Megalosaurus dentary (OUMNH PAL-J.13505)

3D Model

This dentary is the type specimen of Megalosaurus bucklandii, first published in William Buckland’s 1824 paper ‘Notice on the Megalosaurus or great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield’ in the Transactions of the Geological Society. Megalosaurus was the first scientifically described and named dinosaur in the world. Together with Iguanodon and Hylaeosaurus, Megalosaurus formed the basis for Richard Owen’s new group called the ‘Dinosauria’ in 1842.

The dentary was found in a quarry in Stonesfield, Oxfordshire, and acquired by the University of Oxford on 24th October 1797. Although not referred to as a type specimen in the original paper, the jaw was designated as the ‘lectotype’ by Molnar et al., in 1990, thus solidifying its status as the iconic fossil that represents the start of dinosaur science.

For download, please complete an image request form here: https://oumnh.ox.ac.uk/ordering-images

Scanned by Steven Dey, ThinkSee3D Ltd, Feb 2024.