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In 1660, the Royal Society was established in London. It quickly became an international network of scientists who dominated the canon of European science. In 1825 and 1848, Gideon Mantell presented his fossil discoveries to the Royal Society. -
This new approach to comparative anatomy confirms that each body part “correspon[d] mutually with all the others” (Dawson 4). His work allowed for incredible accuracy when reconstructing prehistoric animals. -
His ideas promoted that living beings evolved over time as environments greatly impact one’s habits and bodily functions (Dawson 39). Therefore, extinctions are not the cause of the differences between living beings and fossils, rather "small modifications over enormous periods of time” (Dawson 40). -
Georges Cuvier's theory that catastrophes caused mass extinctions is put forward in his "Essay on the Theory of the Earth." -
With the discovery of these prehistoric animals, the reptile class of saurians was formed in 1832. -
Remarking a connection between the Megalosaurus’ and Iguanodon’s fused sacrums, Owen elevated them to the order of Dinosauria, meaning great lizard in Greek. -
The Crystal Palace was built in London for the Great Exhibition of 1851. It attracted over six million visitors and presented reconstructed versions of the Iguanodon and Megalosaurus, created by Owen and his fellow scientist. -
New fossil discoveries lead to revisions on Owen's original theories. For example, in 1858, Joseph Leidy found a new fossil, the Hadrosaurus, which confirmed that the dinosaur in question stood upright like a kangaroo. -
In 1859, Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species," where he first posited his theory of animal evolution. -
In 1877, the Bone Wars began. They signifed a great rush of fossil findings, leading to palentological advancements in the Gilded age. This rivaled English palentology in the nineteenth century. -
This book referenced the Victorian dinosaurs: Doyle calls them airplanes, dragons, and “the devil of our childhood in person” (Doyle 299-300). Therefore, the novel helped popularize the conception of prehistoric animals as monstrous. -
In 1969, John Ostrom published "Osteology of Deinonychus Antirrhopus, an Unusual Theropod from the Lower Cretaceous of Montana." This book shifted the paradigm once more, as dinosaur physiology and ecology changed from slow, unintelligent beings to active and elegant animals. This new understanding of dinosaurs was popularized was popularized by the film "Jurassic Park" (1993).