>>14111185>The existence of dinosaurs was first speculatively hypothesized by a knighted museum-head “coincidentally” in the mid-19th century, during the heyday of evolutionism, before a single dinosaur fossil had ever been foundThis is false and continues to be parroted by people who can’t think to check whether or not it’s true. Seeing as the first dinosaurs were found in the 1820s, decades before the mid 19th century, that isn’t exactly accurate
>12 years later in 1854, Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden during his exploration of the upper Missouri River, found “proof” of Owen’s theory! A few unidentified teeth he mailed to leading paleontologist Joseph Leidy, who several years later declared them to be from an ancient extinct “Trachodon,” dinosaur (which beyond ironically means “rough tooth”).Iguanodon was described 30 years earlier than Trachodon, as was Megalosaurus. Megalosaurus was also based on the finding of vertebra and hip bones, which were more than enough to tell they were different to any other known animal. By the time Trachodon came around we already had other more complete fossils
>Firstly, it should be needless to say that it is impossible to reconstruct an entire hypothetical ancient animal based on a few teeth!Which is why the first reconstructions of dinosaurs looked nothing like actual dinosaurs and more like giant lizards. Megalosaurus was first reconstructed as a quadruped despite being bipedal, and iguanodon was first reconstructed as a giant iguana because its teeth were similar only much larger.
>a myriad of ancient reptile/bird and reptile/mammal transitional forms necessary for the blossoming theory of evolutionMost of these fossils would only be found much, much later, like archaeopteryx being found 40 or so years after iguanodon
