Famously, Iguanodon was originally considered by Gideon Mantell to be a gigantic lizard, with what we now know to be its thumb placed as a horn on its nose.
Science Ruined Dinosaurs!
By its very nature, paleontology goes through many interpretations of long-extinct animals... some of which are really out there. Loving recreated here are some of the more unusual ones or those that simply interested me.
Edward Drinker Cope initially placed Elasmosaurus' skull on the wrong end of its body, giving the animal a short neck and an incredibly long tail, rather like a lizard.
Johann Hermann was actually the first to propose that Pterodactylus could fly (previously it was believed to have been aquatic), though his mammalian restoration has the elongated finger looping back and connecting with the feet.
Alain Bidar thought perhaps that Compsognathus had large, webbed forelimbs and thus was an adept swimmer.
E. A. Maleyev (or "Maleev", there are a few alternate spellings floating about) believed Therizinosaurus to be an unusual turtle-like beast, one that swam the oceans and used its giant claws to cut and gather seaweed.
Since its discovery the nature of Stegosaurus' plates have been a matter of much debate. Frank Bond took an exceptionally strange approach, giving it an armored phalanx-like look.
Louis Dollo noticed a hole in Iguanodon's jaw, and concluded it may have been able to stick its tongue out through there. As it turns out, the jaw was simply broken.
John McLoughlin thought the frill of Triceratops (and ceratopsians in general) was the anchor for its jaw muscles (and then some).
