1
Lecture 1. Introduction to Dinosaur Studies
4000 YEARS OF MADNESS
DARK AGES: MYTHICAL AND OTHER EARLY VIEWS Dragon bones in China Dinosaur teeth and bones collected ~1500 BC in China Ground into medicine Chinese dragons typically wingless, some serpent-like Dragon bones in the West Western dragons tend to be winged, perhaps because pterosaur fossils more common on mainland Europe than dinosaurs. Are mythic Griffins based on Protoceratops Herodotus hunting for flying snakes in Egypt (~430 BC) Robert Plot - 1676: First illustration of a dinosaur bone. Thought it was the leg of giant human "Scrotum humanum"?
AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT Mary Anning (1799-1847) - Great Victorian fossil collector. Pterosaurs, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs William Buckland (1784-1856) - 1824, first paper describing dinosaurs as extinct giant reptile. Megalosaurus (carnosaur) Reconstructed as a giant Komodo dragon. Gideon Mantell - 1825, second paper describing a dinosaur, Iguanodon (duck-billed dinosaur). Richard Owen (1804-1892) - brilliant anatomist. Coined the term Dinosauria for these 'fearfully great lizards' in April, 1842. Defined as having teeth set in bony sockets, large sacra composed of five fused vertebrae, ribs with two heads, a complex shoulder girdle, long hollow limb bones and mammal-like feet. He thought all dinos were a group of advanced reptiles, and that all were quadrupeds. Because the first identified dinosaurs were large and because they were clearly reptiles, scientists misunderstood them for a long time. If first dinosaurs identified had been smaller bird-like forms the history of dinosaur science might have been much different.
DINOMANIA I 1850s - Crystal Palace and Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins: dinosaur paintings and life- size sculptures. Owen was in charge of project. He collaborated w/ sculptor Waterhouse Hawkins. Reconstructions portrayed dinos as awkward, lizard-like, quadrupedal, but no complete skeletons found to this point. 1850-1860: First complete dinosaur skeletons found and described: Owen in England (quadruped); Leidy in America (bipedal).
DINOMANIA PART II Harry Govier Seely - 1887 - Bird vs. lizard-hipped dinosaurs Cope and Marsh Feud - 1860-1890 - Most of the famous dinosaurs from North America were collected in a frenzy of activity from 1870 to 1900, spurred by intense rivalry between two men: Edward Cope and Othniel Marsh. Their prime hunting ground: Colorado, Wyoming, Montana. Como Bluff. Bone Cabin Quarry one of richest sites, local trapper built a cabin made of dinosaur bones. Originally Cope and Marsh 2
were friends (Cope from wealthy quaker family, worked at Philadelphia Academy of Sciences; Marsh used his uncle Peabody's $ to fund Yale Peabody Museum, his own endowed teaching position and to fund expeditions). Feud began with competition for best sites and with Marsh's published expose of a misreconstructed Elasmosaurus by Cope (head at wrong end). Marsh also bribed Cope's collectors to send him new fossils from their pits. Both Cope and Marsh used collectors to get most fossils. Their competition greatly increased the popularity of dinosaurs in America; unfortunately in their haste their collectors sometimes destroyed and damaged specimens AND it resulted in termination of federal funding for their work AND for the US Geological survey. Also, Marsh dynomited some excavations in Wyoming that Cope claimed were his. On one occasion, Cope had a train load of Marsh's specimens diverted to Philadelphia. Many famous dinos discovered and named during this period, including Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Stegosaurus and Triceratops. On Marsh's first expedition in 1870 Wm. F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) acted as a guide for the first leg of the trip. He remained a life long friend of Marsh. Both Cope and Marsh exhausted their personal fortunes as a result of the bone wars. Turn of the century Dinosaur Rush: Henry Fairfield Osborn - 1857-1935: American Museum. Barnum Brown - 1873-1963: A life-long employee of the American Museum in New York. Charles Sternberg - 1850-1943: fossil collector and amateur
DINOMANIA III - World wide exploration through the 20th century Werner Janensch - Tanzania and Ernst Stomer - Egypt Roy Champan Andrews - Mongolia in the 1920s - dinosaur eggs Antarctic expeditions in the 1990s
DINOMANIA IV - Dinosaur renaissance Dinosaurs in the seat of government Many new theories and new ideas about ecology, physiology, behavior and evolution Much new blood