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Dawn of Time Strip #154 (July 8, 2009)
Walk in the windy fields
July 8, 2009
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Mantell's flashback continues!

I wanted to base this in history as much as possible, but in the end everything is just made up. Sure, it's easy to find out that maybe Mary Ann Woodhouse found the first fossil Iguanodon, but what bones, and where? (There was definitely a tooth, since that's what the dinosaur was named after.) I was really pleased to read this report of three new dinosaur species discovered in Australia, where they actually show what bones were found and where they fit on the dinosaur's reconstruction. Even really good finds like this are often fragmentary, less than half the animal! To me, it's a little disappointing to see how incomplete most skeletons are, but it's also really incredible how much can be filled in based on other finds and knowledge about dinosaurs in general. These paleontologists really know their stuff!