 Another early theory of geomorphology was devised by the polymath Chinese scientist and statesman Shen Kuo (1031–1095).This was based on his observation of marine fossil shells in a geological stratum of a mountain hundreds of miles from the Pacific Ocean.Noticing bivalve shells running in a horizontal span along the cut section of a cliffside, he theorized that the cliff was once the pre-historic location of a seashore that had shifted hundreds of miles over the centuries.