((Short description|English biologist and paleontologist (1804–1892)))
((Other uses|Richard Owen (disambiguation)))
((pp-semi-protected|small=yes))
((Use dmy dates|date=February 2022))
((Use British English|date=April 2012))
((Infobox scientist
|honorific_prefix = Sir
|name=Richard Owen
|honorific_suffix = ((post-nominals|country=GBR|KCB|FRMS|FRS))
|image= Richard Owen original.jpg
|caption= Portrait of Owen, ((circa|1878))
|birth_date= ((birth date|1804|7|20|df=y))
|birth_place=[[Lancaster, Lancashire|Lancaster]], England
|death_date= ((death date and age|1892|12|18|1804|7|20|df=y))
|death_place= [[Richmond Park]], London, England
|residence         =
|citizenship       =
|nationality       = [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|British]]
|field             = [[Comparative anatomy]]<br/>[[Paleontology]]<br />[[Zoology]]<ref name="telegraph.co.uk">((cite web|last1=Shindler|first1=Karolyn|title=Richard Owen: the greatest scientist you've never heard of|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/evolution/8185977/Richard-Owen-the-greatest-scientist-youve-never-heard-of.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101210082405/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/evolution/8185977/Richard-Owen-the-greatest-scientist-youve-never-heard-of.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 December 2010|website=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]|access-date=19 February 2017|date=7 December 2010))</ref><br />[[Biology]]<ref name="telegraph.co.uk"/>
|work_institutions =
|alma_mater        = [[University of Edinburgh]]<br/>[[St Bartholomew's Hospital]]
|doctoral_advisor  =
|doctoral_students =
|known_for         = Coining the term [[dinosaur]], presenting them as a distinct taxonomic group<br/>[[British Museum of Natural History]]
|author_abbrev_bot =
|author_abbrev_zoo =
|influences        =
|influenced        =
|prizes            = [[Wollaston Medal]] ((small|(1838)))<br />[[Royal Medal]] ((small|(1846)))<br />[[Copley Medal]] ((small|(1851)))<br />[[Baly Medal]] ((small|(1869)))<br />[[Clarke Medal]]  ((small|(1878)))<br />[[Linnean Medal]] ((small|(1888)))
|footnotes         =
|signature         =
))
'''Sir Richard Owen''' ((post-nominals|country=GBR|KCB|FRMS|FRS)) (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English [[biologist]], [[comparative anatomy|comparative anatomist]] and [[paleontology|paleontologist]]. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting [[fossil]]s.

Owen produced a vast array of scientific work, but is probably best remembered today for coining the word ''[[Dinosauria]]'' (meaning "Terrible [[Reptile]]" or "Fearfully Great [[Reptile]]").<ref name="Owen 1841" /><ref name="BBC 2015">((cite news|title=Sir Richard Owen: The man who invented the dinosaur|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-31623397|publisher=BBC|date=18 February 2017))</ref> An outspoken critic of [[Charles Darwin]]'s theory of [[evolution]] by [[natural selection]], Owen agreed with Darwin that evolution occurred but thought it was more complex than outlined in Darwin's ''[[On the Origin of Species]]''.<ref name="Cosans2009">((cite book|last1=Cosans|first1=Christopher E.|title=Owen's Ape & Darwin's Bulldog: Beyond Darwinism and Creationism|year=2009|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington|isbn=978-0-253-22051-6|pages=1–192))</ref> Owen's approach to evolution can be considered to have anticipated the issues that have gained greater attention with the recent emergence of [[evolutionary developmental biology]].<ref name="Amundson2007">((cite book|last1=Amundson|first1=Ron|author-link=Ron Amundson|title=The Changing Role of the Embryo in Evolutionary Thought: Roots of Evo-Devo.|year=2007|publisher=Cambridge University of Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0521806992|pages=[https://archive.org/details/changingroleofem0000amun/page/1 1–296]|url=https://archive.org/details/changingroleofem0000amun/page/1))</ref>

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]]''.<ref>((cite journal | url=https://wol-prod-cdn.literatumonline.com/pb-assets/assets/13652818/Introduction-1509478925000.pdf | title=175th Anniversary Special Issue: Introduction | author=Wilson, Tony | journal=Journal of Microscopy | year=2016| doi=10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2818 ))</ref> Owen also campaigned for the natural specimens in the [[British Museum]] to be given a new home. This resulted in the establishment, in 1881, of the now world-famous [[Natural History Museum, London|Natural History Museum]] in [[South Kensington]], London.<ref name="Rupke1994">((cite book|last1=Rupke|first1=Nicolaas A.|author-link=Nicolaas Adrianus Rupke|title=Richard Owen: Victorian Naturalist|year=1994|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|isbn=978-0300058208|pages=[https://archive.org/details/richardowenvicto00rupk/page/1 1–484]|url=https://archive.org/details/richardowenvicto00rupk/page/1))</ref> [[Bill Bryson]] argues that, "by making the Natural History Museum an institution for everyone, Owen transformed our expectations of what museums are for."<ref name="Bryson2003">((cite book|last1=Bryson|first1=Bill|title=A Short History of Nearly Everything|year=2003|publisher=Doubleday|location=London|isbn=978-0-7679-0817-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780965738408/page/1 1–672]|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780965738408/page/1))</ref>

While he made several contributions to science and public learning, 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.

