The term ‘dinosaur’ was coined by a biologist named Richard Owen sometime in the mid 19th century and it apparently means ‘terrible lizard’ in some language I am not familiar with. Richard Owen was apparently ‘an extraordinarily clever scientist’ and was ‘the leading comparative anatomist of his day’.
According to historians, people in the ‘west’ did not come up with the idea nor accept the existence of dinosaurs till then because the concept of an animal going extinct was not in line with their ‘great book’ which claims among others that this world was created for man and had been unchanging since the ‘great creation’. The ‘great creation’ according to that little book could be dated to be anything from 6,000 years ago to many many more years than that (these fellas with their ‘words of god’ at their finger tips could not finger when such an important event in the scheme of things actually took place!)
[Side Note:
For some background on the 6,000 year old ‘theory’, read my article on ‘Brief History of Dating’ to be out soon]
On the other hand, the Chinese is known to have records of dinosaur fossils for a few thousand years and grind them up for use as medicine. That may also be the origin of their concept of the ‘dragon’ – hey, China men like the others mentioned here do have a great sense of imagination.
We shall however stay with the history of the west for it is a lot more enlightening and funnier because of their ‘dedication’ to that particular little book for a good 2 millenia. Like some Asiatic simpletons I know today, people in that part of the world could not, up to that time, get themselves to accept anything not in line with concepts contained in that book.
[Side note:
For the same reason, they insisted (among many equally stupid concepts obvious to almost all China men today, simpletons included) that the sun and all the other celestial bodies went round the earth – whatever for, it was at least an ego boosting concept for these fellas. To be fair, according to modern science they were not 100% wrong. You see, according to the Big Bang theory every thing is moving away from the earth (the closest to the ‘earth-centric’ claim science can attest for these supposedly god enlightened simpletons). Since everything is moving away from earth, perhaps we can arguably say that earth is at the ‘center’ and therefore ‘special’? But then, Big Bang also says that everything is moving away from everything else. So, if we apply the same simplistic logic, the other celestial bodies should also be ‘special’. Wah, everything also special? In that case, could that include China men like me who claim no special links to Rome or other less earthly entities created by some people’s ego-boosting imaginations? Lucky me, no need for the other Chinamen to ‘bless me’ through Rome]
Things apparently started in the 18th century thanks to (who other than) the Americans. It started when some Americans found a large bone more than a meter in length in the land named after a Spanish fella called Amerigo Vespucci who had claimed the land for his Spanish King and his 'Lord' to no avail for the British had other ideas and were guided by a different divine force that proved to be more superior.
[Side note:
The ‘Americans’ above were not really Americans but British who by then had whacked the real British who in turn had earlier whacked and chased the Spanish down south. The Spanish had earlier whacked the real Americans including the Incans, Aztecs and Mexicans. If you think this is a case of what goes around comes around, you are wrong. The real Americans the Spanish whacked were not the same as the Americans of this story. According to some, the former were ‘red Indians’ who were not the same as the ‘non-red Indians’ in Asia which almost confuses the hell out of me. Conspiracy theory at work?]
When the first dinosaur bone was found, the Americans involved decided to send it to some supposed experts in Europe for study - apparently, at that time America was considered third world compared to its ‘big brothers’ in Europe. Of course, there were no dinosaur experts then. But there were well respected doctors of ‘anatomy’ of other kinds. And as it went, the experts to whom the bone was dispatched summarily declared it as nothing but just the leg bone of some over sized elephant. To them, the possibility of the bone belonging to a large specie entirely new to them and that had gone extinct did not cross their minds because their ‘great book’, if we had not forgotten, did not allow for it.
However, it did help the cause of ‘dinosaurship’ that at about the same time there happened to be some sort of a spat between the Americans and some ‘arrogant’ French fellas who claimed that all things American were inferior to ‘great’ Europe.
[Side note:
The British of which the Americans were part of had been vying with the French to be the ‘boss’ of Europe for hundreds of years which also explains why they like me also, foolishly some China men may say, don’t believe in the divinity of the pope and Rome. And today, if you believe George Bush, it is the reverse – the French is now part of the ‘Old World’, the reason being their unwillingness to whack the Afghans and Iraqis with Bush (and not because they follow the pope). But what about the pope, is he new or old world? Cheap thrill?
One America-is-inferior example given by the French then was the ‘natives’ in America had smaller male genitalia, and less body hair – if this sounded like China men too you are not far off, the ‘west’ then also considered Africans and Asians uncivilized and sub-humans to be ‘saved’ through Christianisation. In fact, in exhorting the Bush-type Americans to ‘take up the responsibility’ and ‘annex’ the Philippines after they (the Americans and not British) have whacked the Spaniards in the late 19th century, the English poet Rudyard Kipling (that some China men of ‘literature’ may be familiar with) famously called these other people ‘the White man’s burden’ - which explains why some China men are so proud they have some claim to the big ‘C’ or whatever little minor role in it. Lesser beings should always try to be a lesser burden to anyone, not just the white man.]
