Richard Owen

Born in Lancaster, England, in 1804, Richard Owen trained in medicine before becoming one of the 19th century's leading comparative anatomists and fossil experts. He built his reputation through detailed studies of living and extinct animals, and his early work on the pearly nautilus helped establish him as a major scientific figure.

Owen is best remembered for recognizing that several giant fossil reptiles belonged to a distinct group, which he named Dinosauria in 1842. Over a long career, he published extensively on vertebrate anatomy and palaeontology and became one of Victorian Britain's most prominent men of science.

He was also a complicated and controversial figure. Owen strongly opposed Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, and his reputation has long been shaped by both his scientific achievements and his personal rivalries. He is also closely associated with the founding of London's Natural History Museum, a lasting part of his public legacy.