When it comes to dinosaur fossils, I believe everyone is familiar with it. So I wonder if you have considered a question, that is, how was dinosaur fossils not discovered until the 1800s? Let’s take a look today.
This statement is actually not accurate because according to a paleontologist named Ken McNamara, prehistoric human had long discovered dinosaur fossils and used them to make tools and decorations, but people did not have the concept of dinosaurs at that time.
They only regard the bones of these huge creatures as mythological creatures. For example, an ancient archaeologist in our country once regarded the remains of dinosaurs as the bones of dragons, and the term dinosaurs is defined in modern times.
In the mid-1600s, a British naturalist named Robert Plott discovered a dinosaur bone, and wrote a book called "Oxfordshire Natural History". In the book, it detailed the process of the discovery and called the fossil, which looked almost exactly the same as the lower half of the human thigh bone, and was accompanied by illustrations.
However, he did not know what he had found, but later people based on the illustrations of Plott that the fossil might be a dragon or a similar dinosaur, but since the original fossil is now lost, it is difficult to confirm this.
But luckily, the arrival of the 18th and 19th centuries brought this fossil back into people's sight, which also led to our modern understanding of dinosaurs. In the early 1800s, a large number of dinosaur fossils were unearthed in England, including giant dragons, avian dragon and hyralons, etc.! Then an English paleontologist named Sir Richard Irving studied these fossils and found that they had many common characteristics. In 1842, he published a report, in which he gave these creatures a name, and the word "dinosaur" was recognized for the first time.
So Richard Irving , why do people call them dinosaurs? This also has its origins. The word dinosaur originates from Greek and is often cited as "terrible lizard". However, when coining the word, Sir Richard instead called the creatures "terrible big" and pointed out that their size is much larger than any living reptile , which led to the name.
After this, people's scientific research on dinosaurs entered a calm period until in the 1960s and 1970s, when scientists gathered some new evidence, they once again became the focus of attention, including that birds evolved from a group of dinosaurs.
It is from then on that, these prehistoric creatures have entered our lives, and various movies, electronic games, and books are emerging one after another. The term dinosaur has also become a prehistoric creature that we all know.
Okay! That’s all for today. Friends who like it can like, leave a message, follow and support it. I am Li SIR. Let’s see you in the next issue. If you still have popular science knowledge and bizarre events you like, you can also leave me a message. If it is appropriate, I will sort it out and post it. Let’s discuss it together and find the answer that is closest to reality.
