History of dinosaur discovery

Titans of the Earth, Sea, and Air, chapter 2

by Jonathan Sarfati, Joel Tay

en.wikipedia.org

Premodern

There should be no doubt that such creatures once roamed the earth. We have many of their fossil bones and some trackways. This chapter concerns the history of fossil discoveries after dinosaurs had become extinct.

The fossil hunters were really (re)discovering dinosaurs. Long before this, dinosaur bones were known to the ancient Chinese—the 4th-century historian Chang Qu discussed findings of what were considered to be dragon bones. There is also evidence that ancient people had seen living dinosaurs (see Ch. 15).

Modern

The modern period began in 17th-century England, where scholars discovered bones that they knew were not part of any creature alive at that time.

Robert Plot (1640–1696)

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The modern discovery of dinosaurs begins in 1677 with Robert Plot, an eminent English naturalist. He was later appointed Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford, and First Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum.¹ In The Natural History of Oxford-shire, Plot described the lower end of a femur that weighed almost 9 kg.² He initially thought that it was from an elephant. But he later realized that the bone was different from those of elephants, humans, horses, and oxen. However, he came to the strange conclusion that the bone must have been from a giant man or woman.³

Many people today believe that Robert Plot’s bone was part of a Megalosaurus femur. But Plot did not know what the femur was during his time, nor was the specimen named Megalosaurus until many years later. Unfortunately, none of Robert Plot’s fossil specimens exist today, and all we have are copies of his illustration.

commons.wikimedia.org, public domain

William Buckland (1784–1856)

The identification of Plot’s femur as belonging to Megalosaurus would only come many years later through William Buckland. He was an Anglican clergyman, paleontologist, and a leading geologist in England. He was appointed as the first Reader of Mineralogy at Oxford University in 1813 and was endowed with a second Readership in Geology in 1819. He went on to be appointed as the Canon of Christ Church in 1825 and Dean of Westminster in 1845. During his time at Oxford, Buckland resided at the Old Ashmolean building (now the History of Science Museum). Just as Robert Plot was the first Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Buckland served as an unofficial curator over the museum’s collection.⁴

Georges Cuvier (1769–1832), a well-known opponent of evolution and the ‘founding father of paleontology’, visited the University in 1818. On this visit, he was shown several huge unidentified teeth and a jaw. Cuvier realized that the bones belonged to a giant reptilian-like animal. After he informed Buckland, Buckland began to study the bones more closely.

In 1824, Buckland became the first to publish a scientific paper describing a dinosaur.⁵ He called his specimen Megalosaurus, meaning, ‘great lizard’. Megalosaurus bucklandi is now known to have been a 9-m-long meat-eating dinosaur that walked on two legs. Now classified as a theropod, the group includes T. rex (see Ch. 7). However, when first discovered, it was believed to be a 15-m, four-footed reptile.

Unfortunately, Buckland was influenced by the idea that the rock layers were a record of vast periods of time in Earth history. So, rather than accepting the original meaning of Scripture, he held to a form of the Gap theory.⁶ Buckland allegorically interpreted the word ‘beginning’ in Genesis to refer to an undefined period with countless cycles of creation of new plant and animal groups. Although he also professed belief in a global Flood in Noah’s day, he actively and vocally rejected the view of the 19th century scriptural geologists. They showed that the rock layers are consistent with what would be expected from the global Flood.⁷

commons.wikimedia.org, public domain

Buckland wrongly assumed that the Noahic Flood could only have contributed to a small number of strata in the geological record. He pointed to hyena remains in a cave and assumed that these creatures lived before the global Flood. Since only a thin layer of mud covered those bones, he thought that the global Flood did not contribute much to the geological strata. Buckland claimed that the thick rock layers under the hyena bones had to be evidence of vast ages of time before the Genesis Flood. Buckland even published a full-scale treatise, Reliquiae Diluvianae, or, Observations on the Organic Remains attesting the Action of a Universal Deluge. Here, he argued against the biblical view of creation, based on his interpretation of those cave remains.⁸

Of course, he was mistaken since, as most biblical creationists point out today, caves were likely formed by hydrothermal waters of the Flood.⁹ So, any hyenas that lived in caves must have been post-Flood. The same with the thin layer of mud on top of their bones. In other words, the real Flood deposits would have to be the vast layers that made up the strata below (not above) those bones. Ironically, these are the very same layers Buckland interpreted as evidence for vast ages of time.

