George Washington died before the existence of dinosaurs was discovered

Claim:

George Washington died before dinosaurs were discovered.

Judgement:

Context:

Although humans have likely lived alongside dinosaur fossils for thousands of years, a fossilized dinosaur bone was first described in 1842 – more than four years after George Washington’s death.

That George Washington died before it was discovered that dinosaurs existed is a claim that has been circulating online for years.

A simple one Google search revealed that this claim has since been shared online at least 2018where similar iterations have been shared Reddit, Quora, TikTok, Instagram And Xincluding the post below which had received over 8,000 likes as of this publication:

This is true. According to the National Constitution Centerthe former president died on December 14, 1799. Meanwhile, the first official scientific description of ‘Dinosauria’ took place in 1842, writes the University of California Museum of Paleontology.

But like the Biodiversity Heritage Library admits that humans have probably lived alongside dinosaur fossils for thousands of years. Legends of dragons, For exampleSome think they are inspired by dinosaur bones.

Megalosaurus was the first dinosaur to be officially described in the scientific literature in 1842, writes the Natural history museum. However, people think so fossils of the now extinct carnivorous therapod – which once stood 9 meters tall – were discovered almost two centuries earlier. At the time, however, they were mistaken for the thigh bones of giant humans.

Let’s take a walk through time.

A large bone was discovered in a quarry in Oxfordshire included by naturalist Robert Plot in a 1677 edition of The Natural History of Oxford-shireThis is reported by the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Was included an illustration of the then-unnamed bone, as well as a description suggesting that the bone resembled that of the lower part of a human femur.

The story continues

At first Plot suggested the bone was from an elephant. After further investigation, he concluded that it probably belonged to an ancient, gigantic human.

Almost a century later, in 1763, English physician Richard Brookes reviewed Plot’s work in his compilation of books, A new and accurate natural history system. In it, Brookes agreed that the fossil belonged to a human – albeit a completely different body part. So the now defunct “Scrotum humanum” became the officially documented name. It appeared in it part five of Brookes’ book when he wrote that ‘stones have been found which exactly represent the genitals of a man’.

(The Natural History of Oxfordshire/Public Domain)

It was not until 1842, more than four decades after Washington’s death, that biologist Richard Owens published the lesson “Dinosauria‘ for the first time in his book, Report on British fossil reptiles. Three genera were used to define this new grouping: the carnivorous Megalosaurusthe herbivore Iguanodon, and the armored one Hylaeosaurus.

Based on illustrations like the one above, many scientists agree that the bone described belonged to that of a Megalosaurus. However, neither Plot nor Brookes described it as such, and since the fossil is now lost, the origin story is probably gone as well.

Sources:

British Association for the Advancement of Science., and British Association for the Advancement of Science. Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. 1841, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/104191.

—. Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. 1841, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/104191.

Brookes, R., and R. Brookes. A new and accurate natural history system. Printed for J. Newbery, 1763, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/111943.

Brookes, R. (Richard). A new and accurate natural history system London, printed for J. Newbery, 1763. Internet Archivehttp://archive.org/details/newaccuratesyste05broo.

Brookes, Richard. The Natural History of Fish and Snakes, Including Sea Turtles, Crustaceans and Shellfish, with Their Medicinal Uses: Illustrated with Cuts. LEGARE STREET Press, 2023.

Dinosauria: how the ‘terrible lizards’ got their name. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-dinosaurs-got-their-name.html. Accessed January 3, 2024.

George Washington Died Before Dinosaurs Were Discovered – Google Search. https://www.google.com/search?q=george+washington+died+for+dinosaurs+weren+discovered&oq=george+washington+died+for+dinosaurs+weren+ontdekt&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDU5ODZqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8# IP=1. Accessed January 3, 2024.

“Https://Twitter.Com/ShwrThght/Status/1240370454075858944?Lang=en.” X (formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/ShwrThght/status/1240370454075858944?lang=en. Accessed January 3, 2024.

Hylaeosaurus. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dino-directory/hylaeosaurus.html. Accessed January 3, 2024.

Iguanodon. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dino-directory/iguanodon.html. Accessed January 3, 2024.

Magazine, Smithsonian and Joseph Stromberg. “Where did dragons come from?” Smithsonian Magazine, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/where-did-dragons-come-from-23969126/. Accessed January 3, 2024.

Plot, Robert. The Natural History of Oxford-Shire: Being an Essay on the Natural History of England. Oxford: in the theatre; London: with Mr. S. Millers, 1677. Internet Archivehttp://archive.org/details/naturalhistoryof00plotuoft.

—. The Natural History of Oxford-Shire: Being an Essay on the Natural History of England. Oxford: in the theatre; London: with Mr. S. Millers, 1677. Internet Archivehttp://archive.org/details/naturalhistoryof00plotuoft.

“Robert Plot’s Lost Dinosaur Bone.” Tetrapod ZoologyDecember 16, 2022, https://tetzoo.com/blog/2022/12/12/robert-plots-lost-dinosaur-bone.

“The Birth of Dinosaurs: Richard Owen and Dinosauria.” Biodiversity Heritage LibraryOctober 16, 2015, https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2015/10/the-birth-of-dinosaurs-richard-owen-and-dinosauria.html.

The Dinosaurs. https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/taxa/verts/dinosauria/index.php#:~:text=The%20term%20%22Dinosauria%22%20was%20invented,dinosaurs%20known%20at%20the%20time. Accessed January 3, 2024.

“The Mysterious Death of George Washington | Constitution Center.” National Constitution Center – Constitutioncenter.Org, https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-mysterious-death-of-george-washington. Accessed January 3, 2024.

TikTok – Make your day. https://www.tiktok.com/@kingoftieland/video/7240164297303756075?lang=en. Accessed January 3, 2024.

“Why Did George Washington Never Know Dinosaurs Existed?” Quora, https://www.quora.com/Why-did-George-Washington-never-know-dinosaurs-existed. Accessed January 3, 2024.

https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2015/10/the-first-described-and-validly-named-dinosaur-megalosaurus.html. Accessed January 3, 2024.