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International Dinosaur Discoveries

Early Dinosaur History Outside the United States

What is the Scrotum humanum and when was it discovered?

Around 1676, the Reverend Plot of England reported a fossil bone find: a “human thigh bone of one of the giants mentioned in the Bible.” In 1763, R. Brookes named the bone based on its shape. He referred to it as Scrotum humanum—the genitals of a giant man. Today, the bone is thought to be from a megalosaurid dinosaur, and is from the distal end of a femur. The name Scrotum humanum—though unofficially the first assigned name given to dinosaur bones—has never been used, since it was an erroneous designation.



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