The first recorded dinosaur remains found consisted of a few teeth and bones discovered in 1822 in Sussex, England, by an English doctor, Gideon Mantell. He named them Iguanodon or “iguana tooth.” Not long after this first find, other fossil teeth and bones were found near Oxford, England, by Rev. William Buckland. These were named Megalosaurus (“great lizard”). Early reconstructions of the Iguanodon look laughable today since those early paleontologists envisioned them merely as big lizards. The lumbering, bear-like Megalosaurus was not drawn much better (see the picture from 1863 of the two dinosaurs represented in combat).

As Americans found  many exciting new kinds of dinosaurs in the west, two wealthy professors began a rivalry in the 1870s that has come to be known as “The Great Dinosaur Bone Wars.” Othniel Marsh of Yale University and Edward Cope of Haverford College both fielded fossil-hunting teams, racing desperately to find new fossil beds to name the next dinosaur. In their hurry to name what appeared to be a large new dinosaur, Marsh’s team placed the wrong head on a specimen and gave it the name “Brontosaurus.” When it became clear that the head belonged to Camarasaurus and that the body was the same as the Apatosaurus skeleton that had been found earlier, the name Brontosaurus was dropped. However, the name continues on in popular usage, as is demonstrated by the 1989 US Postal Service stamp to the left.

While the western United States continues to be popular destination for eager fossil collectors, thousands of dinosaur specimens have since been discovered all over the world. These bones come from as far up as Alaska and as far down as Antarctica! Many of the more sensational finds in recent years have come from Asia. Some villagers in central China’s Henan Province have been digging up dinosaur bones for decades. The fossils had been sold locally as “dragon bones” for the equivalent of 50 cents per kilogram (about 2 pounds). The bones were then ground up into a fine powder to be used in traditional medicines (following the ancient beliefs that the bones of dragons had healing powers). Today those excavation sites have caught the interest of paleontologists and the bones are being excavated for display, rather than for soup! Note the huge “dragon” bone from Henan Province in China. Another major source of diosaur fossils in recent times is southern Argentina. The Patagonia region holds a high concentration of dinosaur remains. The arid and desert environments in these regions have helped preserve the fossils.