''Iguanodon'' ( ; meaning '
iguana
''Iguana'' (, ) is a genus of herbivorous lizards that are native to tropical areas of Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. The genus was first described in 1768 by Austrian naturalist Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in his ...
-
tooth
A tooth ( : teeth) is a hard, calcified structure found in the jaws (or mouths) of many vertebrates and used to break down food. Some animals, particularly carnivores and omnivores, also use teeth to help with capturing or wounding prey, t ...
'), named in 1825, is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...
of
iguanodontian
dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
. While many species have been classified in the genus ''Iguanodon'', dating from the late
Jurassic
The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...
Period to the early
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...
Period of Asia, Europe, and North America,
taxonomic revision in the early 21st century has defined ''Iguanodon'' to be based on one well-substantiated species: ''I. bernissartensis'', which lived from the late
Barremian
The Barremian is an age in the geologic timescale (or a chronostratigraphic stage) between 129.4 ± 1.5 Ma ( million years ago) and 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma). It is a subdivision of the Early Cretaceous Epoch (or Lower Cretaceous Series). It is pre ...
to the earliest
Aptian
The Aptian is an age in the geologic timescale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early or Lower Cretaceous Epoch or Series and encompasses the time from 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma to 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma (million years ag ...
ages
(
Early Cretaceous
The Early Cretaceous (geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous ( chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145 Ma to 100.5 Ma.
Geology
Pr ...
) in
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, ...
, and possibly elsewhere in Europe, between about 126 and 122 million years ago. ''Iguanodon'' was a large, bulky
herbivore
A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthp ...
, measuring up to in length and in body mass. 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.
The genus was named in 1825 by English
geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, alt ...
Gideon Mantell but discovered by William Harding Bensted, based on fossil specimens found in England and was given the species name ''I. anglicus.'' ''Iguanodon'' was the second type of dinosaur formally named based on fossil specimens, after ''
Megalosaurus''. Together with ''Megalosaurus'' and ''
Hylaeosaurus'', it was one of the three genera originally used to define
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
ia. The genus ''Iguanodon'' belongs to the larger group
Iguanodontia, along with the duck-billed hadrosaurs. 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. In 1878 new, far more complete remains of ''Iguanodon'' were discovered in Belgium and studied by
Louis Dollo. These were given the new species ''I. bernissartensis.'' In the early 21st century it became understood that the remains referred to ''Iguanodon'' in England belonged to four different species (including ''I. bernissartensis'') that were not closely related to each other, which were subsequently split off into ''
Mantellisaurus'', ''
Barilium'' and ''
Hypselospinus.'' It was also found that the originally described
type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...
of ''Iguanodon, I. anglicus'' was a ''
nomen dubium
In binomial nomenclature, a ''nomen dubium'' (Latin for "doubtful name", plural ''nomina dubia'') is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application.
Zoology
In case of a ''nomen dubium'' it may be impossible to determine whether a s ...
,'' and not valid. Thus the name "''Iguanodon''" became fixed around the well known species based primarily on the Belgian specimens. In 2015, a second valid species, ''I. galvensis'', was named, based on fossils found in the Iberian Peninsula.
Scientific understanding of ''Iguanodon'' has evolved over time as new information has been obtained from
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
s. The numerous specimens of this genus, including nearly complete skeletons from two well-known
bone beds, 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, ''Iguanodon'' 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.
Discovery and history
Gideon Mantell, Sir Richard Owen, and the discovery of dinosaurs

The discovery of ''Iguanodon'' has long been accompanied by a popular
legend
A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...
. The story goes that
Gideon Mantell's wife,
Mary Ann, discovered the first teeth of an ''Iguanodon'' in the strata of
Tilgate Forest in
Whitemans Green,
Cuckfield
Cuckfield ( ) is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England, on the southern slopes of the Weald. It lies south of London, north of Brighton, and east northeast of the county town of Chichester. Nearby town ...
