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first scientific paper about a dinosaur ever published Notice on the Megalosaurus or great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield in the Transactions of the Geological Society 1824. It is possible a Megalosaurus bone was featured in an earlier work The Natural History of Oxfordshire by Robert Plot 1677. Plot had been sent bones found in the area and included a drawing in his book of what appeared to be the end of a very large femur. Not having any scientific context for the fossil he presumed it was from a giant human. The actual bone has been lost. Megalosaurus was also the first dinosaur to appear in a work of fiction. In the first paragraph of Charles Dickenss Bleak House 185253 we find Implacable November weather. As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus forty feet long or so waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill. From their first discovery dinosaurs fascinated layman and scientist alike. Terrifying and mysterious they once ruled the world but then vanished. What did it mean Nineteenth century depiction of Megalosaurus. Early reconstructions were not accurate. Today we know that many dinosaurs-including Megalosaurus-were bipedal. 5