GEOL 240 The Dinosaurs:Dinosaur Explorers

Dinosaur is a recent concept; difficult to explain the prevalence of “dinosaur” in mythology in many cultures.

First discoveriesDinosaur warsModern Dinosaur Hunters

Summary

Scientific Method

Science is a way of understanding the physical universe. It is a set of tools by which to explore the world.

Uses the method of testing hypotheses Observations of natural phenomena lead to

possible explanations (hypotheses) These hypotheses must be falsifiable (i.e.,

there must be some test which can demonstrate that the hypothesis is untrue)

Until the hypothesis is tested, it is only considered a speculation

Theory

If the hypothesis survives a test (or tests) of falsification, it is tentatively (or provisionally) accepted (keeping in mind that additional tests might potentially overturn the hypothesis)

A hypothesis that has undergone severe testing and survived, has wide acceptance in the scientific community and can be successfully used to predict the results of future tests is called a theory.

 

Publication

Science proceeds by publication of ideas in a public arena.

Allows others to check the original scientist's observations

Allows others (including later generations) to independently test the hypotheses

Allows ideas to be widely transmitted  

Dinosaurs in Prehistory

Stories of giant reptiles abound in ancient mythology

Perhaps the first legitimate dinosaur recognition by humans were the trackways preserved in rocks.

In some areas where dinosaur trackways are abundant, drawings of animals resembling iguanodon are associated with artistic renderings of trackways

Probably really large bones were generally not recognized as such until recently

People have long known about Dinosaur tracks, but they were completely misidentified -

The tracks to the left were known as "Noah's Raven" about which we will have more to say, directly.

Early Concepts

What is a Dinosaur?

The word "Dinosauria" (and hence "dinosaur") was coined in 1842 by Sir Richard Owen, a creationist

Greek deinos "fearfully great" (i.e., not just big, but WONDERFULLY BIG!), and sauros "lizard"

Note: hundreds of books to the contrary, Owen did not say Dinosauria meant "terrible lizard"

What is a Dinosaur?

Archosaurian reptilesUpright limbsThree or more sacral vertebraePerforate acetabulaWe will revisit these later. What made the

dinosaur unique however was the open acetabulum.

Early Concepts of Dinosaurs

The first published record of a dinosaur bone was in Robert Plot’s Natural History of Oxfordshire published in 1677.

He called it the “capita Fermoris inferiora” or part of a thigh bone from just above the knee joint, and he thought that it was the petrified bone of an elephant that had come to England during the Roman occupation.

Early Concepts – Robert Plot

In 1728 a posthumous catalog of the geologic collection of John Woodward showed a portion of a dinosaur limb bone. This is the earliest discovered dinosaur bone that is still accounted for (i.e. it’s still labeled and in a museum).

There were several other discoveries of what we now know are dinosaur bones, but most were lost and/or not formally published

Early Concepts – John Woodward

First major published dinosaur discovery, was in Britain, by Reverend William Buckland:

 Megalosaurus (“big lizard”) perhaps 40 ft. long

 Formally described it in 1824 Thought it to be a giant version of the modern

monitor lizard

First Dinosaur – William Buckland

First Dinosaur - Megalosaurus

Next major discovery, in the Weald region of southern England, by husband and wife team Dr. Gideon and Mary Ann Mantell:

• Teeth were leaf-shaped, reminiscent of the modern Iguana, a primarily herbivorous reptile

• Formally described it in 1825 • Imagined it to be an immense version of the

iguana lizard (see below)

The Mantells

The Mantells

Gideon & Maryann Mantell

The Mantells

Gideon & Maryanne Mantell:

•Gideon was an Englishman in the Early 1830’s

•He was a “country doctor” (physician), a naturalist, and an amateur fossil collector

•Mythology has it that Maryann traveled with him during long drives

•While Gideon saw patients in house-calls, Maryann rummaged around nearby streams and quarries looking for fossils, or so the story goes….

The Mantells’ Big Discovery:

•One day in 1821 Maryann found some large reptilian teeth in a pile of road-side gravel

•The road workers showed her the quarry from which they dug the gravel

•Maryann and Gideon raced back to the quarry and found some more teeth and bone fragments

•Gideon scoured the museums looking for clues about the fossil. Some probability that Gideon invented this story. Why?

The Mantells

In 1840 the Mantells found somewhat more complete remains of Iguanodon called the Maidstone Iguanodon that permitted a reconstruction by Gideon. The Mantells also found a bone he assumed was a horn, that later turned out to be the thumb.