Gideon Mantell (1790–1852)

In 1822, around the same time as Buckland, obstetrician and paleontologist Gideon Mantell began to study several huge unidentified teeth. As with Buckland’s bones, Cuvier was consulted. He suggested that the teeth resembled those of a giant reptile, but this time it was a plant-eater. Mantell thought the teeth closely resembled iguana teeth except they were twenty times larger; so, he named this creature Iguanodon, meaning ‘iguana tooth’.

Some of the earlier reconstructions of Iguanodon were not very accurate. Mantell wrongly assigned the thumb spike to the tip of the snout, not unlike that of a rhinoceros horn. And just like Buckland’s Megalosaurus, Mantell presented this creature as a four-footed reptile.¹⁰

At first, Buckland, as well as Cuvier, dismissed the teeth as rhinoceros’ teeth. But they admitted their error, and Mantell got to name an enormous hitherto unknown herbivorous reptile. He first wanted ‘Iguanosaurus’ (‘iguana lizard’). But since an iguana is itself a lizard, this term would be redundant. So, his friend, clergyman and geologist William Conybeare (1787–1857), persuaded him that Iguanodon (‘iguana tooth’) was better.¹¹ Iguanodon is now classified as an ornithopod (see Ch. 9).

Only a few years later in 1832, Mantell discovered some limited remains of an armoured dinosaur (see Ch. 8) he called Hylaeosaurus (‘forest lizard’).

Mary Anning (1799–1847)

Mary Anning was another prominent figure in those early days of dinosaur paleontology. From an early age, Mary would follow her father on fossil hunting trips along the cliffs and shorelines in England. She soon became known as a reputable fossil collector and dealer.

Some of her discoveries include several species of marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs (1811), plesiosaurs (1823, 1830), and flying reptiles now called pterosaurs (1828). It is important to note that these flying and marine reptiles are not dinosaurs, which are terrestrial creatures (see Ch. 10).¹² Dinosaurs also have very distinctive features (see Ch 3).

Anning’s creatures were soon nicknamed sea dragons and flying dragons in several museums, but this was several years before the word ‘dinosaur’ was first used.¹³

Richard Owen (1804 –1892)

Richard Owen was probably the leading paleontologist and anatomist of his day. He was also one of the strongest opponents of Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and his theory of evolution by natural selection (although Owen was not a biblical creationist)! He even helped establish the world-renowned Natural History Museum in London, England. It is now, sadly, a museum dedicated to evolutionism.

In 1842, Owen noted that Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, and Hylaeosaurus had several features in common and were distinct from any living creatures. So, he grouped them as a part of a new group of reptiles, the Dinosauria. This was the first time the word dinosaur was used to describe these animals. Owen coined the term from Greek, δεινός (deinos), meaning “terrible, potent, or fearfully great” and σαῦρος (sauros) meaning “lizard/reptile”.

Owen named another huge creature that same year, Cetiosaurus (‘whale lizard’). He thought it was a marine creature, but it was later proven to be another dinosaur—the first sauropod discovered in modern times. He then founded the Natural History Museum in London to display these extinct creatures. This opened in South Kensington in 1881.

However, Owen thought that Iguanodon was a ponderous creature that lumbered on four heavy legs. So, the first statues showed it this way. Mantell realized that its forearms were too short, and that it was more likely bipedal. But then the reconstruction went too far the other way. Late 19th-century and early 20th-century pictures showed it upright in the infamous tripod posture with its tail dragging on the ground. However, in the late 20th century, paleontologists realized that the tail was very stiff with ossified tendons. This means that a tripod posture would have snapped the tail! Therefore, Iguanodon is now portrayed with the spine horizontal over the hip and with the tail quite horizontal. As the animal grew, it would have spent more time leaning on its forelegs.

Foulke and Leidy in the USA

Decades later, William Parker Foulke (1816–1865), a geologist as well as an anti-slavery abolitionist, lawyer, and prison reformer, made the first dinosaur discovery in the Americas. This was the most complete dinosaur skeleton ever found up to that time. It comprised bones from four limbs, a pelvis, parts of the jaw, and over two dozen vertebrae. This wasHadrosaurus foulkii (‘strong lizard of Foulke’) in Woodbury Formation in New Jersey.

Anthony Delanoix, commons.wikimedia.org

Joseph Mellick Leidy (1823–1891) reconstructed this dinosaur as bipedal. In 1868, this became the first mounted dinosaur skeleton. Leidy was a paleontologist, parasitologist, and anatomist at the University of Pennsylvania—and an early American supporter of Darwin. Now Hadrosaurus foulkii is the official state dinosaur of New Jersey. It is today classified as an ornithopod and a ‘duck-billed’ dinosaur (see Ch. 9).

