Dinosaur History: Richard Owen
The beginning of the knowledge of dinosaurs all began by Richard Owen. A zoologist and paleontologist, Owen was the first to discover and identify dinosaur fossils. He had noticed that a group of fossils (Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, and Hylaeosaurus) had common charcteristics. By observing the fossils, he noticed they all had “column-like legs (instead of the sprawling legs that other reptiles have) and five fused vertebrae fused to the pelvic girdle” (Enchanted). He published these findings in his 1834 scholarly article, “Proceedings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.” It was within his writings that we first see the word "dinosauria" which is from the Greek "deinos" meaning fearfully great, and "sauros" meaning lizard. Overtime "dinosauria" became "dinosaur".
Within a second published article, Owen's "Report on British Fossil Reptiles." Part II. Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Owen wrote:
"The combination of such characters, some, as it were, from groups now distinct from each other, and all manifested by creatures far surpassing in size the largest of existing reptiles, will, it is presumed, be deemed sufficient ground for establishing a distinct tribe or suborder of Saurian Reptiles, for which I would propose the name of Dinosauria."
Within a second published article, Owen's "Report on British Fossil Reptiles." Part II. Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Owen wrote:
"The combination of such characters, some, as it were, from groups now distinct from each other, and all manifested by creatures far surpassing in size the largest of existing reptiles, will, it is presumed, be deemed sufficient ground for establishing a distinct tribe or suborder of Saurian Reptiles, for which I would propose the name of Dinosauria."
Dinosaurs Owen discovered and identified…
“Anthodon (1876)
Bothriospondylus (1875)
Cardiodon (1841)
Cetiosaurus (1841)
Chondrosteosaurus (1876)
Cimoliornis (1846)
Cladeidon (1841)
Coloborhynchus (1874)
Dacentrurus (1875)
Dinodocus (1884)
Echinodon (1861)
Massospondylus (1854)
Nuthetes (1854)
Polacanthus (1867)
Scelidosaurus (1859)
(Enchanted)”