Dinosaurs Reconstruction and Classification.
Reconstruction and classification During the decades that followed Owen's announcement, many other kinds of Dinosaur were discovered and named in England and Europe: Massospondylus in 1854, Scelidosaurus in 1859, Bothriospondylus in 1875, and Omosaurus in 1877. Popular fascination with the giant reptiles grew, reaching a peak in the 1850s with the first attempts to reconstruct two of them, Iguanodon and Hylaeosaurus, for the first world exposition, the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London's Crystal Palace. The sculptor Waterhouse Hawkins, under Owen's direction, created life-size models of these two genera, and in 1854 they were displayed together with models of other extinct and living reptiles, such as plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, and crocodiles.
Initially the category Dinosauria was adequate to include all of the large nonaquatic reptiles then known from Mesozoic strata of Europe. But by the 1880s it became evident that the Mesozoic fauna was more diverse and complex than had been realized. The first important attempt to establish a more instructive classification of the Dinosaur was made by the English biologist T.H. Huxley as early as 1868. Because he observed that these animals had a number of birdlike features, including their legs, he established a new order called Ornithoscelida. He divided the order into two suborders: first, the Dinosauria, including the iguanodonts, the large carnivores, or megalosaurids, and the armoured forms including Scelidosaurus; and second, the Compsognatha, for the very small, birdlike carnivorous form Compsognathus.
Huxley's classification was replaced by a radically new scheme proposed by his fellow Englishman H.G. Seeley in 1887. Seeley noticed that all Dinosaur possessed one of two distinctive pelvic designs, one like that of birds and the other like that of reptiles. Accordingly, he divided the Dinosaur into two orders, the Ornithischia (with a birdlike pelvis) and the Saurischia (with a reptilian pelvis). The Ornithischia included four suborders: Ornithopoda (Iguanodon and similar herbivores), Stegosauria (plated forms), Ankylosauria (Hylaeosaurus and other armoured forms), and Ceratopsia (horned dinosaurs, just then being discovered in North America). Seeley's second order, the Saurischia, included all the carnivorous dinosaurs, such as Megalosaurus and Compsognathus , as well as the giant herbivorous sauropods, including Cetiosaurus and several immense ³brontosaur² types that were turning up in North America.
In 1878 a spectacular discovery was made in the town of Bernissart, Belg., when several dozen complete, articulated skeletons of Iguanodon were accidentally uncovered in a coal mine during the course of mining operations. Under the direction of the Royal Institute of Natural Science of Belgium, in Brussels, thousands of bones were retrieved and carefully restored over a period of many years. The first skeleton was placed on exhibit in 1883, and today the public can view an impressive herd of Iguanodon. The discovery of these multiple remains gave the first hint that at least some Dinosaur may have traveled in groups. The supervisor of this extraordinary project was Louis Dollo, a zoologist who was to spend most of his life studying Iguanodon, working out its structure, and speculating on its living habits.
American hunting expeditions
England and Europe produced most of the early discoveries and students of dinosaurs, but North America soon began to contribute a large share of both. One leading student of fossils was Joseph Leidy of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, who named some of the earliest Dinosaur found in America, among them Palaeoscincus, Trachodon, Troodon, and Deinodon. Leidy is perhaps best known for his study and description of the first Dinosaur skeleton to be recognized in North America, that of the duckbill found at Haddonfield, N.J., U.S., in 1858. He named the specimen Hadrosaurus foulkii. Leidy's theory that this animal probably was amphibious influenced views of Dinosaur life for the next century.
Two Americans whose work in the second half of the 19th century had worldwide impact on the science of paleontology in general, and the growing knowledge of Dinosaur in particular, were O.C. Marsh of Yale College and E.D. Cope of the University of Pennsylvania and the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. All previous Dinosaur remains had been discovered by accident in well-populated regions with temperate, moist climates, but Cope and Marsh astutely focused their attention on the arid North American West, which had wide expanses of bare, exposed rock. In their intense quest to find and name new dinosaurs, these scientific pioneers became fierce and unfriendly rivals.
Marsh's field parties explored widely, exploiting dozens of now famous areas, among them Yale's sites at Morrison
and Canon City in Colorado and, most important, Como Bluff in southeastern Wyoming. The discovery of Como
Bluff in 1877 was a momentous event in the history of paleontology, generating a burst of exploration and study
and a widespread public enthusiasm for dinosaurs. Como Bluff brought to light one of the greatest assemblages
of dinosaurs, both small and gigantic, ever found. For decades the site went on producing the first known
specimens of renowned Dinosaur like Stegosaurus, Camptosaurus, Camarasaurus, Laosaurus, Coelurus, and
others. From the Morrison site came the original specimens of Allosaurus, Diplodocus, Atlantosaurus, and
Apatosaurus (sometimes called Brontosaurus). Canon City provided bones of a host of dinosaurs, including
Stegosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Allosaurus, and Camptosaurus.
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