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Dinosaur Discoveries: 1850-1875, Pt II
By Mace Baker
He was of the opinion that this dinosaur, too was related to had consisted of only a few teeth. The newly discovered Hadrosaurus, on the other handconsisted of 9 teeth, part of the lower jaw, 28 vertebrae, bones of the hind feet and forelimbs, and most importantly, bones of the pelvis. The bones on the hind limbs were longer than those of the forelimbs. Consequently, Leidy’s published description of Hadrosaurus suggested that the dinosaur stood upright, much in the fashion of akangaroo. This then became the first time that a dinosaur had been reconstructed in its proper posture. Dr. Leidy was able to conclude that dinosaurs had been as much a part of animal life in North America as they had in Europe.
Actually, Hadrosaurus proved to be a duckbill. This was the first dinosaur to benamed (from a nearly complete skeleton) in North America.
During the early 1850’s the famous Crystal Palace was erected in Hyde Park, London. In 1854 the Palace was reestablished at Sydenham. In this new location a variety of reconstructed animals of the past were put on display. Professor Richard Owen supervised the project. His famous and very capable sculptor was Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins. The animals which they reconstructed to life size included ancient amphibians and crocodiles, certain mammals, dinosaurs, plesiosaurs and the fierce looking Ichthyosaurs. The dinosaur restorations included Iguanodon and Hylaeosaurus.Unfortunately, the Iguanodon reconstruction which had taken them so long wasinaccurate as new fossil finds showed. Nevertheless, it was an important beginning for the process of bringing dinosaurs to the attention of the public. Toward the end of the project, a now famous dinner party celebrating the success of the project was held within the body of Iguanodon.
Hypsilophodon , a small ornithopod dinosaur about seven feet in length, has nowbecome one of the most completely known small dinosaurs. This is because of the large number of these fossil animals that have been found several years ago in Montana, U.S. However, the first Hypsilophodon was actually found in 1849—the year of the famousCalifornia gold rush. More of these fossils were found in 1868 by a church pastor named William Fox. Though the fossils were originally thought to be those of a young Iguanodon , T.H. Huxley was soon able to show that they represented a new form ofdinosaur.
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