==Biography==
[[File:Richard Owen.JPG|left|thumb|upright|The young Richard Owen]]
[[File:Natural History Museum London Jan 2006.jpg|thumb|Owen was the driving force behind the establishment, in 1881, of the [[British Museum (Natural History)]] in London.]]
Owen became a surgeon's apprentice in 1820 and was appointed to the [[Royal College of Surgeons of England|Royal College of Surgeons]] in 1826.<ref>((Cite journal |last=Eiland |first=Murray |date=2004 |title=London's Dinosaurs |url=https://www.academia.edu/9454946 |journal=Rock and Gem |volume=34 |issue=11 |pages=60–63 |via=academia.edu))</ref> In 1836, Owen was appointed Hunterian professor at the Royal College, and in 1849, he succeeded [[William Clift]] as conservator of the [[Hunterian Museum (London)|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) (now the [[Natural History Museum, London|Natural History Museum]]). He retained office until the completion of this work, in December 1883, when he was made a knight of the [[Order of the Bath]].<ref>((Cite book |title=Eminent persons: Biographies reprinted from the Times|volume= V, 1891–1892|chapter=Sir Richard Owen 1804–1892 Obituary Notice, Monday, December 19, 1892|publisher=Macmillan & Co.|pages=291–299|year=1896|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bKEMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA291 ))</ref> 

[[File:Richard_Owen_cottage.jpg|thumb|left|Sheen Lodge, Richmond Park, home of Owen]]
Owen always tended to support orthodox men of science and the ''status quo''. The royal family presented him with the cottage in Richmond Park and [[Robert Peel]] put him on the [[Civil List]]. In 1843, he was elected a foreign member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]]. In 1844 he became an associated member of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands. When this Institute became the [[Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1851, he joined as foreign member.<ref>((cite web|url=https://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00002204 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190611224932/https://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00002204 |title=Richard Owen (1804 - 1892) |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |archive-date=11 June 2019))</ref> In 1845, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society.<ref>((Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1844&year-max=1845&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=12 April 2021|website=search.amphilsoc.org))</ref>

He died at home on 15 December 1892 and is buried in the churchyard at [[St Andrew's Church, Ham|St Andrew's Church]], [[Ham, London|Ham]], near [[Richmond, Surrey]].<ref>((cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf))</ref>

==Work on invertebrates==
While occupied with the cataloguing of the Hunterian collection, Owen did not confine his attention to the preparations before him but also seized every opportunity to dissect fresh subjects. He was allowed to examine all animals that died in [[Zoological Society of London|London Zoo]]'s gardens and, when the Zoo began to publish scientific proceedings, in 1831, he was the most prolific contributor of anatomical papers. His first notable publication, however, was his ''Memoir on the Pearly [[Nautilus]]'' (London, 1832), which was soon recognized as a classic. Thenceforth, he continued to make important contributions to every department of comparative anatomy and [[zoology]] for a period of over fifty years. In the sponges, Owen was the first to describe the now well-known [[Venus' Flower Basket]] or ''[[Euplectella]]'' (1841, 1857). Among Entozoa, his most noteworthy discovery was that of ''Trichina spiralis'' (1835), the parasite infesting the muscles of man in the disease now termed [[trichinosis]] (see also, however, [[James Paget|Sir James Paget]]). Of [[Brachiopod]]a he made very special studies, which much advanced knowledge and settled the classification that has long been accepted. Among [[Mollusc]]a, he described not only the pearly nautilus but also ''[[Spirula]]'' (1850) and other [[Cephalopod]]a, both living and extinct, and it was he who proposed the universally-accepted subdivision of this class into the two orders of Dibranchiata and Tetrabranchiata (1832). In 1852 Owen named ''[[Protichnites]]'' – the oldest footprints found on land.<ref name="Owen1852">((cite journal|last1=Owen|first1=Richard|title=Description of the impressions and footprints of the Protichnites from the Potsdam sandstone of Canada|journal=Geological Society of London Quarterly Journal|year=1852|volume=8|issue=1–2|pages=214–225|doi=10.1144/GSL.JGS.1852.008.01-02.26|s2cid=130712914|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1602923))</ref> Applying his knowledge of anatomy, he correctly postulated that these [[Cambrian]] trackways were made by an extinct type of [[arthropod]],<ref name="Owen1852"/> and he did this more than 150 years before any fossils of the animal were found.<ref name="ColletteHagadorn2010">((cite journal|last1=Collette|first1=Joseph H.|last2=Hagadorn|first2=James W.|title=Three-Dimensionally Preserved Arthropods from Cambrian Lagerstätten of Quebec and Wisconsin|journal=Journal of Paleontology|volume=84|issue=4|year=2010|pages=646–667|issn=0022-3360|doi=10.1666/09-075.1|s2cid=130064618))</ref><ref name="ColletteGassHagadorn2012">((cite journal|last1=Collette|first1=Joseph H|last2=Gass|first2=Kenneth C|last3=Hagadorn|first3=James W|title=Protichnites eremita unshelled? Experimental model-based neoichnology and new evidence for a euthycarcinoid affinity for this ichnospecies|journal=Journal of Paleontology|year=2012|volume=83|issue=3|pages=442–454|issn=0022-3360|doi=10.1666/11-056.1|bibcode=2012JPal...86..442C |s2cid=129234373))</ref> Owen envisioned a resemblance of the animal to the living arthropod ''[[Limulus]]''.<ref name="Owen1852"/>

