Megalosaurus

Megalosaurus (lit. 'great lizard', from Greek μέγας (megas), 'big', 'tall' or 'great', and σαῦρος (sauros), 'lizard') is an extinct genus of large carnivorous theropod dinosaurs of the Middle Jurassic Epoch (Bathonian stage, 166 million years ago) of southern England. Although fossils from other areas have been assigned to the genus, the only certain remains of Megalosaurus come from Oxfordshire and date to the late Middle Jurassic. Megalosaurus was, in 1824, the first genus of non-avian dinosaur to be validly named, and was one of three genera on which Richard Owen based his Dinosauria.

[T]he vigour with which such a head, consisting chiefly of the well-armed maxillary and mandibular apparatus, must have been made to operate on the bodies which the instincts of the Megalosaurus impelled it to grapple with and destroy in the reiterated predatory or combative acts necessary for its own support and preservation. ~ Richard Owen

[W]addling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn-hill. ~ Charles Dickens

Quotes

Scientific

• To judge from the dimensions of this thigh-bone, its former possessor must have been twice as great as that to which the similar bone in the Oxford Museum belonged; and if the total length and height of animals were in proportion to the linear dimensions of their extremities, the beast in question would have equalled in height our largest elephants, and in length fallen but little short of the largest whales; but as the longitudinal growth of animals is not in so high a ratio, after making some deduction, we may calculate the length of this reptile from Cuckfield at from sixty to seventy feet. In consideration therefore of the enormous magnitude which this saurian attains, I have ventured, in concurrence with my friend and fellow-labourer, the Rev. W. Conybeare, to assign to it the name of Megalosaurus.
  • William Buckland, "Notice on the Megalosaurus or great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield". Transactions of the Geological Society of London, series 2, vol. 1 (1824), p. 391. Note: Buckland was mistaken in several ways. Megalosaurus probably only reached twenty feet (6 m) long, and was bipedal.

• We cannot view this remarkable configuration of the anterior thoracic vertebrae of the Megalosaur without being impressed by an idea of the great strength of the muscles or ligaments—more probably of the energetically contracting muscles—which were implanted in those thick and lofty spines, from which, as from a fixed point, they acted upon the nuchal region of the head. The remarkable fossil, therefore, above described, yields some insight into the vigour with which such a head, consisting chiefly of the well-armed maxillary and mandibular apparatus, must have been made to operate on the bodies which the instincts of the Megalosaurus impelled it to grapple with and destroy in the reiterated predatory or combative acts necessary for its own support and preservation.
  • Richard Owen, A History of British Fossil Reptiles, vol. 1 (1849), p. 334.

• Megalosaurus had large blade-like teeth set in sockets, not adhering to the bone of the jaw as is the case among lizards. Buckland noted this important diagnostic feature, yet he failed to appreciate its importance. For it gave unassailable proof that Megalosaurus was not a gigantic lizard; it was a gigantic reptile with socketed teeth, such as are possessed by the crocodiles, yet it was not a crocodile, either—Buckland was sure of that. In short, Megalosaurus was something new, a reptile the like of which had never before been imagined.
  • Edwin H. Colbert, Men and Dinosaurs (1968), p. 13

• When the first dinosaur quarry was opened in 1822 at Stonesfield, England, quarry men found the one-ton Megalosaurus and a tiny mammal.
  • Robert T. Bakker, The Dinosaur Heresies (1986), Chapter I. Brontosaurus in the Great Hall at Yale

Literary

• 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.
  • Charles Dickens, Bleak House (1853), Chapter I. In Chancery

• In bas-relief he late has shown
    A horrible show, agreed—
  Megalosaurus, iguanodon,
  Palaeotherium Glypthaecon,
    A Barnum-show raree;
  • Herman Melville, "The New Ancient of Days"

• "The indications would be consistent with the presence of a saber-toothed tiger, such as are still found among the breccia of our caverns; but the creature actually seen was undoubtedly of a larger and more reptilian character. Personally, I should pronounce for allosaurus."
  "Or megalosaurus," said Summerlee.
  "Exactly. Any one of the larger carnivorous dinosaurs would meet the case. Among them are to be found all the most terrible types of animal life that have ever cursed the earth or blessed a museum."
  • Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World (1912)