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Note: This page is under construction; these are my raw notes to be replaced shortly by a real web page.
1. We have seen how various fossils were already being attributed to an origin by natural causes by the 18th century, perhaps the best example being Steno's Glossopetrae.Thomas Jefferson set up the Lewis and Clark expedition to find a northwest passage. Part of their goal was to see if mastodons or any other animals discovered as fossils still existed alive in remote north western North America.2. In 1676, Robert Plot described Scrotum Humanumin the "Natural History of Oxfordshire", which we now recognize as a distal end of a dinosaurian femur (thigh bone).
Although it was properly described as a thigh bone, it was erroneously thought to be from an elephant brought in by the Romans.3. Georges CuvierIn the 1780's a slab of chalk with giant jaws was discovered in a chalk quarry in the town of Maastrict in the Netherlands.Cuvier also described vertebrae from France which he described as a giant extinct crocodile, although we think now they were dinosaurian.The town was sacked by Napoleon's army in 1795.
It was described by the great French comparative anatomist Georges Cuvier in 1808 as a giant extinct marine lizard. He named it the Mosasaurus (or Meuse lizard) from the Meuse River near the town of Maastricht. Cuvier was correct in his interpretation and this was no dinosaur.
Cuvier used the comparative method in which he compared the structure of the skeleton of the skull of the Mosasaurus with that of varanid lizards. Although there are differences between the two, he recognized that Mosasaurus was far more similar to a lizard than to anything else.
Cuvier also used the principle of the correlation of parts in which the form of one set of structures are shared between different species of organisms and the form of many other structures are similarly shared or correlated. So the closer, say, the skulls of two different lizard species are, the closer in form are the rest of the skeletons as well.
Most critically, Cuvier recognized the importance of extinctions. Cuvier recognized that extinctions are a fundamental feature of the geological record. He attributed this to repeated creation and extinction events. He was what we would call a "catastrophist".
In 1806 they mentioned a giant leg bone they found near Billings, Montana that was certainly a dinosaur. Unfortunately their search for living mastodons was unsuccessful.In the 1820’s Gideon and Mary Ann Mantell discovered fragmentary remains of a very large animal that was eventually named by Mantell Iguanodon. Mantell reasoned that it might be a giant version of an Iguana, since the teeth he found bear a slight resemblance to the teeth of that kind of extant lizard.
In 1840 the Mantells found somewhat more complete remains of Iguanodon called the Maidstone Iguanodon that permitted a reconstruction by Gideon. The Mantells also found a bone he assumed was a horn, that later turned out to be the thumb.In 1824 William Buckland found remains of what he named Megalosaurus.Turns out that William Smith had found bit of Iguanodon as well.
1. Cuvier thought it might be 40 ft long 2. Partial skeleton allowed reconstruction 3. 1833 - Hyaeosaurus 7. Edward Hitchcock 1830-50's 1. Footprints in US 2. 1802 - Noah's Raven 3. named hundreds of species 4. Thought they were birds and mammals 8. Sir Richard Owen - 1841 - put Iguanodon Megalosaurus and Hyaeosaurus in Dinosauria or terrible lizards 1. Noted that they had a mixture of reptilian features and mammalian features (or bird- like) 2. Pointed out that these were more advanced than modern reptiles and thus progressionist (evolutionist) theories must be wrong modern reptiles degenerate 3. Communicated with Hitchcock - thought they might be bipedal saurians or marsupialoid reptiles - coined avian 4. Worked with Waterhouse Hawkins (1852) on models for Crystal Palace 9. Edward Leidy A. 1858 - skeleton discovered by William Parker Foulke - described as Hadrosaurus foulki "Foulke's heavy lizard" B. Leidy showed that Hadrosaurus - clearly similar to Iguanodon was bipedal C. 1868 - Hawkins and Central Park 10. 1864 Hitchcock dies, 1867 Cope announces that tracks were made by dinosaurs 10. 1878 discovery of Iguanodon in mine in Belgium A. Described by Louis Dollo 1882 B. Showed where thumb went IX. Cope and Marsh A. 1860' s Cope described dinosaurs in Cretaceous of NJ 1. Student of Leidy B. 1867 - Cope states all Hitchcock's footprints were made by dinosaurs. C. And Marsh in Conn. D. 1877 - Arthur Lakes and O. W. Lucas discovered dinosaurs in SW US - Shipped to Cope and Marsh E. Marsh hired Lakes F. Cope hired Lucas and the war was on X. Great Museums funded by great men - Andrew Carnegie XI. Expeditions by AMNH, Berlin Museum, etc. to Asia, Africa, South America A. Colonial approach XII. Most countries engaged in studying dinosaurs from all continents A. Cooperation B. Interest in metabolism, ecology, global cycles, mass extinctions etc.
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