Title: Homo diluvii testis

Creator: Unknown

Description: The image on the left, marked 441, shows a fossil which was found in a limestone quarry in Öhningen, Germany.  It was first described by the Swiss naturalist Johan Jakob Scheuchzer (1672-1733) who claimed it to be the spine and pelvis of a child which had been trampled during the Biblical Flood.  It was named Homo diluvii testis which translated as ‘man, witness of the Flood’.

In 1811, the French naturalist Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) picked away at some of the fossil revealing the forelimbs.  He identified it as being a giant salamander. It would later be renamed Andrias scheuchzeri in honour of its original describer.

From Louis Bourguet, Traité des pétrifications. Paris: Chez Briasson (1742), plate 60.

Date: 1742

Format: Engraving

Image reference: 04-63

Recommended print size: Up to A4 (30 x 20cm)