,
Sussex,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
, in 1822 while her husband was visiting a patient. However, there is no evidence that Mantell took his wife with him while seeing patients. Furthermore, he admitted in 1851 that he himself had found the teeth,
although he had previously stated in 1827 and 1833 that Mrs. Mantell had indeed found the first of the teeth later named ''Iguanodon''.
Other later authors agree that the story is not certainly false.
It is known from his notebooks that Mantell first acquired large fossil bones from the quarry at Whitemans Green in 1820. Because also
theropod
Theropoda (; ), whose members are known as theropods, is a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally ...
teeth were found, thus belonging to carnivores, he at first interpreted these bones, which he tried to combine into a partial skeleton, as those of a giant
crocodile
Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to include all extant ...
. In 1821 Mantell mentioned the find of herbivorous teeth and began to consider the possibility that a large herbivorous reptile was present in the strata. However, in his 1822 publication ''Fossils of the South Downs'' he as yet did not dare to suggest a connection between the teeth and his very incomplete skeleton, presuming that his finds presented two large forms, one carnivorous ("an animal of the Lizard Tribe of enormous magnitude"), the other herbivorous.
In May 1822 he first presented the herbivorous teeth to the
Royal Society of London
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
but the members, among them
William Buckland, dismissed them as
fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% ...
teeth or the incisors of a
rhinoceros
A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family (biology), family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member ...
from a
Tertiary
Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago.
The period began with the demise of the non- avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...
stratum. On 23 June 1823
Charles Lyell
Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, (14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining the earth's history. He is best known as the author of '' Principles of Geol ...
showed some to
Georges Cuvier
Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier was a major figure in na ...
, during a soiree in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
, but the famous French naturalist at once dismissed them as those of a rhinoceros. Though the very next day Cuvier retracted, Lyell reported only the dismissal to Mantell, who became rather diffident about the issue. In 1824 Buckland described ''
Megalosaurus'' and was on that occasion invited to visit Mantell's collection. Seeing the bones on 6 March he agreed that these were of some giant saurian—though still denying it was a herbivore. Emboldened nevertheless, Mantell again sent some teeth to Cuvier, who answered on 22 June 1824 that he had determined that they were reptilian and quite possibly belonged to a giant herbivore. In a new edition that year of his ''Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles'' Cuvier admitted his earlier mistake, leading to an immediate acceptance of Mantell, and his new saurian, in scientific circles. Mantell tried to corroborate his theory further by finding a modern-day parallel among extant reptiles.
[ In September 1824 he visited the ]Royal College of Surgeons
The Royal College of Surgeons is an ancient college (a form of corporation) established in England to regulate the activity of surgeons. Derivative organisations survive in many present and former members of the Commonwealth. These organisations ar ...
but at first failed to find comparable teeth. However, assistant-curator Samuel Stutchbury recognised that they resembled those of an iguana
''Iguana'' (, ) is a genus of herbivorous lizards that are native to tropical areas of Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. The genus was first described in 1768 by Austrian naturalist Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in his ...
he had recently prepared, albeit twenty times longer.[
]
In recognition of the resemblance of the teeth to those of the iguana, Mantell decided to name his new animal ''Iguanodon'' or 'iguana-tooth', from ''iguana'' and the Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
word ὀδών (''odon'', ''odontos'' or 'tooth').[ Based on ]isometric scaling
Allometry is the study of the relationship of body size to shape, anatomy, physiology and finally behaviour, first outlined by Otto Snell in 1892, by D'Arcy Thompson in 1917 in ''On Growth and Form'' and by Julian Huxley in 1932.
Overview
Allom ...
