Europe was the birthplace of modern paleontology; the very first dinosaurs were identified here almost 200 years ago, with reverberations that have persisted to the present day. Here are the 10 most important (and most influential) European dinosaurs, ranging from Archaeopteryx to Plateosaurus.
1. Archaeopteryx
Emily Willoughby
Some people who should know better still insist that Archaeopteryx was the first true bird, but in fact it was much closer to the dinosaur end of the evolutionary spectrum. However you choose to classify it, Archaeopteryx has weathered the past 200 million years exceptionally well; about a dozen near-complete skeletons have been excavated from Germany's Solnhofen fossil beds. More about Archaeopteryx
2. Balaur
Sergey Krasovskiy
One of the more recently discovered European dinosaurs, Balaur is a case study in adaptation: restricted to an island habitat, this raptor evolved a thick, stocky, powerful build and two (rather than one) oversized claws on each of its hind feet. Balaur's low center of gravity may have enabled it to gang up (albeit slowly) on the much bigger hadrosaurs of central Europe. More about Balaur
3. Baryonyx
Sergey Krasovskiy
When its remains were discovered in England in 1983, Baryonyx created a sensation: with its long, narrow, crocodile-like snout and oversized claws, this large theropod clearly subsisted on fish rather than its fellow reptiles. Paleontologists later determined that Baryonyx was closely related to the spinosaur theropods of Africa and South America, including Spinosaurus and Irritator. More about Baryonyx
4. Cetiosaurus
Nobu Tamura
You can chalk up Cetiosaurus' odd name--Greek for "whale lizard"--to the confusion of early British paleontologists, who had yet to appreciate the enormous sizes attained by sauropod dinosaurs and assumed they were dealing with a fossilized whale or crocodile. Cetiosaurus is important because it dates from the middle, rather than late, Jurassic period, and thus predates more famous sauropods by 10 or 20 million years. More about Cetiosaurus
5. Compsognathus
North American Museum of Ancient Life
Discovered in Germany in the mid 19th century, the chicken-sized Compsognathus was famous for decades as the "world's smallest dinosaur," comparable in size only to the distantly related Archaeopteryx. Today, the place of Compsognathus in the dinosaur record books has been supplanted by even earlier, and even smaller, theropods from China and South America, many of them covered with feathers. More about Compsognathus
6. Europasaurus
Gerhard Boeggeman
The average EU resident may or may not be proud to know that Europasaurus was one of the smallest sauropods ever to roam the earth, measuring only about 10 feet from head to tail and weighing no more than a single ton (compared to 50 or 100 tons for the biggest members of the breed). The small size of Europasaurus can probably be chalked up to its small, resource-starved island habitat. More about Europasaurus
7. Iguanodon
Sergio Perez
No dinosaur in history has caused as much confusion as Iguanodon, the fossilized thumb of which was discovered in England way back in 1822 (by the early naturalist Gideon Mantell). Only the second dinosaur ever to receive a name, Iguanodon wasn't fully understood for at least a century after its discovery, by which time many other ornithopods had been assigned (incorrectly) to its genus. More about Iguanodon
8. Megalosaurus
Mariana Ruiz
Today, paleontologists appreciate the diversity of large theropods that lived during the Mesozoic Era--but not so their 19th-century counterparts. For decades after it was named, Megalosaurus was the go-to genus for just about any large carnivorous dinosaur, generating a vast amount of confusion that experts are still sorting out today (as various Megalosaurus "species" are reassigned to their own genera). More about Megalosaurus
9. Neovenator
Nobu Tamura
Until the discovery of Neovenator, in 1978, Europe couldn't claim much in the way of native carnivores: Allosaurus (some offshoots of which resided in Europe) was considered more of a North American dinosaur, and Megalosaurus comprised a bewildering number of species. Though it only weighed about half a ton, and was still a close relative of Allosaurus, at least Neovenator was European through and through. More about Neovenator
10. Plateosaurus
Alain Beneteau
The most famous prosauropod of western Europe, Plateosaurus was a moderately sized, long-necked plant eater that traveled in herds, grasping the leaves of trees with its partially opposable thumbs. Like others of its kind, the late Triassic Plateosaurus was distantly ancestral to the giant sauropods and titanosaurs that spread across the globe during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. More about Plateosaurus