==Fish, reptiles, birds, and naming of dinosaurs==
[[File:Richard Owen 1856.jpg|thumb|upright|Richard Owen in 1856 with the skull of a crocodile]]
[[File:Dinosaur coining of the word in 1841.jpg|thumb|left|Owen's coining of the word dinosaur in 1841]]
Most of his work on [[reptile]]s related to the [[skeleton]]s of extinct forms and his chief memoirs, on British specimens, were reprinted in a connected series in his ''History of British Fossil Reptiles'' (4 vols. London 1849–1884). He published the first important general account of the great group of [[Mesozoic]] land-reptiles, and he coined the name [[Dinosauria]] from [[Greek language|Greek]] ''δεινός'' (''deinos'') "terrible, powerful, wondrous" + ''σαύρος'' (''sauros'') "lizard".<ref name="Owen 1841">((cite journal|last1=Owen|first1=Richard|title=Report on British fossil reptiles. Part II.|journal=Report of the Eleventh Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science; Held at Plymouth in July 1841|series=Report of the ... Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1833)|year=1841|pages=60–204|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101076796059;view=1up;seq=102)); see p. 103.  [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101076796059;view=1up;seq=145 From p. 103:]  "The combination of such characters ... will, it is presumed, be deemed sufficient ground for establishing a distinct tribe or sub-order of Saurian Reptiles, for which I would propose the name of Dinosauria*.  (*Gr. ''δεινός'', fearfully great; ''σαύρος'', a lizard. ... )"</ref><ref name="BBC 2015"/> Owen used 3 genera to define the dinosaurs: the carnivorous ''[[Megalosaurus]]'', the herbivorous ''[[Iguanodon]]'' and armoured ''[[Hylaeosaurus]]''', specimens uncovered in southern England.<ref name="BBC 2015"/> 

With [[Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins]], Owen helped create the first life-size sculptures depicting dinosaurs as he thought they might have appeared. Some models were initially created for the [[Great Exhibition of 1851]], but 33 were eventually produced when [[the Crystal Palace]] was relocated to [[Sydenham, London|Sydenham]], in South London. Owen famously hosted a dinner for 21 prominent men of science inside the hollow concrete ''[[Iguanodon]]'' on New Year's Eve 1853. However, in 1849, a few years before his death in 1852, [[Gideon Mantell]] had realised that ''Iguanodon'', of which he was the discoverer, was not a heavy, [[Pachydermata|pachyderm]]-like animal, as Owen was proposing, but had slender forelimbs<ref name=GM51>((cite book |last=Mantell |first=Gideon A. |title= Petrifications and their teachings: or, a handbook to the gallery of organic remains of the British Museum. |year=1851 |publisher=H. G. Bohn |location=London |oclc= 8415138))</ref> 

==Work on mammals==
[[File:Camel Skeleton - Richard Owen - On the Anatomy of Vertebrates (1866).jpg|thumb|Owen's illustration of a [[camel]]'s [[skeleton]]]]
Owen was granted [[right of first refusal]] on any freshly dead animal at the London Zoo. His wife once arrived home to find the carcass of a newly deceased rhinoceros in her front hallway.<ref name="Bryson2003"/>

