The men who discovered monsters

As far as we know, Tyrannosaurus rex never stalked its prey through what is now the United Kingdom. Likewise, Diplodocus apparently never once set foot on British shores – despite a Diplodocus skeleton being prominently featured in the entrance hall of the UK's Natural History Museum. Neither did Triceratops, Brachiosaurus, Velociraptor or Stegosaurus.

In fact, the dinosaurs that have been unearthed in the UK are, by and large, a relatively obscure bunch. Yet Britain still holds a very special place in the history of dinosaur science.

It was there that the first fossil dinosaur fragments were studied by scientists; there that the first essentially complete dinosaur skeleton was unearthed; there that the very word "dinosaur" was born about 170 years ago; and there that the name almost died just a few decades later.

It's anyone's guess exactly where and when humans first stumbled upon the fossilised remains of ancient giant beasts. But according to Hugh Torrens of Keele University in the UK, we know exactly where the first dinosaur was discovered.

It was found in the centre of London: to be precise, at 15 Aldersgate Street, a few hundred metres north of St Paul's Cathedral.