Dinosaurs & Prehistory - Dinosaurs - Dinosaur history - Dinosaur discovery - Paleontology - Jurassic
Which dinosaur was the first to be scientifically named?
Correct!
Megalosaurus made scientific history. The British geologist and paleontologist William Buckland described the animal in 1824 using fossil bones from Oxfordshire. This made Megalosaurus the first dinosaur to be scientifically described and named. The strange thing about it: At that time, the word “dinosaur” didn’t even exist. It was not until 1842, 18 years later, that Richard Owen combined Megalosaurus, Iguanodon and Hylaeosaurus into a new group of animals and coined the name Dinosauria for it. The original Megalosaurus fossils come from the Stonesfield area of Oxfordshire, England. Some of the pieces William Buckland worked with in 1824 are still in the collection of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. The name Megalosaurus means “big lizard”. However, no one knew at the time that these bones belonged to a completely new group of extinct animals.
Megalosaurus was described by William Buckland in 1824 and is considered the first scientifically named dinosaur.
