Of course, the initial statement is a bit harsh, but the actual situation is indeed like this. Due to geological changes, fossils may be exposed to the ground. Modern people can find it by accident, and the ancients may also find it by accident. But what it was was unknown to anyone in ancient times. Traditional Chinese medicine has a "keel", mostly the skeleton fossils of ancient large mammals.
It has been nearly 300 to 200 years since human beings took the initiative to explore. The upsurge of fossil excavation began in Europe around Darwin's time, and naturalists were proud of discovering complete fossils and splicing bones. The tooth fossil of Iguanodon was first discovered by British doctor Gideon algernon in 1822. Like many ancient people, he didn't know what animal it was, so he went to consult a naturalist. After identification, he thought it was a tooth fossil of an animal similar to an iguana.
So Mantel gave Iguanodon a generic name, but did not specifically name this species. It was not until Mantell died a decade or two ago that many fossils of Iguanodon were found in many parts of the world, and people realized that Iguanodon was a dinosaur and it was widely distributed in the world.
In the upsurge of fossil excavation, more and more dinosaur fossils have been discovered and more and more species have been restored. However, due to the ignorance of paleontology and the limitation of anatomical development, there are some problems in the splicing of many biological fossils, and some even put their toes on their heads, which were slowly corrected in later research.
In the tide of fossil excavation, there are also fossils of other animals. Looking at the huge dinosaur fossils, many people will wonder what they are, how they died, when they died and why they died. The corresponding research has promoted the development of geology and other sciences. It is the upsurge of fossil research that makes scientists realize the significance of fossils in the study of biological evolutionary history.
At the same time, it also caused people to question the origin of human beings. Darwin was naturally influenced by this trend of thought at that time. Fortunately, his family has some foundation. After studying fossils and exploring the world on board, he has a book about the origin of species. The famous biologist and fossil expert who lived in Ye Wei also lived in that era and established the concept of extinction. First of all, he defined fossil specimens as "extinct species" with the same taxonomic status as modern biological species.
The discovery and naming of Iguanodon is a representative event of the fossil excavation boom of that era. At that time, naturalists had speculated that life on earth had experienced prosperity and decline, and curiosity drove scientists to obtain evidence from geological structures around fossils, and paleontology and biological evolution theories were also developing in this upsurge.