I need to know how strong the number of discovered fossils of
dinosaurs (or of some other interesting group of animals, e.g. mammals
or humans or overall) has been growing in the last 200 years. For
example, how many fossils where found until 1800, until 1850, until
1900, until 1950 and until today?
I?m not only interested in those pieces of information, but also in
some literature about these issues.

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Clarification of Question by ludl-ga on 14 Sep 2005 12:03 PDT

A rough estimate would already be helpful. Was the growth on average
exponential? If yes, can one estimate a doubling rate?

I'm not sure of any exact numbers, but the curve of discovery is quite
dramatic; with more and more fossils being discovered every year. The
most peculiar facet of these discoveries is that they have never shown
any cross phylum development; meaning that no transitional forms have
been discovered that bridge the gap between any of the phylums.

Unfortunately, no one really knows how many fossils have been
recovered, much less the rate at which the number of recovered fossils
is increasing.  Surprisingly, none of the world's major natural
history museums actually know exactly how many fossils are in their
collections (see the recent US National Academy of Sciences report
"Geoscience Data and Collections: National Resources in Peril", 2002,
available online at <http://www.nap.edu/books/0309083419/html>.  This
report discusses the very real and growing problem of the archival
preservation of geological samples of all kinds, including fossils.)

I must also respond to the comment by sanzyu that "no transitional
forms have been discovered that bridge the gap between any of the
phylums."  This is an oft repeated creationist canard (i.e., it's
wrong).  A detailed discussion of how the phyla we recognize today
originated, and their relationship to one another can be found at:
<http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/2001/PSCF3-01Morton.html>.  A general
discussion of the nonexistent "gaps problem" that creationists love to
trot out can be found at:
<http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-transitional.html>.

Thanks for the second comment (both parts).
ludl