At the same time, Sir [[Thomas Mitchell (explorer)|Thomas Mitchell]]'s discovery of fossil bones, in [[New South Wales]], provided material for the first of Owen's long series of papers on the extinct mammals of Australia, which were eventually reprinted in book-form in 1877. He described ''[[Diprotodon]]'' (1838) and ''[[Thylacoleo]]'' (1859), and extinct species [[kangaroo]]s and [[wombat]]s of gigantic size. Most fossil material found in Australia and New Zealand was initially sent to England for expert examination, and with the assistance of the local collectors Owen became the first authority on the palaeontology of the region.<ref name="Vickers-Rich1993">((cite book |last1=Vickers-Rich |first1=P. |title=Wildlife of Gondwana |year=1993 |publisher=Reed |location=NSW |isbn=0730103153 |pages=49–51))</ref> While occupied with so much material from abroad, Owen was also busily collecting facts for an exhaustive work on similar fossils from the British Isles and, in 1844–1846, he published his ''History of British Fossil Mammals and Birds'', which was followed by many later memoirs, notably his ''Monograph of the Fossil Mammalia of the Mesozoic Formations'' (Palaeont. Soc., 1871). One of his latest publications was a little work entitled [[s:Antiquity of Man as Deduced from the Discovery of a Human Skeleton|''Antiquity of Man as deduced from the Discovery of a Human Skeleton during Excavations of the Docks at Tilbury'']] (London, 1884).

==Owen, Darwin, and the theory of evolution==
((more citations needed section|date=June 2019))
Sometime during the 1840s Owen came to the conclusion that species arise as the result of some sort of evolutionary process.<ref name=Rupke1994/> He believed that there were a total of six possible mechanisms: [[Parthenogenesis]], prolonged development, premature birth, congenital malformations, [[Lamarckism|Lamarckian atrophy]], Lamarckian hypertrophy and transmutation,<ref name=Rupke1994/> of which he thought transmutation was the least likely.<ref name=Rupke1994/>

[[File:dinornis1387.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Owen with a [[giant moa]] skeleton]]
Science historian Evelleen Richards has argued that Owen was likely sympathetic to developmental theories of evolution, but backed away from publicly proclaiming them after the critical reaction that had greeted the anonymously published evolutionary book ''[[Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation]]'' in 1844 (it was revealed only decades later that the book had been authored by publisher [[Robert Chambers (publisher born 1802)|Robert Chambers]]). Owen had been criticized for his own evolutionary remarks in his ''Nature of the Limbs'' in 1849.<ref name=Richards1987>((cite journal |last=Richards |first=Evellen |year=1987 |title=A question of property rights: Richard Owen's evolutionism reassessed |journal=[[British Journal for the History of Science]] |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=129–171 |jstor=4026305 |doi=10.1017/S0007087400023724 |s2cid=170268846))</ref> At the end of ''On the Nature of Limbs''<ref name=Owen-1849/> Owen suggested that humans ultimately evolved from fish, as the result of natural laws,<ref name=Owen-1849>((cite book |last=Owen |first=Richard |editor=Amundson, Ron |date=January 2007 |orig-year=1849 |title=On the Nature of Limbs |quote=A Discourse, with a preface by Brian Hall, and essays by Ron Amundson, Kevin Padian, Mary Winsor, and Jennifer Coggon. |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |location=Chicago, IL |isbn=978-0-226-64194-2 |lccn=2007009519 |page=86 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ftvbuluG7xQC))</ref> which resulted in Owen being criticized in the ''[[Manchester Spectator]]'' for denying that species such as humans were created by God.<ref name="Rupke1994"/>

During the [[development of Darwin's theory]], his investigation of [[barnacle]]s showed, in 1849, how their segmentation related to other crustaceans, showing how they had diverged from their relatives. To both Darwin and Owen such "homologies" in comparative anatomy were evidence of descent. Owen demonstrated fossil evidence of an evolutionary sequence of horses, as supporting his idea of development from archetypes in "ordained continuous becoming" and, in 1854, gave a [[British Association for the Advancement of Science|British Association]] talk on the impossibility of bestial apes, such as the recently discovered [[gorilla]], standing erect and being transmuted into men, but Owen did not rule out the possibility that humans had evolved from other extinct animals by evolutionary mechanisms other than transmutation.