One of Leidy’s students, Edward Drinker Cope (1840– 897), played a huge role in what would come to be known as the Bone Wars. The bitterness and intensity of these ‘wars’ drove Leidy out of American vertebrate paleontology.

Bone Wars

en.wikipedia.org

en.wikipedia.org

All these discoveries in the USA led to widespread excitement at the possibility of finding new dinosaurs in the vast continent. Thus began the Bone Wars, or the Great Dinosaur Rush, from 1877 to 1892. This was a fierce rivalry between Othniel Charles Marsh (1831–1899) and Cope. This pair of talented men had formidable personalities and had started as friends, but became bitter enemies. Each tried to outdo the other in dinosaur discoveries. Sometimes they even tried to undermine each other’s expeditions.

They were also both staunch evolutionists, but with different ideas of that as well. Marsh was one of Darwin’s first converts in the USA, and they even corresponded. Marsh wanted to find fossil support for Darwinism. He discovered many of the fossils that have often been touted as ‘the evolution of the horse’.¹⁴

But Cope thought that natural selection could not explain the origin of different types of creatures. Instead, he revived the discredited idea of pre-Darwinian evolutionist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829), that creatures inherited acquired characteristics. This is called Lamarckian inheritance or Lamarckism (which Darwin accepted more than most evolutionists claim^15,16). Cope also believed inorthogenesis, or evolution directed along certain pre-ordained paths. One has been called ‘Cope’s rule’, that lineages increased in body size as they evolved. However, other evolutionary paleontologists have presented counterexamples. Another was his belief that non-white races of human were more ape-like—a belief shared by most evolutionists of the day.¹⁷ Cope thought that these evolutionary paths were directed by a consciousness that God had built into life. Thus, he was a sort of theistic—or even pantheistic—evolutionist.

In the end, Marsh ‘won’ the Bone Wars with 80 new species to Cope’s 56, although both discovered many non-dinosaur species as well. In another sense, both lost, by being both financially ruined and their reputations damaged by their underhanded tactics. The unethical behaviour harmed the reputation of American paleontology in general. In their rush to name as many species as possible, they were premature in naming some, and lost or destroyed some samples. But many of the best-known dinosaurs, as well as several extinct marine and flying reptiles, owe their discovery to these obsessive men.

Among Marsh’s discoveries were Allosaurus (‘other lizard’), Apatosaurus (‘deceptive lizard’), Diplodocus (‘double-beam’), Stegosaurus (‘roofed lizard’), and Triceratops (‘three-horned face’). He also discovered ‘Brontosaurus‘ (‘thunder lizard’), but that turned out to be an Apatosaurus skeleton to which he had attached the wrong head. This was ironic because his feud with Cope probably also began with a wrong head! Namely, Marsh pointed out that Cope had reconstructed the plesiosaur Elasmosaurus (‘thin plate lizard’) with the head at the tail end. Another probably overturned discovery wasTorosaurus (‘perforated lizard’), which was probably just a mature Triceratops (see Shape-shifting dinosaurs, Ch. 5). Marsh discovered and named both, but only the second one is likely still valid.

Cope discovered the huge Camarasaurus (‘chambered lizard’), the most common sauropod found in North America. This was the first sauropod whose skeleton was reconstructed. Cope also discovered the relatively small Coelophysis (‘hollow nature’).

Cope also found two broken vertebrae (1892)—one since lost—of probably the most iconic dinosaur of all. This is the only dinosaur commonly known by both its genus and species name: Tyrannosaurus rex (‘tyrant lizard king’). But he thought these bones were of a ceratopsian (horned) dinosaur he called Manospondylus gigas (‘giant porous vertebra’).

Barnum Brown (1873–1963), assistant curator of the American Museum of Natural History, discovered a partial skeleton of T. rex in 1900, then an almost complete one in 1902. The museum’s president Henry Fairfield Osborn (1857–1935), also a leading eugenicist, was the one who recognized they were the same type. He was responsible for giving them the famous name in 1905. Normally in classification, the first valid name has priority. However, the limited use of Manospondylus made it a nomen oblitum (‘forgotten name’). Tyrannosaurus is so famous that it’s a nomen protectum (‘protected name’).

