Richard Owen

Sir Richard Owen was the person who came up with the term "dinosauria." Dinosauria came from the Greek words "deinos" (fearfully great) and "sauros" (lizard). He recognize these beings as very large, but extinct reptiles.

From a group of fossils of a few different dinosaurs, he found a couple big differences between the bones structures of living reptiles and these fossils. One big difference was that the fossilized reptiles all had column like legs (legs that were directly underneath the body like a lion's or a dog's) instead or legs that sprawled out to the side like the common lizard's. Another thing he found was that the fossils contained five vertebrae that were fused together and attached to the pelvic bone.

Owen first published his findings in 1842 in the Proceedings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He mentioned the new distinct class of creatures and how they were enormous in comparison to the reptiles living at the time. He also went over his reasoning behind the name "dinosauria" and some basic characteristics of what he thought dinosaurs were probably like. In total, Owen named and described around 20 different dinosaurs and was the first person to ever do such work.

Enchanted Learning. Sir Richard Owen. 1998. <> December 1st, 2009.