Hairy Museum of Natural History

I am induced to lay before the Geological Society the annexed representations of parts of the skeleton of an enormous fossil animal, found at Stonesfield near Woodstock, about twelve miles to the N. W. of Oxford ; in the hope that, imperfect as are the present materials, their communication to the public may induce those who possess other parts of the same reptile, to transmit to the Society such further information as may lead to a more complete elucidation of its osteology.

The good Reverend William Buckland published these words in 1824, introducing an article entitled, “Notice on the Megalosaurus or great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield.”* Eighteen years later, when Sir Richard Owen became the first person to utter the word “dinosaur,” Buckland’s Megalosaurus was a charter member of the group. Buckland’s 1824 notice is recognized as the first scientific description of a dinosaur.** A PDF of this article was recently made available for download (along with a sampling of other notable 19th century papers) from the Geological Society of London.

Sample papers from the Transactions of the Geological Society of London, 1811-1856.

* This notice illustrated a scant 7 pages of text with 5 beautiful lithographic plates of the fossils, reproduced at 25%, 50%, and full scale. I am inclined to believe that this very nearly approaches an ideal ratio of text to figures in a fossil description.

**Although historians are aware of at least one notable early attempt to describe probable Megalosaurus remains.

—Matt Celeskey.

File under: Cretaceous, Dinosaurs.