The very first drawing and modern description of a dinosaur bone in scientific literature was by Oxford University clergyman and chemist Robert Plot in 1677. He believed the specimen was from a modern elephant brought to Britain by the Romans and not from an extinct creature at all. Paleontologists now believe the original specimen, although it disappeared and has never been seen again, was part of the femur of a Megalosaurus, a therapod dinosaur found in Jurassic strata in Britain.
It was about 150 years later when Megalosaurus also became the first "dinosaur" to be named. It was first described...
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