Working-class militants were trumpeting man's monkey origins.((citation needed|date=June 2019)) To crush these ideas, Owen, as President-elect of the Royal Association,((clarify|date=June 2019)) announced his authoritative anatomical studies of primate brains, claiming that the human brain had structures that apes brains did not, and that therefore humans were a separate sub-class, starting a dispute which was subsequently satirised as the [[Great Hippocampus Question]]. Owen's main argument was that humans have much larger brains for their body size than other mammals including the great apes.<ref name=Cosans2009/> 

During the [[reaction to Darwin's theory]], Huxley's arguments with Owen continued. Owen tried to smear Huxley, by portraying him as an "advocate of man's origins from a transmuted ape" and one of his contributions to the ''Athenaeum'' was titled "Ape-origin of man as tested by the brain".((cn|date=August 2022))

In 1862 (and later occasions) Huxley took the opportunity to arrange demonstrations of ape brain anatomy (e.g. at the [[British Association for the Advancement of Science|BA]] meeting, where [[William Henry Flower|William Flower]] performed the dissection). Visual evidence of the supposedly missing structures ([[posterior horn of lateral ventricle|posterior cornu]] and [[hippocampus minor]]) was used, in effect, to indict Owen for perjury: Owen had argued that the absence of those structures in apes were connected with the lesser size to which the ape brains grew, but he then conceded that a poorly developed version might be construed as present without preventing him from arguing that brain size was still the major way of distinguishing apes and humans.<ref name=Cosans2009/>

Huxley's campaign ran over two years and was devastatingly successful at persuading the overall scientific community, with each "slaying" being followed by a recruiting drive for the Darwinian cause. The spite lingered. While Owen had argued that humans were distinct from apes by virtue of having large brains, Huxley claimed that racial diversity blurred any such distinction. In his paper criticizing Owen, Huxley directly states:
: ... "if we place '''((sc|A))''', the European brain, '''((sc|B))''', the [[Bosjesman]] brain, and '''((sc|C))''', the orang brain, in a series, the differences between '''((sc|A))''' and '''((sc|B))''', so far as they have been ascertained, are of the same nature as the chief of those between '''((sc|B))''' and '''((sc|C))'''".<ref name="Huxley1861">((cite wikisource | last1=Huxley | first1=Thomas H. | author-link=Thomas Henry Huxley | title=On the zoological relations of man with the lower animals | wslink=Natural History Review/Series 2/Volume 1/Number 1/On the Zoological Relations of Man with the Lower Animals | work=Natural History Review | series=2 | volume=1 | number=1 | year=1861 | pages=67–84 | firsticon=yes | noicon=yes ))</ref>

Owen countered Huxley by saying the brains of all human races were really of similar size and intellectual ability, and that the fact that humans had brains that were twice the size of large apes like male gorillas, even though humans had much smaller bodies, made humans distinguishable.<ref name=Cosans2009/>

==Legacy==
[[File:Statue of Richard Owen, Natural History Museum, London.jpg|thumb|upright|250px|right|Supplanted statue of Owen in the [[Natural History Museum, London|Natural History Museum]].]]
He was the first director in [[Natural History Museum, London|Natural History Museum]] in London and his statue was in the main hall there until 2009, when it was replaced with a statue of Darwin.
A bust of Owen by [[Alfred Gilbert]] (1896) is held in the [[Hunterian Museum, London]].

A [[species]] of Central American lizard, ''[[Diploglossus|Diploglossus owenii]]'', was named in his honour by French [[Herpetology|herpetologists]] [[André Marie Constant Duméril]] and [[Gabriel Bibron]] in 1839.<ref>((cite book |author1=Beolens, Bo |author2=Watkins, Michael |author3=Grayson, Michael |year=2011 |title=The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles |place=Baltimore, MD |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=978-1-4214-0135-5 |page=198 "Owen, R."))</ref>

The Sir Richard Owen [[pub]] in central Lancaster is named in his honour,<ref name="wetherspoon">((cite web |title=The Sir Richard Owen Lancaster |website=jdwetherspoon.com |publisher=J.D. Wetherspoon |url=https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pub-histories/england/lancashire/the-sir-richard-owen-lancaster |access-date=14 June 2021))</ref> and there is a blue plaque in his honour at [[Lancaster Royal Grammar School]]. 

((clear left))

==Conflicts with his peers==
[[File:Richard Owen, riding his hobby.jpg|thumb|right|upright| [[Caricature]] of Owen "riding his hobby", by Frederick Waddy (1873).]]
Owen has been described by some as a malicious, dishonest and hateful individual. He has been described in one biography as being a "social experimenter with a penchant for sadism. Addicted to controversy and driven by arrogance and jealousy". [[Deborah Cadbury]] stated that Owen possessed an "almost fanatical egoism with a callous delight in savaging his critics." An Oxford University professor once described Owen as "a damned liar. He lied for God and for malice".<ref>((cite web |title=Rocky road: Sir Richard Owen |date=28 May 2011 |website=Strangescience.net |url=http://www.strangescience.net/owen.htm |access-date=17 September 2011))</ref> [[Gideon Mantell]] claimed it was "a pity a man so talented should be so dastardly and envious". [[Richard Broke Freeman]] described him as "the most distinguished vertebrate zoologist and palaeontologist ... but a most deceitful and odious man".<ref>((cite book |last=Freeman |first=R.B. |author-link=Richard Broke Freeman |date=2007 |title=Charles Darwin: A companion |url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=A27b&pageseq=1 |publisher=Darwin Online))</ref> Charles Darwin stated that "No one fact tells so strongly against Owen ... as that he has never reared one pupil or follower."<ref>((cite book |last=Darwin |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Darwin |date=2020 |title=More Letters of Charles Darwin |publisher=Library of Alexandria |page=153 |isbn=9781465549129))</ref>

