How did a Victorian priest become the first person to scientifically describe a dinosaur, revolutionize paleontology through the study of fossilized poop, and terrify students by shoving hyena skulls in their faces while screaming about stomachs?

In this episode of History's Greatest Idiots, featuring Laurel Rockall of the High Tales of History podcast, we explore the spectacular life of William Buckland, the eccentric geologist who dressed like a wizard, licked cathedral floors, and proved that brilliance and madness are often the same thing.

This is the story of how to change scientific history while being absolutely insufferable at dinner parties.

The Fossil-Hunting Childhood:

• How young William grew up in fossil-rich Devon with a father who took him rock hunting instead of, you know, normal parenting

• His journey from Blundell's School to a scholarship at Oxford's Corpus Christi College

• Why he became obsessed with geology before it was even a proper subject (hipster geologist energy)

The Most Terrifying Teacher in History:

• The infamous lecture technique of shoving hyena skulls in students' faces while screaming "THE STOMACH RULES THE WORLD!"

• How he'd get on all fours and prance around the lecture hall imitating dinosaur gaits (one colleague said it made him want to vomit)

• Why he dressed in full academic robes for fieldwork, looking like a wizard on a fossil hunt

• The students who attended his lectures: future Cardinal John Henry Newman, Samuel Wilberforce, and Charles Darwin's mentor Charles Lyell

The Greatest Discovery (And It's Poop):

• The 1821 Kirkdale Cave discovery: workers using prehistoric bones to fill potholes in Yorkshire roads

• How Buckland proved the cave was a prehistoric hyena den by comparing ancient faeces to fresh hyena droppings (dedication!)

• The invention of "coprolites" (fossilized faeces) as a scientific field of study

• His infamous poop table: a dining table inlaid with fossilized faeces that he made guests eat on before revealing what it was made of

• Winning the Royal Society's Copley Medal for his work on ancient hyena shit

The Dinosaur Whisperer:

• The 1818 discovery of mysterious bones near Stonesfield, Oxfordshire

• Consulting with Georges Cuvier, the founding father of vertebrate palaeontology

• February 20, 1824: Buckland becomes the first person in history to scientifically describe a dinosaur (Megalosaurus)

• How he changed our understanding of prehistoric life forever

The Tasting Geologist:

• Buckland's habit of identifying geological deposits by licking them

• His honeymoon with wife Mary Morland: touring Europe's geological sites and tasting rocks together

• The cathedral floor incident: licking "holy martyr blood" and declaring it bat urine

He Ate Everything:

• He set out on a mission to eat every living animal, which led to him creating recipes including: including mice on toast, panther chops, crocodile steaks, and...puppies

The story gets even wilder in part two. William Buckland's lifelong mission to eat everything on Earth continues, including the mummified heart of King Louis XIV of France. Plus: his house that was basically a chaotic zoo, his pet hyena Billy who wore academic robes to wine parties, and how his scientific brilliance was matched only by his complete inability to behave like a normal human being.

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Artist: Sarah Chey

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Animation: Daniel Wilson

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Music: Andrew Wilson

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