Mantell’s 1833 sketch

The Mantells

Today’s image of Iguanodon

Iguanodon

Gideon Prepares a Report:

•In 1824 Gideon noted the unusual similarity between the very large teeth of the fossil and the tiny teeth of the living vegetarian Iguana from the Caribbean

•He decided to name his fossil “Iguanodon” (“the giant lizard with Iguana’s teeth”)

•He wrote his report to another scientist (David Gilbert).

•Gilbert sent Mantell’s report to the Royal Society of London, to be published in its Philosophical Transactions (1825)

Notice on the Iguanodon, a newly discovered fossil reptile, from the sandstone of Tilgate forest, in Sussex

By

Gideon Mantell, F.L.S. and M.G.S.

Fellow of the College of Surgeons, &c.

In a Letter to David Gilbert, Esq. M.P.V.P.R.S. &c. &c. &c.

Communicated by D. Gilbert, Esq.

The Mantells

Sir,

I avail myself of your obliging offer to lay before the Royal Society, a notice of the discovery of the teeth and bones of a fossil herbivorous reptile, in the sandstone of Tilgate forest; in the hope that, imperfect as are the materials at present collected, they will be found to possess sufficient interest to excite further and more successful investigation, that may supply the deficiencies which exist in our knowledge of the osteology of this extraordinary animal.

The Mantells

Iguanodon

Iguanodon

Third major discovery, also in the Weald region and also by the Mantells:

Very large spikes were found arranged along the skeleton: first evidence of giant armored reptiles

Called it Hylaeosaurus (“lizard of the Weald”) described in 1833

Pictured it as a giant spiky lizard

Hylaeosaurus

Hylaeosaurus

In 1836 Edward Hitchcock, president of Amherst College, reported on the discovery of what he believed to be the tracks of giant birds

The largest of these earliest footprint finds was a magnificent natural cast of a three toed track he named Orinithichnites giganteus from what is now the north side of Holyoke, Massachusetts on the east bank of Connecticut River - at the still accessible Dinosaur Footprint Preserve. Later this track was renamed Eubrontes giganteus. It was the first dinosaur track to be described anywhere. It was a sensational discovery and a lithograph of the track was at once incorporated into Buckland's famous "Bridgewater Treatise" (2nd ed., 1836).

Edward Hitchcock

Hitchcock got into a dispute with a former friend, a Dr. James Deane, about who really found the first dinosaur tracks and realized their significance. Hitchcock tried to defuse the problem by recounting a story about the young Pliny Moody. Moody was a farmer in South Hadley, Massachusetts around the turn of the 18th century, who in 1802 or 1803 plowed up some slabs of dinosaur tracks in one of his fields. One particular slab (at right) stood for many years as a doorstop in the Moody home where it was referred to as the track of "Noah's Raven.“ It is now recognized as Anomoepus scambus, the footprints of a small ornithischian dinosaur.

Edward Hitchcock

By 1865, the year of his death, Hitchcock had named hundreds of species of footprints. Based on their resemblance to the tracks of birds he remained true to his idea that most of them were made by birds. However he also recognized that some of them had, in addition to bird-like feet, impressions of five-fingered hands, and that they could not have been made by birds but rather by some bird-like reptile or perhaps some kind of marsupial (Kangaroos have feet that look three toed, although they are not).

Ironically, fragmentary bones of a real dinosaur from nearby had been described 16 years earlier (Ellworth, 1820), but they were thought to be human.

Edward Hitchcock

In 1841, Sir Richard Owen, brilliant, eccentric anatomist at the British Museum of the caliber of Cuvier, gave public talks about the fossil reptiles of Britain. Concluded that Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, and Hylaeosaurus formed their own distinct group. Proposed the name Dinosauria (“fearfully great lizards”) for this group when he wrote up talk (in 1842)

". Owen noted that they had a mixture of reptilian and mammalian (or bird-like) features. He pointed out that these were more advanced than modern reptiles and thus progressionist (evolutionist) theories must be wrong, because it would mean that modern reptiles were degenerate.

