The First Dinosaur Fossil on Record

• Location: A shale (oil‑shale) mine in England.
• Year of discovery: 1677.
• Specimen: A fragment of a large femur that would later be recognized as belonging to a dinosaur‑like reptile — the earliest fossil ever documented by a scientist ¹².

Why this find matters

The 1677 femur fragment is the first known dinosaur fossil that entered the scientific literature. At the time, the concept of “dinosaurs” did not exist, so the bone was described in terms of large “reptilian” remains. It set the stage for later, more formal recognitions of dinosaurs.

The first dinosaur to be named

• Species: Megalosaurus bucklandii
• Discovery: 1822, by Mary Ann Mantell in Sussex, England.
• Significance: Megalosaurus was the first fossil to be formally identified as a distinct dinosaur, giving science its first official dinosaur name ².

Earlier human encounters (non‑scientific)

Humans in other parts of the world had encountered dinosaur bones long before the 17th‑century English find. For example, a Massospondylus femur was unearthed in Lesotho and appears to have been known to local peoples between 1100 CE and 1700 CE ³. These discoveries, however, were not recorded in scientific literature at the time.

Summary

• The earliest scientifically recorded dinosaur fossil: a femur fragment from a shale mine in England, 1677.
• The first dinosaur formally named: Megalosaurus from Sussex, England, 1822.

These milestones mark the beginning of paleontology’s journey from curiosity‑driven observations to a structured scientific discipline.