¶Richard Owen, 1804-1892, was a renowned but controversial English palaeontologist who was compared favourably with the naturalists Georges Cuvier and Friedrich von Humboldt. In his role as Superintendent of the British Museum's Departments of Natural History, Owen was influential in campaigning for the establishment of a dedicated natural history museum, which was eventually opened in South Kensington in 1881. Fiercely ambitious and vicious in temperament, he was alienated from the scientific world, especially after his outspoken criticism of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. This volume was part of a uniform series of works on zoology published by Van Voorst in a large and attractive 8vo format.