Dinosaur Discoverers

People have probably found dinosaur fossils for thousands of years. But it was until 1841that scientists first identified the dinosaur group.There have been many well-known dinosaur hunters, made famous because of dinosaurs they discovered .


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SIR RICHARD OWEN:

(1804-1892) was a famous British anatomist. He coined the name "Dinosaur" which means "terrible lizard"

What he discovered:
Owen worked at Natural History Mueseum in London, where he studied fossils found in Europe. He not only realized that some fossils were reptiles, but unknown types of giant reptiles, He concluded that they must have belonged to a group of extinct animals, and named this group dinosaurs.

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DR. GIDEON MANTELL:


(1790-1852) was a medical doctor from Sussex in England. He was also a keen fossil hunter. He spent much of his early life collecting fossils in hills near were he lived. But it was one fossil find that put his name in the history books.

What he Discovered:

In 1820, Gideon Mantell and his wife, Mary Ann, found some large teeth and bones in gravel near a stone quarry. They belonged to unknown, Iguana-like animal.

In 1825 he named it Iguanodon, although he did not realized  at that time that it was a dinosaur.

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DEAN WILLIAM BUCKLAND:

(1784-1856) was the first  professor of geology of Oxford University in England. He was fascinated by fossils from childhood . 

What he discovered :

In 1824, a large jawbone with giant tooth was found near Oxford.Buckland recognized it as belonging to previously unknown giant reptile. This reptile was named Megalosaurus, Which means "big lizard", and was the first dinosaur to be named.Like mantell Buckland did not know that .

Megalosourus was a dinosaur.

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JOHN BELL HATCHER:

(1861-1904)  was a fossil collector for Othniel Marsh. Hatcher is recognized as one of the greatest collectors of dinosaurs in history of America paleontology .

What he discovered:

In 1888, Hatcher found part of a huge skull with horns beside the Judith River in Montana.It turned out to be Triceratops , and was the first fossil of this dinosaur to be discovered. It was also the first of the horned dinosaurs to be found, which introduce a new dinosaur variety to paleontologists .

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EDWARD DRINKER :

Cope (1840-1897) was an american from philadelphia . He was a scientific genius, and dinosaurs were just one area on which he was an export. 

What he discovered:

Cope stared his scientific career after the american Civil War. He traveled with fellow scientist Othaniel Marsh on many of his early trips. They eventually became fierce rivals. Among his many finds, Cope discovered several primitives Triassic dinosaurs from New Mexico .

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OTHNIEL CHARLES MARSH:

(1831-1899) was and American paleontologist born in New York .Along with E.D.Cope ,Marsh was one of the great pioneers of dinosaur fossil hunting in the  United State.

What he discovered :

Marsh discovered many dinosaur fossils sites in the United states. The most famous were Como Bluff in Wyoming and several sites in Colorado. His intense rivarly with Edward Drinker Cope was nicknamed the "Bone Wars".

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EBERHAARD FRAAS: 

(1862-1915) was a German paleontologist. He went on long expedition  to Africa in his search for dinosaurs fossils. 

What he discovered:

In 1907, Fraas was told of some dinosaur bones a site in German East African, later to become Tanzania. Fraas led an expedition set up to explore the site and, in 1909-12 the first specimens of Kentrosaurus, Elaphrosaurus, Baosaurus , and brachiosaurus, were discovered there. The brachiosaurus skeleton Fraas discovered in now in a museum in Berlin, Germany . 

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GEORGE F. STERNBERG:

(1883-1969) was an American paleontologist who started collecting fossils at the age of six. He continued to work on fossils for the next 66 years.

What he discovered:

George F. Sternberg made his most important dinosaur discovery in 1908: the first impression of dinosaur skin, which belonged to Edmontosaurus. Sternberg made other discoveries along with his father, fossil-hunter Charles H. Sternberg, and brothers charlie and Levi. 

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EDWIN COLBERT:

(1905-2001) was an American paleontologist and export in Triassic dinosaurs . He first interpreted pachycephalosaur skull as battering rams . He wrote several books about the history of dinosaurs.

What he discovered:

Colbert  found the first complete Coelophysis skeletons in New Mexico in 1947 . Some skeleton held the bones of young Coelophysis may have been a cannibal.

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ANDREW CARNEGIE:

(1835-1919) was originally from Scotland. He emigrated with his family to the United States at the age of 11.He made his fortune in steel industry in Pittsburgh.

What he discovered :

Carnegie set up the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh . He sent fossil hunters on long expeditions to find dinosaurs for his museum.They discovered two complete skeleton of Diplodocus. stands in the national History Museum in London . 

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ROY CHAPMAN ANDERWS:

(1884-1960) led the first American expedition to the Gobi Desert in Mongolia in 1922. Andrews went with a team of American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).

What he discovered :

Andrews and his team discovered many new dinosaurs in the Gobi Desert. Among them Protoceratops,Velociraptor, and Oviraptor.But the most significant find was some fossilized protoceratops eggs- The first dinosaur eggs to be discovered . 

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EARL DOUGLASS :

(1862-1931) was an American from Utah. He worked at Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. 

What he discovered:

In 1909 Douglass was sent by Andrew Carnegie to hunt for fossils  in Utah. Douglass's discoveries included Diplodocus and Apatosaurus. The site where these dinosaurs were found was turned into the dinosaur National Park, which still exists today.

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BARNUM BROWN:

(1873-1963) , an American was hired by the American Museum of Natural History in New York because of his skill in finding  dinosaur skeletons. 

What he discovered:

Barunum Brown's expertise in fossl hunting earned him the nickname "Mr.Bones" He found the first Tyrannnosaurus rex fossils, and named Ankylosaurus and Corythosaurus. The AMNH houses the world's greatest display of Cretaceous dinosaurs as a result of brown's collecting.

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JIM JENSEN:

(1910-98) was self -taught paleontologist .He was the curator of the vertebrates Paleontology Research Laboratory at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

What he discovered: 

Jensen discovered some of the largest dinosaurs.In 1977 , He found a partial akeleton of sauropod. He named it Supersaurus. It height is estimated to be 54 ft (16.5 m ) .In 1979 he found a partial skeleton of another new sauropod. Now called Ultrasaurus, it may be a particularly big specimen of Brachiosaurus.

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BILL WALKER:

(b.1928) is a British quarry-worker who also an amateur fossil collector. In 1982, he made an important dinosaur discovery when exploring a muddy clay pit in Surrey ,England .

What he discovered:

Walker found a huge claw , which broke into pieces when held it . He took it to the British Museum in London, Which , which organized an excavation to recover more of the creature . It turned out to be a new dinosaur, which was named Baryonyx walkeri, in honor of Walker.

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