IS WILLIAM F. BUCKLAND THE FIRST GEOBIOLOGIST?

In 2002, the National Science Foundation, recognizing the need to integrate the earth and life sciences, established a BIOGEOSCIENCE program (Hedin, Chadwick, Schimel, & Torn, 2002). The goal of geobiology, one of the biogeosciences, is to provide a biological perspective on Earth history (Knoll & Hayes, 2000).

Our own research focuses on geo-bio knowledge integration and its science education implications. Our historical investigations focused on the emergence of geology as a scientific discipline in the Golden Age of Geology (1788-1840).

William F. Buckland, first professor of geology at Oxford, emerged as one of the early leaders in geology; Sollas (1905) listed Buckland as the FIRST and characterizing individual of the Golden Age of Geology.

Buckland was interested in the STRUCTURE and THEORIES OF FORMATION of the Earth, a topic that we think separates the early "geologists" from those individuals who researched subdisciplines encompassed by geology. While paleontology is the study of the fossil record of past geological periods and of the phylogenetic relationships between ancient and contemporary plant and animal species, geobiology is more integrative. It is the study of the interactions that occur between the biosphere and the geosphere (Summons, 2003)

A colorful character, William F. Buckland's scientific interests were not limited to the interpretation of the Earth's structure and origin. Instead, Buckland attempted to INTEGRATE geological interpretations within the life sciences. This is evidenced by Buckland's fascination with coprolites, and his subsequent verbal reconstructions of ichthyosaur habitats based upon the fossil record. Although Buckland was sometimes wrong, we show Buckland's geobiologic forays stimulated others to contribute to the nascent and unrecognized integrated science of geobiology.

Buckland was an individual who routinely crossed the "earth science" and "life science" disciplinary boundaries that are prevalent today.

We propose that William F. Buckland be considered the first geobiologist, and that his thought and investigations have the potential to serve as a teaching model to help students grasp the nature of biogeoscientific knowledge integration today.