Richard Owen. Portrait of Sir Richard Owen (1804- 1892), British palaeontologist, with a skeleton of a giant moa, an extinct bird from New Zealand. Owen was the first to describe the giant moa and did extensive research on other fossils and coined the term dinosaur". He organised the first recon- struction of dinosaurs at the Great Exhibition of London in 1851. Owen initially opposed Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection, be- lieving instead that evolution was due to the action of a "vital force" within cells. He later changed his views as Darwin's ideas became widely accepted. Moas were plentiful until New Zealand was first settled by people about 1000 years ago."