 

Richard Owen and the Concept of Dinosaur

In Owen's words, "The combination of such characters, some, as the sacral ones, altogether peculiar among Reptiles, others borrowed, as it were, from groups now distinct from each other, and all manifested by creatures far surpassing in size the largest living reptiles, will, it is presumed be deemed sufficient ground for establishing a distinct tribe or sub-order of Saurian Reptiles, for which I would propose the name of Dinosauria. Of this tribe the principle and best established general are the Megalosaurus, the Hylaeosaurus, and the Iguanodon.“

Richard Owen and the Concept of Dinosaur

The Crystal Palace was a magnificent glass structure built to celebrate the first of the world's fairs, the great exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park, London. Owen and Hawkins were commissioned in 1852 to produce a life-sized outdoor diorama of prehistoric life for the rebuilt Crystal Palace that were to include cement and tile models of Iguanodon and Megalosaurus.

At the inauguration of the new exhibit, a dinner was held inside the model Iguanodon with Owen the honored guest. Dinosaurs became popular subjects for popular science, political cartoons, etc. Dinosaurs were a BIG DEAL!

Richard Owen and the Concept of Dinosaur

The Concept of Dinosaur

Dinosaur teeth found by explorers in western territories (now Montana): Described in 1856 by first American

vertebrate paleontologist Joseph Leidy Recognized some to be similar to

Iguanodon, others to be similar to Megalosaurus, still others to be some sort of lizard. Leidy named them:

Deinodon (“terrible tooth”)Trachodon (“rough tooth”)

  First North American discoveries

Discovered near Haddonfield, New Jersey Described by Leidy, who named it

Hadrosaurus (“heavy lizard”) Teeth and bones were similar to Iguanodon,

but fossil was more complete Front leg was much smaller and more slender

than hindlimb, indicating it was bipedal (two legged) Suggested that Iguanodon was bipedal, too

Revolutionized the depiction of dinosaurs as quadrupeds.

  First North American discoveries

Hadrosaurus and Leidy

Concept of Dinosaur Overhauled

Now dinosaurs would be reconstructed as active, fairly graceful animals. On the right is a painting by Waterhouse Hawkins showing Iguanodon as well as several other dinosaurs and aquatic reptiles (not dinosaurs). The dinosaur being bitten on the neck, is Iguanodon, the one doing the biting is Megalosaurus, on the right several Hadrosaurus leave with worried looks.

In 1878 large numbers of completely articulated Iguanodon skeletons were discovered in a coal mine in Bernissart, Belgium (at least 18).

These proved to be the most complete dinosaurian remains found to that time.

They were described in detail by Louis Dollo in 1882 and it finally became clear where the spike-like object went - on the hand.

On the right is a photo of one of the Bernissart skeletons being mounted .

Concept of Dinosaur Overhauled

Great Dinosaur Rush

Edward Drinker Cope Othniel Charles Marsh

Personal rivalry developed between Cope and Marsh

• During the 1860s Marsh and Cope had an amicable relationship, working mostly on vertebrates from Eastern North America

• 1877 Arthur Lakes and O. W. Lucas discovered dinosaurs in the Southwest United states; shipped them to Cope and Marsh

• Marsh hired Lakes; Cope hired Lucas, and the war was on. Lasted until their deaths.

• fueled by rapid, massive digs• rush to name each species first• only interested in getting as many bones as possible—little

care or record of actual digs• rushed publications with poor quality—mistakes made

because names often based on only a few bones• The vast numbers of fossils discovered formed the central

collections of major museums, including some of the first complete dinosaur fossils.

The First North American Explorers - Cope and Marsh

Edward Drinker CopeEdward Drinker CopeStudent of Leidy.

1867 – three years after Hitchcock dies, Cope announces the “Bird” tracks were dinosaurian

1880s Research initially funded by inheritance

1889-1897 Professor of Geology, University of Pennsylvania

Prolific writer of scientific papers, many contributions to science

The First North American Explorers - Cope and Marsh

Othniel Charles MarshOthniel Charles MarshBorn a modest farm boy, but nephew of wealthy philanthropist Peabody

1866-1899 - Professor of Paleontology, Yale University

1882-1892 - Chief Vertebrate Paleontologist, United States Geological Survey

The First North American Explorers - Cope and Marsh

Between 1870 and the late 1890s, Cope and Marsh identified 136 new dinosaur species (and untold numbers of other animals (mammals, fish, and birds).