Owen famously credited himself and [[Georges Cuvier]] with the discovery of the ''[[Iguanodon]]'', completely excluding any credit for the original discoverer of the dinosaur, [[Gideon Mantell]]. This was not the first or last time Owen would falsely claim a discovery as his own. It has also been suggested by some authors<ref name=Bryson-2016/> that Owen even used his influence in the [[Royal Society]] to ensure that many of Mantell's research papers were never published. Owen was finally dismissed from the Royal Society's Zoological Council for [[plagiarism]].<ref name=Bryson-2016>((cite book |last=Bryson |first=Bill |author-link=Bill Bryson |date=2016 |title=[[A Short History of Nearly Everything]] |publisher=Black Swan |page=123 |isbn=9781784161859))</ref>

[[File:Richard Owen with his granddaughter.jpg|thumb|upright|Owen with his granddaughter Emily]]
Another reason for his criticism of the ''[[On the Origin of Species|Origin]]'', some historians claim, was that Owen felt upstaged by Darwin and supporters such as Huxley, and his judgment was clouded by jealousy. Owen in Darwin's opinion was
: "Spiteful, extremely malignant, clever; the Londoners say he is mad with envy because my book is so talked about".<ref>((cite book |first=Charles |last=Darwin |date=1 July 2001 |title=More Letters of Charles Darwin |volume=1 |quote=A record of his work in a series of hitherto unpublished letters. |editor-first1=Francis |editor-last1=Darwin |editor-first2=Albert Charles |editor-last2=Seward |via=Project Gutenberg |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext01/1mlcd10.txt))</ref>

:"It is painful to be hated in the intense degree with which Owen hates me".<!-- dead link / non-reference --- <ref>((cite web |title=Project Gutenberg |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/w/captcha/question/ ))</ref> -->((cn|date=August 2022))

Owen also resorted to the same subterfuge he used against Mantell, writing another anonymous article in the ''[[Edinburgh Review]]'' in April 1860.<ref name=Owen1860/> In the article, Owen was critical of Darwin for not offering many new observations, and heaped praise (in the third person) upon himself, while being careful not to associate any particular comment with his own name.<ref>((cite web |title=Darwin on the Origin of Species |website=Darwin.gruts.com |url=http://darwin.gruts.com/docs/er-1860-04/ |access-date=17 September 2011))</ref> Owen did praise, however, the ''[[On the Origin of Species|Origin]]''<nowiki/>'s description of Darwin's work on insect behavior and pigeon breeding <!-- removed stray in-text reference to Huxley (1861) -->as "real gems".<ref name=Owen1860>((cite journal |author=Owen, Richard (published anonymously) |date=April 1860 |title=Darwin on the Origin of Species |journal=Edinburgh Review |volume=111 |pages=487–532))</ref>

[[File:Carlo Pelligrini-Richard Owen Old Bones.jpg|thumb|150px|Caricature of an elderly Owen, captioned "Old Bones", in the London magazine ''[[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', March 1873]]
Owen was also a party to the threat to end government funding of the [[Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew]] botanical collection (see [[Joseph Dalton Hooker#Attacks on Hooker and on Kew|Attacks on Hooker and Kew]]), orchestrated by [[Acton Smee Ayrton]]:
:"There is no doubt that rivalry resulted between the British Museum, where there was the very important Herbarium of the Department of Botany, and Kew. The rivalry at times became extremely personal, especially between [[Joseph Dalton Hooker|Hooker]] and Owen ... At the root was Owen's feeling that Kew should be subordinate to the British Museum (and to Owen) and should not be allowed to develop as an independent scientific institution with the advantage of a great botanic garden."<ref>((cite book |author=Turrill, W.B. |year=1963 |title=Joseph Dalton Hooker |publisher=Nelson |place=London, UK |page=90))</ref>

It has been suggested by some authors that the portrayal of Owen as a vindictive and treacherous man was fostered and encouraged by his rivals (particularly [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]], [[Joseph Dalton Hooker|Hooker]], and [[Thomas Henry Huxley|Huxley]]) and may be somewhat undeserved. In the first part of his career he was rightly regarded as one of the great scientific figures of the age. In the second part of his career his reputation fell.