Apparently the French claim pissed off a certain Thomas Jefferson (who by then had considered himself ‘American’) enough for him to dispatch an expedition into the American hinterland to search for proof that things American are indeed ‘bigger’ and therefore greater than ‘old Europe’.
[Side Note:
Jefferson felt insulted because like his ‘puritan’ forefathers he believed that they were creating ‘a shining city upon the hill’ (copied from a certain Sermon of the Mount in their little book) that will be a shining example to the ‘Old World’ (you are right, idiot Bush could not have come up with this term himself) and guide the ‘decadent’ Europeans to ultimate ‘redemption’.
On the other hand, the Holy Alliance (which meant almost the whole of continental Europe listening to the various popey ones based in Rome and other places like Moscow) who saw this as part of these fellas on-going 'protests' then wanted to whack the audacious Americans for their claim to greater divinity. In any case, the Holy Alliance ‘lost’ in this case thanks to the greater powers of the British Protestant guns compared to those allied to the popes. You see, arguments of divinity are always won by the power of the sword or gun – that’s how respect is gained by such people. Those who wish protest about this little observation better get some firepower behind them, divinity has no use without such powers.
In this context, some Australians as example are quite smart – they live in Anglo-Saxon run Australia but also submit to Rome. A classic case of ‘if you are not sure hedge your bets’. But surprisingly, they don’t believe in Krishna, Kuan Yin and Mohammad lah. Ha, a ‘partial hedge’ only, what silly fellas…]
Thomas Jefferson was of course expecting the expedition to find live samples of super-large elephants. To his dismay, the expedition did not return with over-sized live elephants. But they did bring back loads more of those big bones. This time, the bones included that from the other parts of the dinosaur’s anatomy.
[Side Note:
As Steve Irwin enthusiasts would know, there is no elephants in America. The gods work in strange ways, to quote certain people. Asia and Africa have elephants and sub-humans but Rome and the west have the ‘great book’ and popey ones, and forever the twines shall never meet – according to the same Kipling fella. For the same reason, that perhaps explains why there was no China man pope.]
So, as it went, as they collected more and more of those ‘big bones’ and slowly pieced them together, the entire ‘west’ slowly began to realize that those bones were not from any animal living then. Among them was a 'notable expert’ by the name of Dr Gideon Mantell - the term ‘paleonthologist’ was not coined yet (the gods would not divulge such things ahead of their time?).
By the mid 19th century our Richard Owen had ‘hijacked’ the works of people like Mantell, and came up with the term ‘dinosaur’ (history is full of hijacking stories – see Virgin Fathers for some examples http://cckplanetblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/virgin-fathers.html).
How not to? Put those bones together and instead of long thick nose trunks, these things had long thick tails unknown to all them ‘enlightened’ fellas – even their greatest boatman that saved the entire earth in one super-boat never mentioned these different-tail things in that great flood tale! (read the Story of Nolah)
And that was how we got animals like Tyranosaurus and a whole lot of other sauruses that I cannot remember – ha, may be that is also why their great boat-man Nolah missed these animals out of his great flood tale (such undivine characteristics like mine, not impressive at all hor?).
But one particular Stegosaurus I do remember for its comparative value. Apparently, the Stegosaurus grew to a height of 10m but had a brain the size of a walnut (if you don’t believe this you go dig for the bones in America lor – we know for sure you cannot get such ‘details’ from one particular ‘great book’).
Some say that would make the Stegosaurus a really big and stupid animal. When I read that, I wondered how on earth those people figured that out. Then Richard Owen’s ‘leading comparative anatomist’ idea came to my mind.
Perhaps, these people thought that since humans are so god-like (and therefore should be ‘most smart’), anything with brain size smaller than the human’s would therefore be more stupid than human. What more if, as we can also prove from the various histories of such god-like animals, there are indeed very stupid humans with brain sizes much bigger than a walnut.
Oh gods, what size are yours that they so proudly compare their little ones to?
Perhaps I should write about the size of your Universe another day just to have some fun together…not with you the gods who surely don’t need my little fun stories, but with all those who wish to understand the limited powers of the little human brain.
[Side Note:
Richard Owen had originally enjoyed a working relationship with the younger Charles Darwin, but having been a devout Christian from the beginning, Owen saw creation as a series of experiments by a Creator, and he was outraged by Darwin's masterwork On the Origin of Species.
Mr Owen probably thought that dinosaurs were just one big godly experiment went wrong and terminated by the gods. What made Mr Owen so cock-sure he was the right experimental result of god-play, only the gods know. That is also why present day Asiatic co-believers of Mr Owen, who would otherwise not be able to tell a stegosaurus brain’s size from that of a tyrannosaurus but is as cock-sure as Mr Owen of their god-like features nevertheless, is the perennial feature in my own little ‘crusade’ to prove that their brains although bigger than a walnut is nowhere near god-like.
It is proving to be a piece of cake, which also happens to be bigger than the size of the human’s brain. ]