Another dubious dinosaur Cope discovered wasAmphicoelias fragillimus. Amphicoelias means ‘hollow on both sides’ (Greek ἀμφί/amphi = both κοῖλος/koilos = hollow). The species namefragillimus is Latin to describe “the most fragile” remains. This name referred to the only part of this dinosaur discovered, a huge broken biconcave vertebra in delicate weathered mudstone. This was lost—perhaps crumbled to pieces—but it led some to claim this as the biggest dinosaur of all time (but see What was the biggest dinosaur? in Ch. 3).

Huge sauropod

Around the same time, an enormously massive sauropod was discovered in Colorado. Elmer Samuel Riggs (1869–1963), of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, named itBrachiosaurus (‘arm lizard’) in 1903. Riggs declared this to be “the largest known dinosaur”, a designation virtually unchallenged until the last few decades.

A few years later, a German paleontological expedition into German East Africa (a site now in Tanzania) discovered some nearly complete skeletons of Brachiosaurus. These included several skulls, a rare find for sauropods. From these, a huge composite skeleton was constructed and mounted in the Museum für Naturkunde (Natural History Museum) in Berlin (once called the ‘Humboldt Museum’). Even today, it’s the tallest mounted dinosaur skeleton in the world; it managed to survive even World War 2 bombings.

Riggs named the American one B. altithorax (‘high chest’). But Werner Janensch (1878–1969) called the African one B. brancai (‘of Branca’, after fellow German paleontologist Wilhelm von Branca, 1844–1928). In more recent times, the African one has been renamed Giraffatitan (‘titanic giraffe’) brancai.

Dinosaur fascination

Dinosaur popularity increased greatly with the iconic paintings of Charles Robert Knight (1874–1953). His paintings were all the more impressive because he was legally blind and needed special glasses to correct severe astigmatism. Probably his most famous painting was a face-off between Triceratops and T. rex (1906).

His paintings inspired the way dinosaurs were portrayed in the most-likely fraudulent Ica stones¹⁸ as well as many books and movies. These include classics such as the silent The Lost World (1925) and King Kong (1933), the Disney animated musical Fantasia (1940). This portrayal continued in much later movies like The Land that Time Forgot (1975).

Unfortunately, a lot of Knight’s pictures were wrong. He impressed on many that dinosaurs were sluggish, lumbering, tail-dragging brutes; the bipedal ones were drawn in an errant tripod pose. (This is strong evidence that the dinosaur-bearing Ica stones really are forgeries; see also Ch. 15.) Many sauropods were drawn largely submerged in water. Elmer Riggs had rightly taught that their leg structure was of a land creature, but this view was eclipsed.

One exception to the ‘sluggish’ portrayal was a pair of large fighting theropods called Leaping Laelaps (1896). Laelaps was another casualty of the Bone Wars. Cope had named it in 1866 after a magical dog in Greek mythology who never failed to catch her prey. (In the myth, she was sent to catch the uncatchable Teumessian fox. But Zeus realized that these attributes of infallible hunting and infallible evasion were mutually incompatible. So, he turned Laelaps and the fox into the constellations Canis Major and Canis Minor, respectively). But then it was realized that the name was taken—by a mite of all things—and Marsh renamed the creature Dryptosaurus (‘tearing lizard’) in 1877.

Dinosaur renaissance

In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, some scientists questioned the received wisdom of dinosaurs as sluggish, lumbering creatures. This ‘renaissance’ was led by paleontologist John Ostrom (1928–2005). It was ably continued by his student Robert Bakker (b. 1945). Bakker, in turn, mentored freelance researcher and illustrator Gregory Paul (b. 1954).

Ostrom discovered the dinosaur Deinonychus (‘terrible claw’), the first known Dromaeosaurid (‘runner dinosaur’). He gave it the specific name D. antirrhopus (‘counterbalancing’). The name emphasized his contention that this stiff tail was held out and used for balance while running. Ostrom is also credited for popularizing the belief today that birds evolved from these dinosaurs (see Ch. 17). His detailed monograph, especially with Bakker’s illustration of it in a running pose, was revolutionary.¹⁹

Bakker later extended this research to argue that dinosaurs, in general, were active and agile creatures, and even warm-blooded.²⁰ He also vindicated Riggs’ teaching that the sauropods were terrestrial, not aquatic. Then Paul, who has no formal degree in paleontology but is a highly gifted illustrator, produced many drawings and paintings of dinosaurs. These included illustrating their skeletal and musculoskeletal features.²¹ Notably, Bakker is an ecumenical Pentecostal minister and a theistic evolutionist, while Paul is a vocal misotheist.