Owen's lost scientific standing was not due solely to his underhanded dealings with colleagues; it was also due to serious errors of scientific judgement that were discovered and publicized. A fine example was his decision to classify man in a separate subclass of the Mammalia (see ''[[Man's place in nature]]''). In this Owen had no supporters at all. Also, his unwillingness to come off the fence concerning evolution became increasingly damaging to his reputation as time went on. Owen continued working after his official retirement at the age of 79, but he never recovered the good opinions he had garnered in his younger days.<ref>((cite book |author=Desmond, A. |year=1982 |title=Archetypes and Ancestors: Paleontology in Victorian London 1850–1875 |publisher=Muller |place=London, UK))</ref><ref>((cite web |title=Sir Richard Owen: The archetypal villain |year=2001 |website=Darwin.gruts.com |url=http://darwin.gruts.com/articles/2001/owen/ |access-date=17 September 2011))</ref>

==Bibliography==
* ''Memoir on the Pearly Nautilus'' (1832)
* ''Odontography'' (1840–1845)
* ''Description of the Skeleton of an Extinct Gigantic Sloth'' (1842)
* ''On the Archetype and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton'' (1848)
* ''History of British Fossil Reptiles'' (4 vols., 1849–1884)
* ''On the Nature of Limbs'' (1849)
* ''Palæontology or a Systematic Summary of Extinct Animals and Their Geological Relations'' (1860)
* ''Archaeopteryx'' (1863)
* ''Anatomy of Vertebrates'' (1866) [[commons:Image:Owens - On the Anatomy of Vertebrates.png|Image from]]
**Available at Google Books:
**[https://books.google.com/books?id=BeMOAAAAYAAJ Volume I, Fishes and Reptiles]
**[https://books.google.com/books?id=ooDbkHz4FRwC Volume II, Birds and Mammals]
**[https://books.google.com/books?id=swgAAAAAQAAJ Volume III, Mammals]
* ''Memoir of the Dodo'' (1866) [[commons:File:Memoir of the Dodo 1866.pdf|Full book on Wiki commons]]
* ''Monograph of the Fossil Mammalia of the Mesozoic Formations'' (1871)
* ''Catalogue of the Fossil Reptilia of South Africa'' (1876)
* [[s:Antiquity of Man as Deduced from the Discovery of a Human Skeleton|''Antiquity of Man as deduced from the Discovery of a Human Skeleton during Excavations of the Docks at Tilbury'']] (1884)

==References==
((reflist|25em))

