ERTH 2401 Lecture 2: Dinosaurs in History
3 Nov 2015
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Fossils in antiquity fossils seen as dead mythological creatures ex. A not recognized at the time thigh bone illustration. 1700s: naturalists interested in nding order in the world, documenting everything that was out there. Early 1800"s could not nd exact date at this time, just periods. Stratigraphy: sequence of rock formations mapped, geological time periods de ned. At rst, no classi cation name of dinosaurs; just thought to be big lizards. First concept of age of reptiles preceding dominance of mammals determined from stratigraphy basically always known that dinosaurs older than mammals. 1824: buckland publishes rst scienti c paper naming dinosaur described, illustrated, named megalosaurus. Still a valid genus (name) based on this material. 1800s based on a few teeth & bones from england. 1878: later scientists rede ned name based on complete skeletons found in belgium. Iguanodon: herbivore, one of the rst herbivores studied. 1842: richard owens invents the word dinosaur to include 3 species: megalosaurus, iguanodon, hylaeosaurus.
