Re: Dino Firsts

[pwillis@ozemail.com.au (Paul Willis)]

>> Ignoring, for the moment, that the Chinese were digging up and eating
>> dinosaur bones for centuries (thinking that they were dragon bones),
>> when was the first dinosaur bone per se "discovered" and "identified" as
>> such?

We have been through all this stuff some time ago. It should be in the archives.

>1677 - Megalosaurus thighbone found in England but misidentified as
>petrified human scrotum.

No, Robert Plot did not identify it as a human scrotum, he identified it as
a leg bone from an ox or similar large animal but he did not know exactly
what. Sometime later (in the 1700s) someone by the name of Pratt I believe,
suggested that it was a human scrotum (Scrotum humanae) which has been
suggested by some (?The bonking dinosaur Pom whose name escapes me for the
moment) as being suitable grounds for renaming the Dinosauria as the
Scrotumates (or something similar).  Not exactly kosher by the ICZN, but I
like it!

Cheers,

Paul


Dr Paul M.A. Willis
Consulting Vertebrate Palaeontologist
Quinkana Pty Ltd
pwillis@ozemail.com.au