Discovering Dinosaurs

The story of two men: Gideon Mantell, a hard-working doctor of humble birth, and Richard Owen, an ambitious anatomist. Mantell devotes his life to unearthing fossils around his home town of Lewes. His most famous find is a skeleton which he names Iguanodon. Facing bankruptcy and debtors' prison, he is forced to sell his 25-year-old fossil collection. After an accident leaves him in severe pain, he dies of an opium overdose, never receiving due credit in his lifetime for his achievements. Owen uses the work of Mantell and others to assist him in his climb to the top of scientific and social circles. It is he who gives dinosaurs their name, and he who provides models of the giant reptiles for the Crystal Palace; they can still be seen there today.