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Historical Biology Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ghbi20 Barnum Brown: the man who discovered Tyrannosaurus rex Darren Naish a a Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton University of Southampton, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK E-mail: [email protected] Available online: 25 Oct 2011

To cite this article: Darren Naish (2011): Barnum Brown: the man who discovered Tyrannosaurus rex , Historical Biology, DOI:10.1080/08912963.2011.630260 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2011.630260

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BOOK REVIEW

wife) he fathered a daughter, Frances. On Brown’s death in Barnum Brown: the man who discovered Tyranno- 1963, it is said that his assistant – Gil Stucker – rushed saurus rex, by Lowell Dingus and Mark A. Norell, into Brown’s office, gathered assorted correspondence and University of California Press, 2010, 368 pp., ISBN 978-0- photos, and mailed it to Frances, thereby ‘sanitising’ 520-25264-6 Brown’s legacy. A great story, if true. Before either of his marriages, Brown was involved in a mysterious legal case, Barnum Brown (1873–1963) is one of the most famous said by Wann Langston ‘to involve a breach of promise fossil hunters of all time. His name is forever associated regarding a marriage proposal’ (Dingus and Norell 2010, with the discovery of Tyrannosaurus rex, with various p. 159). Morrison and Red Deer River dinosaurs, with many of the Brown’s desire to pursue paleontology and geology Siwalik mammals and with numerous other fossils from all came to the fore under the tutelage of Samuel Williston at around the world. He also penned numerous scientific the University of Kansas, and Brown was able to join articles. In view of his enormous contribution to vertebrate Williston on field excursions as early as 1894. However, paleontology, it seems peculiar that Lowell Dingus and he left Kansas in 1896 to work for Henry Osborn’s Mark Norell’s comprehensive and enjoyable volume is the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology at the AMNH. As first major biography devoted to this important American expected, Osborn is a constant presence in the book, his figure. This book combines extensive data from corre- research interests often guiding Brown’s numerous spondence, expedition notes and an unpublished auto- adventures about the globe. Today, we recognise that biographical manuscript, all of it archived at the American Osborn’s motives regarding the funding of expeditions Museum of Natural History (AMNH). In the same vein as were often driven by an agenda to promote his neo- Maier’s (2003) African Dinosaurs Unearthed and Brink- Lamarckian ideas about mammalian evolution. Brown’s man’s (2010) The Second Jurassic Dinosaur Rush,itisan expeditions of the 1920s, which led to him travelling impressive tour-de-force that once again illustrates how across India, Pakistan, Myanmar and Greece, were much previously unexploited historical data can be specifically tailored to search Cenozoic strata for the unearthed through proper consultation of archival sources. primate fossils that Osborn desired to support his We might guess that someone named after the greatest hypotheses. However, Dingus and Norell note how it American showman of all time lived large, took occasional may not be coincidental that the 1920 filing of that legal risks and gambles with the direction of his life, and case ‘may well have been a catalyst’ for this remarkable enjoyed wine, women and song. And indeed this very series of exotic expeditions. At the same time, Osborn sent rough characterisation is not so far from the truth, so long Roy Chapman Andrews and others to Central Asia on a as it is understood that Brown was a brilliant field different leg of the same anthropological quest. Inciden- paleontologist and geologist and also an exacting scholar tally, Dingus and Norell note that we actually know little if with a curious and innovative mind. Despite Brown’s anything of what Andrews and Brown thought of each

Downloaded by [Mr Darren Naish] at 09:13 08 November 2011 many achievements, we know far less about him than other. It does seem odd that Osborn seemingly chose might be assumed. He mostly failed to keep good field Andrews to front the largest and most famous of all notes, and various rumoured aspects of his personal life AMNH paleontological expeditions. and character are more the stuff of legend than anything Brown’s involvement in paleoanthropology continued else. Frontier life during childhood both readied him for over the next few years of the 1920s: the unfortunate saga leadership in the field and gave him an extraordinary of Hesperopithecus haroldcooki (‘Nebraska man’) – the ability to drop everything and embark on travel for months naming of which about corresponded with the run-up to at a time. On expeditions to far-flung and often dangerous the infamous Scopes trial of July 1925 – led to Brown’s regions, Brown frequently became involved in exciting being despatched to Nevada in that year. Together with japes and scrapes. Albert Thomson, Brown discovered new specimens, and It has long been rumoured that Brown was a by 1926 it was clear that Hesperopithecus was actually a womaniser, supposedly fathering a string of illegitimate peccary. Also in the 1920s, Brown unearthed evidence that children. Dingus and Norell note that these colourful tales Pleistocene people had hunted bison in New Mexico. mostly come second hand and are unconfirmed, the While Brown’s discovery of Upper Cretaceous North majority of key informants being long deceased. We do American dinosaurs are well known, less appreciated is know that Brown married twice and that (with his first that he made significant discoveries of Lower Cretaceous

