The leading anatomist in the mid-1800s, who gathered and classified thousands of animal specimens from Africa, contributed to the discovery of fossils in England, and pioneered the field of comparative anatomy with his study of exotic creatures. Owen saw the essential similarity of animal limbs as a sign of Divine Order in creation.
Sir Richard Owen Quotes in Your Inner Fish
The Your Inner Fish quotes below are all either spoken by Sir Richard Owen or refer to Sir Richard Owen. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Vintage Books edition of Your Inner Fish published in 2009.
Chapter 2
Quotes
Some fish, then, had structures like those in a limb. Owen's archetype was not a divine and eternal part of all life. It had a history, and that history was to be found in Devonian age rocks…
Related Characters:
Neil Shubin (speaker), Sir Richard Owen
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Your Inner Fish LitChart as a printable PDF.
Sir Richard Owen Character Timeline in Your Inner Fish
The timeline below shows where the character Sir Richard Owen appears in Your Inner Fish. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2: Getting A Grip
Sir Richard Owen , one of the most famous anatomists of the 1800s, also believed in a divine...
(full context)
Chapter 10: Ears
...and incus bones gradually moved from the jaw in reptiles to the ear in mammals. Richard Owen , the anatomist, then appears again, this time cataloguing small dog-sized reptiles found in South...
(full context)