The theory of evolution suggests a "principle of floral (plant) succession" to complement Smith's principle of faunal succession. Why do you think Smith relied primarily on faunal fossils rather than floral fossils in his stratigraphic mapping?

 

For both empirical and economic purposes, stratigraphy, the analysis of rock strata, originated at the beginning of the nineteenth century. While William Smith was the first to use fossils over a wide area to map a long sequence of strata, his realistic rather than theoretical approach meant that his work outside of England was not influential. However in the scientific world, Georges Cuvier and Alexandre Brongniart were well known and their slightly later studies became the foundation for much subsequent fossil and geological history work. Nevertheless, as the father of English geology and as a founder of stratigraphy, William Smith is widely remembered. On several occasions in the first decade of the nineteenth century, William Smith showed his maps and fossil collections to realistic and gentlemanly crowds alike. The patronage of Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), president of the Royal Society of London, helped him especially. However for different reasons, it was not until 1815 that Smith published his full-colored, large-sized map of England's strata, with subsequent years of written commentary. While it was widely known that Smith's map was a tremendous achievement, it was based on work he had completed almost twenty years before without regard to scholarly geology. The importance of fossils for stratigraphy had already been discovered by two distinguished French scientists in the meantime and had already conveyed their analysis to a scientific audience. Without relation to their work, the influence of the contribution by Smith can not be appreciated. Georges Cuvier (1769-1832), who was already renowned for his work on fossils and extinction, was an important and influential biologist; Alexandre Brongniart (1770-1847) was a professor of geology and the director of the state porcelain factory, which gave him an interest in discovering deposits of material suitable for ceramic production. Worked together from about 1804 to 1808 in the area around Paris, they combined their expertise to construct a detailed stratigraphic sequence of Tertiary rocks based on the various fossils found in each stone. In scientific journals, including an English translation in 1810 and a geological map in 1811, they published their observations promptly. In a context that made it possible for other scientists to understand and apply their findings, Cuvier and Brongniart prepared, conducted, and transmitted their analysis. In addition, not only to find mineral resources, but to understand the geological and biological history of a region, they used stratigraphy. It was possible to see for the first time what organic life in the far past was like and how it had evolved in response to changes in the physical world. By the time William Smith actually published his map, the next generation of English geologists, four years after Cuvier and Brongniart, had already started to take an interest in the work of the French academy. These scientists were concerned with historical rather than practical problems, exemplified by the Geological Society of London (GSL), which had been founded in 1807. Thus, while it was a first, Smith's achievement was not specifically influential on geological thought in either Britain or continental Europe. Therefore, though, it should not be concluded that its influence was absolutely insignificant. Smith did make an attempt, if not through science journals, to share his work. Via personal contact with other geologists, including his nephew, John Phillips (1800-1874), who later became an Oxford scholar, he shared his theories. Practical men like himself, who used them in their daily jobs, highly praised Smith's techniques. The techniques of Smith have often supplied the gentleman scientists who were responsible for the main debates and advances in British geology at the beginning of the nineteenth century with valuable knowledge regarding local stratigraphy. In addition, high-profile members of the GSL, such as Adam Sedgwick (1785-1873) and R., attempt to establish the order of the more complex strata that underlie the rocks examined by Smith. Even if their words and proposals were entirely different, I. Murchison (1792-1871) continued a project he had started. "father of English geology. Smith's map of 1815 had some effect, too. It covered a much longer sequence of strata than Cuvier and Brongniart's and a much wider geographical area. To express the three-dimensional form of the strata, a technique that was technically superior but impractically costly, it also used a groundbreaking color shading system. Less usefully, according to his own personal terms, Smith called the strata rather than seeking to relate them to already defined formations elsewhere in Europe. This was one aspect in which his work had a very small impact, as geologists needed to create historical explanations and principles of mapping that would apply elsewhere. Finally, the fundamental importance of fossils as an effective method for solving stratigraphic problems was illustrated by Smith's map, if nothing else. For starters, while visiting Joseph Banks on a trip to London in 1802, it is possible that Brongniart himself saw a preliminary version of the map and was inspired by the prospect of such a project. In the history of early nineteenth-century geology, the invention of stratigraphy was probably the most significant occurrence. Geologists were able to create a complete, synthetic history of the Planet with this device, understanding for the first time exactly how long the fossil record represented a span of years. Charles Lyell (1797-1875) picked up this theme and later sought a spot in natural selection theory, suggesting that the overall scientific and social influence of the use of fossils in stratigraphy was genuinely enormous. More quickly, however there were real economic gains from understanding where to look for coal and other commodities, and where not to look. From the 1830s onwards, the drive to discover and extract mineral riches inspired the creation of various state geological surveys around the globe, and an important part of this movement was the capacity to make detailed and practical charts. Therefore for numerous reasons, the use of fossils in stratigraphy was important to various individuals. The contribution of William Smith is best assessed by his own realistic criteria, which were a noteworthy success. The work of Cuvier and Brongniart was similarly influential by their newly established historical criteria, which very soon became those of the general geological group.