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Zoom Dinosaurs

DINOSAUR QUESTIONS

Frequently Asked Dinosaur Questions

Question #7: What was the first dinosaur ever found?



Answer: People have been finding dinosaur fossils for hundreds of years, probably even thousands of years. There are references to "dragon" bones found in Wucheng, Sichuan, China (written by Chang Qu) over 2,000 years ago; these were probably dinosaur fossils.



Much later, in 1676, a huge thigh bone (femur) was found in England by Reverend Plot. It was thought that the bone belonged to a "giant," but was probably from a dinosaur. A report of this find was published by R. Brookes in 1763.



The first dinosaur to be described scientifically was Megalosaurus in 1824, by William Buckland. Buckland (1784-1856) was a British fossil hunter and clergyman who discovered some Megalosaurus fossils in 1819 and named the reptile in 1824. It was the first dinosaur ever described scientifically and first theropod dinosaur discovered (this is all in hindsight, because the dinosaurs had not yet been recognized as a separate taxonomic group - the word dinosaur hadn't even been invented yet).



For more information on early dinosaur finds, click here.







Top Sixteen Dinosaur Questions

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