How did we discover dinosaurs?

Have you ever wondered how we even know about dinosaurs in the first place? Join Mira and Finn from History's Not Boring as we travel back to a windy, rainy seaside town in 1811 to find out! Meet Mary Anning, a 12-year-old girl who spotted a giant, strange skull sticking right out of a cliff. With her brother's help, she dug up a massive 200-million-year-old sea monster called an ichthyosaur! Mary spent her whole life finding incredible ancient fossils, even though grown men often tried to take all the credit for her hard work. But the story doesn't stop there! You'll also discover how a scientist named Richard Owen finally invented the word "dinosaur," which actually means "terrible lizard." Plus, get ready for the craziest battle in science history: the American Bone Wars! Imagine two rival grown-up scientists so desperate to find more fossils that they started throwing dynamite at each other's dig sites! Boom! Dig into this thrilling adventure and learn how uncovering dead creatures taught us everything we know about the ancient world. Let's get digging!

Transcript

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Welcome to Histories Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. Before we time travel today, we have a very special shout out for one of our amazing listeners. Molly Masters, who is six years old, sent us a message asking a brilliant question. Oh, what did Molly ask? Molly wanted to know how dinosaur bones were first discovered. So today, we are dedicating this entire episode to you, Molly. Thanks Molly. I love dinosaurs. T-Rex, Velociraptor, Stegosaurus, all of them. But wait, how did people find the very first ones? Well, did you know that for hundreds of years, when people found giant bones buried in the dirt, they had no idea what they were? Really? Did they think they were just weirdly shaped rocks? Sometimes. But a lot of people actually thought they were finding the bones of dragons. Or even the skeletons of giant mythical humans. Dragons! You're telling me people walked around thinking real dragons were buried under their feet? Exactly. They also thought they might be giant elephants brought over by ancient Roman armies. Nobody knew what a dinosaur was, because the word hadn't even been invented yet. That is wild. So if they didn't know they were looking for dinosaurs, who finally figured it out? Was it some guy in a lab coat with a magnifying glass? Nope. The person who changed the history of science forever wasn't a fancy professor. It was a 12-year-old girl looking for shiny rocks on a beach. A 12-year-old? That's barely older than me. What on earth did she find? Only a terrifying giant sea monster with a jaw full of razor-sharp teeth. Ew, a real sea monster! I need to hear this right now. The year was 1811. We are travelling to a windy, rainy seaside town in England called Lime Regis. Lime Regis? What's so special about a beach in England? It's not just any beach, it sits right on a stretch of towering rock walls we now call the Jurassic Coast. The cliffs there are packed with fossils from hundreds of millions of years ago. Hundreds of millions? That's impossible to even imagine. So who was this twelve-year-old girl? Her name was Mary Anning. She lived in a tiny house right by the water with her mum and her older brother, Joseph. Did they go to school? No, they couldn't afford it. Their family was really poor, especially after their father passed away. So Mary and Joseph had to take on a very dangerous job just to buy food. How dangerous are we talking? Like fighting off pirates? Maybe even scarier. They were professional fossil hunters. Every single day they walked along the bottom of the steep, dark grey cliffs, looking for fossils to sell to tourists. They called them curiosities. Wait, why was walking on a beach dangerous? Because the towering cliffs were totally unstable. During winter storms, huge landslides of heavy rock and thick mud would suddenly crash down onto the beach. Whoa! They had to dodge falling rocks. Yes. You had to watch out for giant boulders falling from the sky, and you had to outrun the freezing ocean tides that could sweep you away. So they were basically risking their lives, dodging avalanches, just to find cool rocks to sell. Exactly. But one day they were about to find something that would shock the entire world. One freezing day in 1811, Mary's brother Joseph was exploring the dangerous cliffs when he saw something massive sticking out of the rock. What was it? A giant shiny shell? Far bigger! He found a gigantic fossilised skull. It was four feet long, with a beak full of sharp teeth and enormous eye sockets. Ew! A four-foot head? If the head is that big, the body must be ginormous. You are exactly right. Joseph couldn't dig it all out, so 12-year-old Mary took over. For months she chipped away at the solid cliff face with a tiny hammer and chisel. Just her? While dodging landslides and ocean waves. That must have taken forever. It took almost a year, but eventually she uncovered the entire skeleton. It was over 15 feet long with a long snout and hundreds of tiny bones forming its paddles. An over 15-foot monster! What was it? A sea dragon? Scientists didn't know what to call it at first, but eventually named it an ichthyosaur, which means fish lizard. It was a marine reptile that swam in the oceans 200 million years ago. 200 million years? Did Mary and her family get rich from finding it? Not exactly rich, but a local rich man bought the skeleton for£23.£23? That doesn't sound like a lot of money. Back in the 1800s, that was a huge amount. It was enough money to feed their family for more than six months. That's awesome! So Mary Anning became a famous, respected scientist, and everyone cheered for her. I wish! Mary went on to spend her whole life finding even more incredible fossils. She discovered the very first complete skeleton of a plesiosaur, which had a neck like a snake and the body of a turtle. So why didn't she get famous? Because back then, women weren't given credit in science. The rich men who bought her fossils would study them, write big important books about them, and they wouldn't even put Mary's name on the papers. Hey, that is so unfair. She did all the dangerous digging. It was deeply unfair, but her hard work changed history. Because of her, people realised the Earth was incredibly ancient. And in 1842, a British scientist named Richard Owen looked at all these giant bones being found. What did he do? He realised they belonged to a specific group of ancient reptiles. So he invented a brand new word for them. Dinosauria. It means terrible lizard. Whoa, so 1842 is the exact year dinosaurs officially got their name. Yes, and once people had a name for them, it sparked a worldwide fossil craze. Fast forward to America in the 1870s, we enter a crazy time known as the Bone Wars. The Bone Wars were skeletons fighting each other with swords. No! Two rival scientists, Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, hated each other so much they went to war over who could find the most dinosaur bones in the American West. Did they fight with picks and shovels? Worse. They hired gangs of diggers. They stole each other's bones, bribed workers, and literally used dynamite to blow up dig sites so the other guy couldn't get the fossils. Wait, wait, wait. They blew up priceless dinosaur bones with dynamite? That is a terrible idea. It was a complete disaster. They destroyed so much history just because they were jealous of each other. Did they at least find anything good before they blew it all up? They actually did. Despite their terrible behaviour, their rivalry uncovered a massive 142 new species of dinosaurs. Over 140? Like which ones? Thanks to the Bone Wars, we discovered some of the most famous dinosaurs ever. Like the Triceratops with its three horns, the spiky Stegosaurus, and the massive long-necked Diplodocus. Okay, that is pretty epic. Digging up dead creatures really taught us everything we know about how the world looked millions of years ago. Exactly! And speaking of digging up dead creatures, it's time for a really weird fun fact. Let's jump back to our hero, Mary Anning. Oh no. When you say weird, it usually means something gross. Mary kept finding these strange, hard, dark, bullet-shaped rocks resting inside the stomach areas of her fossilised sea monsters. Dark stones inside the stomach. What were they? She cracked them open and studied them. Mary realised they were actually coprolites, which is the scientific word for fossilized poop from any animal. Ew! Fossilised poop! People were collecting 200 million-year-old sea monster doo-doo!

