Nick Spencer

Dinosaurs, dogma and the Victorian mind

The ‘monsters’ dug from the cliffs of Lyme Regis did not sit well with the literal reading of Genesis – but many other issues contributed to the famed Victorian crisis of faith

‘Duria Antiquior’ (‘A More Ancient Dorset’), engraving after Henry Thomas De La Beche, 1830. [Bridgeman Images] 
issue 09 March 2024

In March 1860, shortly after The Origin of Species was published, Charles Darwin wrote to Leonard Horner thanking him for some surprising information. ‘How curious about the Bible!’ he exclaimed. Horner had taken aim at the marginal notes that were printed in the standard (and ubiquitous) Authorised, or King James, Version.

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