The First North American Explorers - Cope and Marsh Marsh’s 1st major expedition – Kansas, Utah, and Wyoming

Cope tried to search in Wyoming also, but…

…Marsh considered it to be “his” territory, and the bitter feud and intense rivalry began

Their rivalry and competition causedTheir rivalry and competition caused:

• The Bone Wars

The First North American Explorers - Cope and Marsh

CopeCope MarshMarshBest known fossil site:

Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry

Better quality specimens – more easily

removed from surrounding rock

Best known fossil site:

Como Bluff

“Mother Lode” of dinosaurs from the

Jurassic Period

Where the famed Brontosaurus was found

The First North American Explorers - Cope and Marsh

So fearful that Cope or his assistants would try to get some of the Como

Bluff fossils, …

The First North American Explorers - Cope and Marsh

In January, 1890, the New York Herald ran a series of articles about the two men. Here’s a few comments they had for each other:

CopeCope:

“Unable to properly classify and name the fossils his explorers

secured, Marsh employed assistants who did the work for him and to which he signed his name…the most remarkable

collection of errors and ignorance of anatomy and the literature on

the subject ever displayed.”

Marsh and assistantsMarsh and assistants:

“Professor Cope’s mental and moral characteristics

unfit him for any position of trust and responsibility…he is inordinately jealous and suspicious…traits that give

him that hysterical temper…”

The First North American Explorers - Cope and Marsh

Perhaps fitting for two scientists who allowed competition to outweigh science, they each met some humiliation…

CopeCope:

Cope assembled and wrote about

Elasmosaurus. Marsh examined the skeleton and found that Cope

had gotten the tail and neck on the wrong

ends!

MarshMarsh:

Marsh eventually was asked to resign from the USGS due to congressional budget cuts. Some congressmen saw his

work as such waste, that they began referring to government

waste as “birds with teeth” after Marsh’s book about

extinct birds.

“Coprolite named by Marsh for his archrival” according to folklore. In actuality, named in 1830 by Wm. Buckland from kopros (Gr.) = dung, and -ite = common ending for mineral, thus fossil dung.

The First North American Explorers - Cope and Marsh

Era of Imperial Paleontology

Most famous expeditions: o American Museum of Natural History expeditions:

the Central Asiatic Expeditions of the 1920s

o From 1907-1912, German expedition to Tendaguru, German East Africa (now Tanzania)

Various digs in other parts of the world by other museums (e.g., Germans in Egypt, various U.S. and Canadian museums in Alberta, etc.)

In 1960s, John Ostrom of Yale University: Reinterpreted horned and duckbill dinosaurs

as sophisticated feeders In 1964, discovered Deinonychus (“terrible

claws”) (named in 1969) - Sickle-like claw on foot indicated active leaping predator

Later comparisons between Deinonychus and the primitive bird Archaeopteryx caused Ostrom to revive idea that dinosaurs were bird ancestors

Modern Era

1970s: Beginning of the Dinosaur Renaissance. New (or revived) topics of dinosaur research:

Were they cold-blooded or warm-blooded? Did they have complex family structures? How did they communicate? How were the different types of dinosaur related?

What was the relationship between dinosaurs & birds? How did the dinosaurs go extinct?

New discoveries from many parts of the world Now discoveries made from every continent

The Modern Dinosaur Hunters

Jack HornerJack Horner Robert BakkerRobert BakkerCurator Museum of the

Rockies, Montana

Curator University of Colorado Museum,Boulder

Lee SpencerLee SpencerCurator Hanson Research

Station Collection, Wyoming

The Modern Dinosaur Hunters

Jack HornerJack HornerHe didn’t finish high school, flunked out of College

is also widely known as the leader in “destroying T. Rex’s reputation” as a savage predator…he says that T. Rex was more likely to be a scavenger (eyes too small, arms too small, slow due to huge legs)

Paleontologist in Jurassic Park based on Horner

The Modern Dinosaur Hunters

Bob BakkerBob Bakker

Undergraduate Harvard, Ph.D. from Yale

Known for being an “unconventional” scientist – He says that the 1st duty of scientists is to spread knowledge to as many people as possible – not to talk above people and write in scientific jargon

He consulted on Jurassic Park (Note that he obviously sees T. Rex as a predator)

The Modern Dinosaur Hunters

Lee SpencerLee Spencer

Undergraduate Univ. California, Ph.D from Loma Linda University

Known for being an “unconventional” scientist – He says that the 1st duty of scientists is to spread knowledge of Jesus as Creator to as many people as possible – not to talk above people and write in scientific jargon

He didn’t consult on Jurassic Park (but would have had he been asked.)