who discovered the first dinosaur
The first dinosaur to be scientifically named was Megalosaurus , described in 1824 by the English geologist and clergyman William Buckland.
Quick Scoop
- In 1824, William Buckland studied fossil bones from quarries near Oxford and realized they belonged to a gigantic, extinct reptile, which he named Megalosaurus (āgreat lizardā).
- This makes Buckland the first person to formally describe and name what is now recognized as a dinosaur species, even though the word ādinosaurā did not yet exist.
- The term Dinosauria (āterrible lizardsā) was coined later, in 1841ā1842, by anatomist Sir Richard Owen, who grouped Megalosaurus and other giant reptiles into this new category.
A tiny twist
- Fossil bones that we now know were dinosaurian were noticed earlier (for example, Robert Plot described part of a Megalosaurus thighbone in 1677) but they were not recognized as belonging to dinosaurs.
- Because Bucklandās Megalosaurus is the first dinosaur species formally named and still accepted today, he is generally credited as the discoverer of the āfirst dinosaurā in the scientific sense.
TL;DR: William Buckland discovered and named the first recognized dinosaur, Megalosaurus , in 1824, and only later did Richard Owen create the group name Dinosauria for such animals.
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