ENGLAND

1600's: James Ussher (1581-1656) Archibishop of Armagh; earth created: Sat. Oct 3, 4004 B.C. 8 p.m. GMT; set the tone for non-extinction

1677: Robert Plot: first description and drawing of a dino bone; he was Oxford professor; museum keeper finds a Megalosaurus thigh-bone; was it a human (?) giant

1811: Mary Anning (1799-1847) found first ichthyosaur; plesiosaur (1824); and pterosaur (1828); 'she sells sea shells . . .' is a poem about her (?) - some definitely think it is

1822: Gideon Mantell (1790-1852) country doctor in Sussex; amateur collector and writer; tooth / teeth found by wife (?)

1825: named Iguanodon because teeth looked like those of an iguana; second dinosaur named

1833: third dinosaur named: ankylosaur Hylaeosaurus

Mary Ann Mantell - she supposedly found the first dinosaur bones of iguanodon

1824: William Buckland -- gave first scientific description of Megalosaurus ('giant reptile') from a single jawbone w/teeth; the first dinosaur name to be published; he was given these bones around 1818

Sir Richard Owen (1804-1892) 1841: coins the term, dinosaur / dinosauria; comparative anatomist; Supt. of British Museum; Megalosaurus; Iguanodon; Hylaeosaurus

1859: Charles Darwin {1809-1882} reluctantly publishes his book (Nov 24th)

1860: Alfred Russel Wallace {1823-1913} July 1858 'co-authored' paper with Darwin; publishes his own ideas shortly after Darwin (a few months ?)

internet source:
Richard Owen 1804-1892

Sir Richard Owen was an English morphologist and anatomist. He was very important in English natural history during the mid-19th century. He synthesized French anatomical work, especially from Cuvier and Geoffroy, with German transcendental anatomy. He gave us many of the terms still used today in anatomy and evolutionary biology, including "homology". He was also a taxonomist naming, among other groups, the Dinosauria.

pdp 12/6/93

Britain
Many different kinds of dinosaurs roamed southern Britain in Early Cretaceous times. Rocks in the area contain the remains of Iguanodons, boneheads, armored dinosaurs, and other ornithischians; ferocious meat-eaters such as Megalosaurus; and huge plant-eating sauropods. These roamed about in a large, marshy area that in prehistoric times sprawled across to France and Belgium. That marshy area is now covered by the English Channel. Source: troll - dinosaurs pp84-88

5/31w/95 -- 6/12w/96

FRANCE

Baron Georges Cuvier (1769-1832)
'founder' of systemic study comparative anatomy / paleontology

Belgium

1878: Bernissart (town) miner, Jules Creteur find oddly shaped lumps when a coal seam changed into a clay deposit; 39 complete Iguanodon skeletons; 1,057 ft (322m) deep in the mine

1882: Louis Dollo

Royal Museum of Natural History (Brussels); took the next 30 years to reconstruct 11 'perfect' fossil Iguanodons; probably a bi-ped; long necks; small heads; much different than Mantell's

(see: England) view that they were elephant-like lizards; Dollo found two different sizes -- probably different species; p128 dixon

troll - dinosaurs pp84-88

DISCOVERIES IN EUROPE

Ever since the discovery of dinosaur fossils in England (see page 79), collectors have scoured Europe's Mesozoic rocks for more.

Belgium and France

In 1878, Belgian coal miners made an exciting find. Working 1,056 feet (322 meters) below the surface, they found the fossilized bodies of more than thirty Iguanodons that had fallen down a steep ravine and died.
Another fascinating find was the large fossil eggs unearthed in France. They are among the largest dinosaur eggs ever found.
( Leyden: don't know the date for this - the first dinosaur eggs were discovered by Roy Chapman Andrews on July 13, 1923 in Mongolia)
5/31w/95 - 6/12w/96