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doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2007.07.002 
Copyright © 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Review
Eozoön: debunking the dawn animal
Juliana Adelmana, 
Available online 4 September 2007.
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Discovered in the nineteenth century by the Canadian Geological Survey, the Eozoön canadense fossil, or ‘dawn animal of Canada’, created a sensation in the geological community. Only a few initially challenged its status as a fossil organism, including two professors in the remote Irish town of Galway. These men claimed that Eozoön was nothing more than a mineral formation and did not represent the discovery of the primordial organism. Supporters of Eozoön closed ranks and a heated debate soon broke out in a range of periodicals. The story of Eozoön lays bare the construction of scientific credibility, a process that was threatened in the second half of the nineteenth century by the proliferation of popular science.
