[Rockhounds] Megalosaurus, the first ever dinosaur discovery

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Huge fossilized bones that emerged from slate quarries in England’s
Oxfordshire beginning in the late 1600s were immediately puzzling.

In a world where evolution and extinction were unknown concepts, the
experts of the day cast around for an explanation. Perhaps, they thought,
they belonged to a Roman war elephant or a giant human
<https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2015/10/the-first-described-and-validly-named-dinosaur-megalosaurus.html#:~:text=Scrotum%20Humanum%20notwithstanding%20%2C%20Megalosaurus%20represents,as%20an%20extinct%20giant%20reptile.>
.

It wasn’t until 1824 that William Buckland, Oxford University’s first
professor of geology, described and named the first known dinosaur, based
on a lower jaw, vertebrae and limb bones found in those local quarries. The
largest thigh bone was 2 feet, 9 inches long and nearly 10 inches in
circumference.

Buckland named the creature the bones belonged to Megalosaurus, or great
lizard, in a scientific paper that he presented to London’s newly formed
Geological Society on February 20, 1824. From the shape of its teeth, he
believed it was a carnivore more than 40 feet (12 meters) long with “the
bulk of an elephant.” Buckland thought it was likely amphibious, living
partially in land and water.

“In some ways he got a lot right. This was a group of extinct giant
reptilian creatures.
This was a radical idea,” said Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist at the
University of Edinburgh and author of “The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs:
A New History of Their Lost World
<https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-Dinosaurs-History-Their/dp/0062490435>.”

“We all grew up watching dinosaur cartoons and watching ‘Jurassic Park,’
with dinosaurs on our lunchbox and toys. But imagine a world where the word
dinosaur doesn’t exist, where the concept of a dinosaur doesn’t exist, and
you were the first people that realize this simply by looking at a few
large bones from the earth.”

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/01/europe/megalosaurus-first-dinosaur-discovery-scn/index.html