==Further reading==
((Refbegin|2|indent=yes))
* ((cite book|last=Anonymous|others=Illustrated by [[s:Author:Frederick Waddy|Frederick Waddy]]|title=Cartoon portraits and biographical sketches of men of the day
|chapter=Professor Owen |url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cartoon_portraits_and_biographical_sketches_of_men_of_the_day/Professor_Owen
|access-date=6 January 2011|year=1873|publisher=Tinsley Brothers|location=London|pages=36–37))
* ((cite book |author= Anonymous |chapter= SIR RICHARD OWEN (1804-1892) (Obituary Notice, Monday, December 19, 1892)  |title= Eminent Persons: Biographies reprinted from The Times|year=1896 |publisher=Macmillan and Co., Limited |place=London |pages=291–299 |volume= V (1891-1892)|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/eminentpersonsbi05timeiala/page/291 |access-date=7 March 2019 |via= Internet Archive ))
*  Amundson, Ron, (2007), ''The Changing Role of the Embryo in Evolutionary Thought: Roots of Evo-Devo.''  New York: Cambridge University of Press.
* ((cite book |last=Bryson |first=Bill |author-link=Bill Bryson |title= A Short History of Nearly Everything |year=2003 |publisher= Doubleday |location=London |isbn=978-0-7679-0817-7  |title-link=A Short History of Nearly Everything ))
* ((cite book |last=Cadbury |first=Deborah |author-link=Deborah Cadbury |title=Terrible Lizard: The First Dinosaur Hunters and the Birth of a New Science |url=https://archive.org/details/terriblelizard00debo |url-access=registration |year=2000 |publisher=Henry Holt |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8050-7087-3 ))
* ((cite journal |author=Collette, Joseph H., Gass, Kenneth C. & Hagadorn, James W. |year=2012 |title=''Protichnites eremita'' unshelled? Experimental model-based neoichnology and new evidence for a euthycarcinoid affinity for this ichnospecies |journal=Journal of Paleontology |volume=86 |pages=442–454 |doi=10.1666/11-056.1 |issue=3|bibcode=2012JPal...86..442C |s2cid=129234373 ))
* ((cite journal |author1=Collette, Joseph H.  |author2=Hagadorn, James W.  |name-list-style=amp |year=2010 |title=Three-dimensionally preserved arthropods from Cambrian Lagerstatten of Quebec and Wisconsin |journal=Journal of Paleontology |volume=84 |pages=646–667 |doi=10.1666/09-075.1 |issue=4|s2cid=130064618 ))
*Cosans, Christopher, (2009), ''Owen's Ape & Darwin's Bulldog: Beyond Darwinism and Creationism''.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
*[[Adrian Desmond|Desmond, Adrian]] & [[James Moore (biographer)|Moore, James]] (1991). ''Darwin''. London: Michael Joseph, the Penguin Group. ((ISBN|0-7181-3430-3)).
*[[Francis Darwin|Darwin, Francis]], editor (1887). ''The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin: Including an Autobiographical Chapter'' (7th Edition). London: [[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]].
*Darwin, Francis & Seward, A. C., editors (1903).  ''More letters of Charles Darwin: A record of his work in a series of hitherto unpublished letters''. London: John Murray.
* ((cite wikisource | last1=Huxley | first1=Thomas H. | author-link=Thomas Henry Huxley | title=On the zoological relations of man with the lower animals | wslink=Natural History Review/Series 2/Volume 1/Number 1/On the Zoological Relations of Man with the Lower Animals | work=Natural History Review | series=2 | volume=1 | number=1 | year=1861 | pages=67–84 | firsticon=yes | noicon=yes ))
* ((cite journal |author=Owen, Richard |year=1852 |title=Description of the impressions and footprints of the ''Protichnites'' from the Potsdam sandstone of Canada |journal=Geological Society of London Quarterly Journal |volume=8 |issue=1–2 |pages=214–225 |doi=10.1144/GSL.JGS.1852.008.01-02.26|s2cid=130712914 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1602923 ))
* ((cite journal| last = Owen|first = Richard (published anonymously)| author-link = Richard Owen|date=April 1860
| title = Darwin ''on the Origin of Species''| journal = [[Edinburgh Review]]| volume = 111| pages = 487–532
| url = http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=A30&pageseq=1| access-date = 26 July 2010
))
* ((cite book|last = Owen|first = Richard|author-link = Richard Owen|editor = Amundson, Ron|date=January 2007| orig-year = 1849|title = On the Nature of Limbs: A Discourse, with a preface by Brian Hall, and essays by Ron Amundson, Kevin Padian, Mary Winsor, and Jennifer Coggon.|publisher = [[University of Chicago Press]]|location = Chicago|isbn = 978-0-226-64194-2|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ftvbuluG7xQC|lccn = 2007009519))<ref>Cosans, 2009, pp. 108–111</ref>
* ((cite book|last = Owen|first = Richard (Owen's grandson)| year = 1894|title = The Life of Richard Owen|publisher = [[John Murray (publishing house)|J. Murray]]|location = London|volume = 1|url = https://archive.org/details/liferichardowen00owengoog
| isbn = 978-0-8478-1188-5|lccn = 03026819))
*((cite book|last = Owen|first = Richard (Owen's grandson)|year = 1894|title = The Life of Richard Owen|publisher = [[John Murray (publishing house)|J. Murray]]|location = London| volume = 2|url=https://archive.org/details/liferichardowen01owengoog
| isbn = 978-0-8478-1188-5|lccn = 03026819))
* Richards, Evellen, (1987),  "A Question of Property Rights: Richard Owen's Evolutionism Reassessed", ''British Journal for the History of Science'', 20: 129–171.
* [[Nicolaas Adrianus Rupke|Rupke, Nicolaas]], (1994), ''Richard Owen: Victorian Naturalist.''  New Haven: Yale University Press.
* Shindler, Karolyn. ''Richard Owen: the greatest scientist you've never heard of'', The Telegraph, 16 December 2010. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101210082405/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/evolution/8185977/Richard-Owen-the-greatest-scientist-youve-never-heard-of.html (accessed 16 December 2010)]
((Refend))

==External links==
*((Commons category-inline))
*((Wikiquote-inline))
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*((wikispecies-inline))
* ((NPG name))
*((Internet Archive author |sname=Sir Richard Owen |sopt=t))
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((succession box
| before = [[Thomas Henry Huxley]]
| title  = [[Fullerian Professor of Physiology]]
| years  = 1858–1862
| after  = [[John Marshall (surgeon)|John Marshall]]))
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((s-bef|before=New award))
((s-ttl|title=[[Clarke Medal]]|years=1878))
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((DEFAULTSORT:Owen, Richard))
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