The subtitle description of these Victorians as "eccentric" captures it well. Lots of odd characters stumbling to make sense of dinosaur fossils while staying to the general Biblical narrative until Darwin.
To understand Darwin and his loss of faith that led to his publishing Origin of Species (1859) let me recommend Richard Keynes' Annie's Box: Charles Darwin, His Daughter, and Human Evolution (2001 Keynes is a descendant of Darwin and his book starts with discovery of Darwin's writing about his daughter who died young provoking a storm of guilt from marrying his first cousin. (Darwin blamed this semi-incestuous marriage for his daughter's weak health.)
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