Thanks to their research, more modern dinosaur films and documentaries portray dinosaurs much more accurately. For example, dinosaurs are correctly shown with the spine roughly horizontal over the hip and their tails held out and active, not dragging. This was notable in the BBC’s documentary Walking with Dinosaurs (1999), and in films such as Jurassic Park (1993) and its sequels.

Unfortunately, Michael Crichton (1942–2008), in his 1990 Jurassic Park novel, and Stephen Spielberg (b. 1949), in the related movies, portrayed several dinosaur-related errors. Some of these errors were intentional artistic license, like portraying Dilophosaurus at half their height and able to spit venom; others were just poorly introduced mistakes. Regardless of the intent, the successful series firmly established dinosaurs as active creatures in the reading and viewing public’s minds, errors and all.

Some of the results of the ‘dinosaur renaissance’ are summarized in Ch. 3. This includes whether they were warm-blooded, smart, and agile.

Chinese dinosaurs

Some of the most influential and important dinosaur discoveries in modern times have been in China. Many new kinds have been discovered, as well as others that are new varieties of previously known kinds. The pioneer was Chung Chien (“C.C.”) Young, (Chinese: 杨钟健, Pinyin: Yáng Zhōngjiàn, 1897–1979), widely considered the “Father of Chinese Vertebrate Paleontology”. One of his most famous students is Zhiming Dong (董枝明, Dǒng Zhimíng, b. 1937), discoverer of many new dinosaurs.

©CMI

The belief that birds evolved from dinosaurs preceded Ostrom. Two years after Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859, German Paleontologist, Christian Erich Hermann discovered Archaeopteryx, a feathered bird (see Ch. 18). Evolutionists at that time started to toy with the idea that reptiles evolved into birds. Richard Owen, an anti-Darwinian, Thomas Huxley, and even Charles Darwin alike, all regarded Archaeopteryx as a bird that came from various reptilian-like creatures. In 1864, a few years after Darwin’s Origin of species, Gegenbaur, an embryologist and anatomist, studied the small dinosaur, Compsognathus, and compared it to the bird, Archaeopteryx. He was the first to suggest that dinosaurs evolved into birds. This convinced Thomas Huxley. Four years later, in 1868, Thomas Huxley (see Ch. 17), proposed that ancient flightless birds evolved from dinosaurs such as Compsognathus. And through intermediate forms similar to Archaeopteryx, these creatures evolved into the modern birds that we see today.²³

In other words, the belief that dinosaurs evolved into birds far preceded Ostrom, but Ostrom was responsible for repopularizing the belief that dinosaurs evolved into birds in contemporary paleontology. Most evolutionists today who believe that dinosaurs evolved into birds, believe that modern birds evolved from theropods rather than from much ‘older’ birds like Archaeopteryx.

The current leading figure is probably Xing Xu (徐星, Xú Xīng; b. 1969; xīng is the Chinese word for ‘star’), who has probably named more dinosaurs than any other person alive today. He is especially well known for his discoveries of alleged feathered dinosaurs (see Chapters 17 and 18 for details on feathered dinosaur claims).

Unfortunately, China is also known for its dubious and even fraudulent discoveries, such as the ‘Piltdown bird’, Archaeoraptor. Dr Xu was one of the first to expose that fraud.

Argentine dinosaurs

Another country rich in dinosaur fossils is Argentina. Some of the most famous are many titanosaurs, which, according to evolutionists, were the last surviving group of sauropods. Some are candidates for the largest dinosaur of all (see Ch. 3), including Argentinosaurus, Patagotitan, Futalognkosaurus, and Puertosaurus. There were also large theropods including Giganotosaurus and Mapusaurus.

Many important discoveries were made by José Fernando Bonaparte (1928–2020; no close relative of Napoleon). Although he was self-taught, he achieved so much that he was called the ‘father of Argentinian dinosaur paleontology’, and Robert Bakker called him the “Master of the Mesozoic” (Maestro del Mesozoico). Bonaparte also mentored the next generation of Argentine dinosaur discoverers. One of these is Rodolfo Aníbal Coria (b. 1959), who discovered and named Argentinosaurus and Giganotosaurus. Others include Luis Chiappe, Agustín Martinelli, Fernando Novas, Jaime Powell, Guillermo Rougier, Leonardo Salgado, and Sebastián Apesteguía.²²