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Ha ha ha!

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Yes! And it was a huge scientific breakthrough. By looking at the tiny fossilised fish scales inside the coprolites, scientists finally learned what these ancient monsters ate for dinner. Ugh, that is so gross. But honestly, kind of genius. Alright, Finn, quiz time. Let's see how much you remember from today's historical adventure. Okay, I'm ready. Bring on the questions. First question. What was the name of the 12-year-old girl who discovered the giant sea monster in 1811? Next one. What does the word ichthyosaur mean? Question three. Who was the scientist that invented the word dinosaur in 1842? Here's number four. What explosive did rival scientists use to destroy each other's dig sites during the Bone Wars? Last question. What is the scientific name for fossilised poop? Great job! Let's see how you did. I think I got them all. The first answer is Mary Anning. She was the ultimate fossil hunter. For question two, it means fish lizard. Sounds like a weird superhero. The answer to question three is Richard Owen. He definitely nailed that name. For number four, they used dynamite. I still can't believe they blew up history. And the final answer, it's called Acoprolite. Ew, I definitely remembered that one. This was such a cool episode! Can you believe a 12-year-old girl helped uncover a 200 million-year-old world? I know. Mary Anning is my new hero. Even if her job dodging landslides was super dangerous. If you love learning about the Bone Wars and giant sea monsters, please leave us a five-star review. Just scroll down on your podcast app and tap the five stars. It really helps us out. Yeah, smash those five stars like a dynamite explosion. Oh, and don't forget to check out our site kidopoly.com. We've got tons of fun learning games and awesome activities there to explore. And if you want a shout out on the show like Molly did, or just want to tell us your favourite dinosaur, email us at hello at kidopoly.com. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks for listening and exploring history with us today. See you next time on History's Not Boring. Bye! Bye.