Dinosaur

<p><span>At the turn of the 19th century, Britons would stroll along the Yorkshire Coast, stumbling across unfathomably big bones. These mysterious fossils were all but tumbling out of the cliffside, but people had no idea what to call them. There wasn’t a name for this new class of creatures. </span></p> <p><span>Until Richard Owen came along. Owen was an exceptionally talented naturalist, with over 600 scientific books and papers. But perhaps his most lasting claim to fame is that he gave these fossils a name: the dinosaurs. And then he went ahead and sabotaged his own good name by picking a fight with one of the world’s most revered  scientists.</span></p> <p><span>Want to stay up to speed with <em>Science Diction</em>? <a href="http://eepurl.com/dysvyn" target="_blank">Subscribe to our newsletter.</a></span></p> <div class="embedded-image" style="max-width: 800px;"><img class="mcePuppyImage" src="https://media.wnyc.org/i/800/516/l/80/2020/03/Crystal_palace_iguanodon.jpg" alt=""> <div class="image-metadata"> <div class="image-caption">Woodcut of the famous dinner inside of an Iguanodon shell at the Crystal Palace in 1854. Artist unknown.</div> <div class="image-credit">(Wikimedia Commons)</div> </div> </div> <h2><span>Footnotes And Further Reading: </span></h2> <p><span>Special thanks to <a href="http://seanbcarroll.com/"><span>Sean B. Carroll</span></a><span> and the staff of the </span><a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/"><span>Natural History Museum</span></a><span> in London. </span></span></p> <p><span><span><a href="https://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/the-origin-of-the-word-dinosaur/">Read</a><span> an article by Howard Markel on this same topic. </span></span></span></p> <h2><span><span><span>Credits: </span></span></span></h2> <p><span><span><span><em>Science Diction</em><span> is written and produced by Johanna Mayer, with production and editing help from Elah Feder. Our senior editor is Christopher Intagliata, with story editing help from Nathan Tobey. Our theme song and music are by Daniel Peterschmi