Dinosaurs

IN 1842, British comparative anatomist Richard Owen (1804–1892) coined the word dinosaur. Owen constructed this word from the Greek words deinos, meaning “terrible” (though Owen considered it to mean “fearfully great”), and sauros, meaning “lizard” or “reptile.” To Owen, the “fearfully great lizards” were large, extinct reptiles known from only a handful of fossils discovered in western Europe since the 1820s. Today, dinosaur fossils are known from all continents and represent hundreds of distinct types of dinosaurs.
In this chapter, I briefly answer some basic questions about dinosaurs and introduce some topics discussed at greater length in this book.