that perished at London Zoo. He died at home on 15 December 1892 and was buried in the churchyard of St Andrew's Church in Ham, near Richmond, Surrey.