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Aachenosaurus
Pronounced:
ahk-en-oh-Saw-russ
Diet:
NoneName
Means:
"lizard of Aachen"
Length:
None
Height:
None
Weight:
None
Time:
None
Fossil remains for this Dinosaur have been found in the
region between Belgium and Germany.
The two most
curious facts
about the
Aachenosaurus
are:
a) The Aachenosaurus is usually the first
name that you will find in most lists of
dinosaurs.
b) The Aachenosaurus was not actually a
dinosaur, or even ever a living creature.
In 1887 Abbey G. Smets, a professor of natural sciences of a
nearby college reported that he had discovered what he
believed to be two pieces of jaw bone that once belonged to
a new type of hadrosaur (dinosaur with a duck-like beak)
that Smets was quick to name Aachenosaurus.
The word Aachenosaurus means "lizard of Aachen", which was
chosen to reference the location in which the fossils were
discovered. The deposits of Aachenianos Moresnet were
located within a neutral territory between Belgium and
Germany. Smets estimated
from the size of the remains he had found that the
creature would likely have been about about 4 or 5
meters in length. In fact, Smets proceeded to
extrapolate some fairly extensive details about the
animal based upon his examination of the fragments,
and made several claims that would later come back
to haunt him such as mentioning that the bones had
been examined under a microscope.  Smets
presented his discovery to the Belgian Society of
Geology in 1888. It was here that Louis Dollo, an
expert on Paleontology, examined the remains and
quickly identified the fragments as nothing more
than curiously shaped petrified wood.
If you take anything away from Smets'
experience, let it be that you should always
triple check your findings before going
public... |
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