This is a linocut of a sort of "imaginary friend" of science, a thought experiment personified as an anthropomorphic frog. Early geologist Charles Lyell (1797-1875), in his famous ‘Principles of Geology,’ wrote that to avoid some sources of prejudice in understanding geology would require an Amphibious Being, who could, say, compare processes happening today on land and those happening today below water with what we see in the geological record. Likewise the Amphibious Being would be better able to identify fossils, being familiar with life on land and in the sea. He wrote,

"It should, therefore, be remembered, that the task imposed on those who study the earth's history requires no ordinary share of discretion; for we are precluded from collating the corresponding parts of the system of things as it exists now, and as it existed at former periods. If we were inhabitants of another element—if the great ocean were our domain, instead of the narrow limits of the land, our difficulties would be considerably lessened; while, on the other hand, there can be little doubt, although the reader may, perhaps, smile at the bare suggestion of such an idea, that an amphibious being, who should possess our faculties, would still more easily arrive at sound theoretical opinions in geology, since he might behold, on the one hand, the decomposition of rocks in the atmosphere, or the transportation of matter by running water; and, on the other, examine the deposition of sediment in the sea, and the imbedding of animal and vegetable remains in new strata. He might ascertain, by direct observation, the action of a mountain torrent, as well as of a marine current; might compare the products of volcanoes poured out upon the land with those ejected beneath the waters; and might mark, on the one hand, the growth of the forest, and, on the other, that of the coral reef."

-Charles Lyell, 'Principles of Geology' 9th ed. 1853


While far less well-known than say, Maxwell's Demon or Schroedinger's Cat, the Amphibious Being absolutely performs the same purpose. He's a figment of Lyell's imagination who serves to elucidate and explore a problem in science. The Amphibious Being highlights the possibility that our conclusions about the origins of rocks or fossils are biased since we only live on land, the same way Maxwell's Demon explores the mysterious nature of the Second Law of Thermodynamics or Schroedinger's Cat exposes the strangeness of the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics and what that would mean if we saw it in the every day world of large things like well, cats, rather than the subatomic scale. So I added the Amphibious Being to my collection of "Imaginary Friends of Science."

This print is inspired by the delightful Victorian anthropomorphic caricature, particularly of frogs. The Amphibious Being wears a contemporary suit, inspired by portraits of Lyell himself, and he carries the geologist's tools of the trade, including a sample bag, a pick axe, a geological hammer and a magnifying glass. Behind the Amphibious Being is a geological cross-section which shows terranes on- and offshore as well as a volcano, based on the diagram in the end pages of Lyell's 'Principles of Geology.' At the very top are two fossils of on- and off-shore life: a fern and a nautiloid.