Iguanodon is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur that existed roughly halfway between the swift bipedal hypsilophodontids of the mid-Jurassic and the duck-billed dinosaurs of the late Cretaceous. The genus was named in 1825 by English geologist Gideon Mantell but discovered by William Harding Bensted, based on fossil specimens found in England. In 1878 new, far more complete remains were discovered in Belgium and studied by Louis Dollo.
About Iguanodon in brief
Iguanodon is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur that existed roughly halfway between the first of the swift bipedal hypsilophodontids of the mid-Jurassic and the duck-billed dinosaurs of the late Cretaceous. The genus was named in 1825 by English geologist Gideon Mantell but discovered by William Harding Bensted, based on fossil specimens found in England. In 1878 new, far more complete remains were discovered in Belgium and studied by Louis Dollo. The taxonomy of this genus continues to be a topic of study as new species are named or long-standing ones reassigned to other genera. The numerous specimens have allowed researchers to make informed hypotheses regarding many aspects of the living animal, including feeding, movement, and social behaviour. As one of the first scientifically well-known dinosaurs, Iguanodontia has occupied a small but notable place in the public’s perception of dinosaurs, its artistic representation changing significantly in response to new interpretations of its remains. It is one of three genera originally used to define Dinosauria, along with Megalosaurus and Hylaeosaurus. It belongs to the larger group Iguansaurs along with duck- billed hadrosaurs. It lived between about 126 and 122 million years ago in Europe, Asia, and North America. Distinctive features include large thumb spikes, which were possibly used for defense against predators, combined with long prehensile fifth fingers able to forage for food.
It was the second type of dinosaur formally named based on Fossil specimens, afterMegalosaurus. The story goes that Gideon Mantel’s wife, Mary Ann, discovered the first teeth of an Igu anodon in the strata of Tilgate Forest in Whitemans Green, Cuckfield, Sussex, England, in 1822 while her husband was visiting a patient. However, there is no evidence that Mantell took his wife with him while seeing patients, and he admitted in 1851 that he himself had found the teeth, although he had previously stated in 1827 that Mrs. Mantell had indeed found the first. Other later authors agree that the story is not certainly false. In the early 21st century it became understood that the remains referred to IguAnodon in England belonged to four different species that were not closely related to each other, and were subsequently split off into Mantellisaurus, Barilium and Hypselospinus. The new species I. bernissartensis became fixed around the well known species based primarily on the Belgian specimens. It has since been identified as I. anglicus, which lived from the late Barremian to the earliest Aptian ages in Belgium, Spain, Germany, England and Portugal and possibly elsewhere in Europe. In May 1822 he first presented the herbivorous teeth to the Royal Society of London but some members, among them William Buckland, dismissed them as the incisors of a fish or rhinoceros.
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This page is based on the article Iguanodon published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 07, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
