How were Dinosaur fossils only discovered in the 1800’s? Did no one prior to this time period come across them?
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Bones and fossils were discovered prior to that but were mistakenly attributed to living creatures such as elephants. What’s fascinating is that the concept “extinct” didn’t exist until mid 19th century, which is why Darwin’s “Origin of Species” was widely disputed at the time. The idea that species could completely disappear was unfathomable.
Even now we still mistakingly attribute scientific findings to concepts already known to mankind, because it’s simply too “out there” to introduce a completely new theory. It took years and years for the scientific community to accept Lyell’s and Darwin’s theories, but this shows that the scientific peer review system works. If nobody can successfully debunk your theory nor provide a more plausible theory, your theory stands. And that is how we discovered, and accepted, the existence of dinosaurs.
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