in the first part of his career owen was regarded rightly as one of the great scientific figures of the age. in the second part of his career his reputation slipped. this was not solely due to his underhanded dealings with colleagues; it was also due to the serious errors of scientific judgement which were discovered and publicized. a fine example was his decision to classify man in a separate sub-class of the mammalia (see thomas henry huxley). in this owen had no supporters at all. also, his unwillingness to come off the fence concerning evolution became increasingly damaging to his reputation as time went on.