ISSN 0891-2963 print/ISSN 1029-2381 online http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2011.630260 http://www.tandfonline.com 2 Book Review

dinosaurs too. Among the most intriguing was the small display specimens that Brown collected for the AMNH. theropod that Brown informally dubbed ‘Daptosaurus’ and Source notes and a bibliography are included. on which he prepared a never-finished manuscript; the I read this book at about the same time as I read skeletal reconstruction he had prepared for this work (it can Brinkman’s The Second Jurassic Dinosaur Rush. The be seen in Norell et al. 1995, p. 129) shows how insightful volumes compliment one another extremely well, and and close to the mark he was, for ‘Daptosaurus’ is the same overlap is mostly avoided due to Dingus and Norell’s animal that John Ostrom later named Deinonychus focusing on Brown and on events that occurred beyond the (Ostrom 1969a). Brown shared detailed information on first decade of the twentieth century. A monumental both Deinonychus and the Cloverly Formation with amount of careful research, consultation with colleagues Ostrom; in view of this, Dingus and Norell may be and source checking clearly went into this volume and it justified in noting that Brown was never adequately will stand forever as the definitive work on this most credited in Ostrom’s (1969a, 1969b, 1970) work. important character. Indeed, the authors note that it took Among the many other episodes covered in the book nearly a decade to put the book together. Given Barnum are those involving the excavation of the Glen Rose Brown’s role in the discovery of so many dinosaurs, fossil dinosaur tracks and the giant Cretaceous crocodilian mammals and other vertebrates – and remember that Deinosuchus from Big Bend in Texas. The sad story many of ‘his’ specimens are familiar ones that we have all behind the rich collection of Morrison Formation encountered in research or on museum visits – learning dinosaurs recovered from Howe Quarry in Wyoming (a more about their background, and that of the man behind story that involves legal action and both fire and water their discovery and excavation, is sure to be rewarding. damage of crated fossils) is reviewed in full, I think for the I highly recommend this book and congratulate the authors first time. on a job spectacularly well done. Brown did not just look for fossils; he also prospected for petroleum and made money when paleontological work failed to appear by working for companies like References Sinclair, the Anglo-American Oil Company (the ancestor Brinkman P. 2010. The second Jurassic Dinosaur Rush. Chicago, IL: of Esso) and Canada’s North Continental Oil and Gas University of Chicago Press. Corporation. We also know that he was offered a job in Brown B. 1941. The methods of Walt Disney productions. Transact NY Acad Sci. 40:133–266. 1942 with the Office of Strategic Services (the forerunner Brown L. 1950. I married a Dinosaur. New York: Dodd, Mead. of the CIA) and, according to his daughter, he provided Brown L. 1951. Cleopatra slept here. New York: Dodd, Mead. crucial intelligence on possible invasion routes into Brown L. 1956. Bring Em Back Petrified. New York: Dodd, Mead. Dingus L, Norell MA. 2010. Barnum Brown: the man who discovered Europe. Brown also acted as advisor to Walt Disney Tyrannosaurus rex. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. during the making of Fantasia and published a technical Maier G. 2003. African Dinosaurs unearthed: the Tendaguru expeditions. article on this experience (Brown 1941). Bloomington & Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press. Norell MA, Gaffney ES, Dingus L. 1995. Discovering Dinosaurs. Boston, At times, the story is as much about Barnum’s second MA: Little, Brown and Company. wife, the vivacious, aristocratic Lilian, as it is about Ostrom JH. 1969a. A new theropod dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Barnum. A prolific letter-writer (she wrote regularly to her of Montana. Postilla. 128:1–17. Ostrom JH. 1969b. Osteology of Deinonychus antirrhopus, an unusual two sisters), Lilian was often determined to accompany theropod from the Lower Cretaceous of Montana. Bull Peabody Brown on his journeys, and indeed the two met after she Museum Natur Hist. 30:1–165.

Downloaded by [Mr Darren Naish] at 09:13 08 November 2011 had decided to bag him as a husband. At times their Ostrom JH. 1970. Stratigraphy and paleontology of the Cloverly Formation (Lower Cretaceous) of the Bighorn Basin area, Wyoming marriage was a difficult one, and she often revealed her and Montana. Bull Peabody Museum Natur Hist. 35:1–234. desires to wander and enjoy the company of the other men she met on her travels. Her correspondence provides Darren Naish crucial information on Barnum’s personal life, on the Ocean and Earth Science social events and meetings that occurred during their National Oceanography Centre, Southampton excursions, and on the background to camp life, which we University of Southampton would not otherwise have. She wrote three books on her Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK travels and life with Barnum (Brown 1950, 1951, 1956). Email: [email protected] Maps and photos feature throughout the book; q 2011, Darren Naish appendices list both the fossil collections and mounted,