, he estimated that the creature might have been up to long, more than the length of ''Megalosaurus''.[ His initial idea for a name was ''Iguana-saurus'' ('Iguana lizard'), but his friend ]William Daniel Conybeare
William Daniel Conybeare FRS (7 June 178712 August 1857), dean of Llandaff, was an English geologist, palaeontologist and clergyman. He is probably best known for his ground-breaking work on fossils and excavation in the 1820s, including impor ...
suggested that that name was more applicable to the iguana itself, so a better name would be ''Iguanoides'' ('Iguana-like') or ''Iguanodon''.[Cadbury, D. (2000). ''The Dinosaur Hunters''. Fourth Estate:London, 384 p. .] He neglected to add a specific name Specific name may refer to:
* in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database
In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules:
* Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...
to form a proper binomial, but one was supplied in 1829 by Friedrich Holl: ''I. anglicum'', which was later amended to ''I. anglicus''.[
]
Mantell sent a letter detailing his discovery to the local Portsmouth Philosophical Society in December 1824, several weeks after settling on a name for the fossil creature. The letter was read to members of the Society at a meeting on 17 December, and a report was published in the ''Hampshire Telegraph'' the following Monday, 20 December, which announced the name, misspelled as "Iguanadon". Mantell formally published his findings on 10 February 1825, when he presented a paper on the remains to the Royal Society of London
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
.[
A more complete specimen of a similar animal was discovered in a quarry in ]Maidstone
Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the c ...
, Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, in 1834 (lower Lower Greensand Formation), which Mantell soon acquired. He was led to identify it as an ''Iguanodon'' based on its distinctive teeth. The Maidstone slab was utilized in the first skeletal reconstructions and artistic renderings of ''Iguanodon'', but due to its incompleteness, Mantell made some mistakes, the most famous of which was the placement of what he thought was a horn on the nose. The discovery of much better specimens in later years revealed that the horn was actually a modified thumb. Still encased in rock, the Maidstone skeleton is currently displayed at the Natural History Museum
A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more ...
in London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. The borough of Maidstone commemorated this find by adding an ''Iguanodon'' as a supporter
In heraldry, supporters, sometimes referred to as ''attendants'', are figures or objects usually placed on either side of the shield and depicted holding it up.
Early forms of supporters are found in medieval seals. However, unlike the co ...
to their coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in it ...
in 1949. This specimen has become linked with the name ''I. mantelli'', a species named in 1832 by Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer in place of ''I. anglicus'', but it actually comes from a different formation
Formation may refer to:
Linguistics
* Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes
* Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes
Mathematics and science
* Cave formation or speleothem, a secondary ...
than the original ''I. mantelli''/''I. anglicus'' material.[ The Maidstone specimen, also known as Gideon Mantell's "Mantel-piece", and formally labelled NHMUK 3741] was subsequently excluded from ''Iguanodon''. It is classified as ''cf.'' ''Mantellisaurus'' by McDonald (2012); as cf. ''Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis'' by Norman (2012); and made the holotype of a separate species '' Mantellodon carpenteri'' by Paul (2012), but this is considered dubious and it is generally considered a specimen of ''Mantellisaurus''
At the same time, tension began to build between Mantell and Richard Owen
Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils.
Ow ...
, an ambitious scientist with much better funding and society connections in the turbulent worlds of Reform Act-era British politics and science. Owen, a firm creationist
Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 'th ...
, opposed the early versions of evolutionary science (" transmutationism") then being debated and used what he would soon coin as dinosaurs as a weapon in this conflict. With the paper describing Dinosauria, he scaled down dinosaurs from lengths of over , determined that they were not simply giant lizards, and put forward that they were advanced and mammal-like, characteristics given to them by God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
; according to the understanding of the time, they could not have been "transmuted" from reptiles to mammal-like creatures.[Torrens, Hugh. "Politics and Paleontology". ''The Complete Dinosaur,'' 175–190.]
In 1849, a few years before his death in 1852, Mantell realised that iguanodonts were not heavy, pachyderm
Pachyderm may refer to:
* Any of the Pachydermata, an obsolete 19th-century taxonomic order of mammals that included elephants, rhinoceroses, tapirs and hippopotami.
* Pachyderm Studios, a recording studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota.
* Pachyderma ...
-like animals, as Owen was putting forward, but had slender forelimbs; however, his passing left him unable to participate in the creation of the Crystal Palace dinosaur sculptures, and so Owen's vision of the dinosaurs became that seen by the public for decades.[ With Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, he had nearly two dozen lifesize ]sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
s of various prehistoric animals built out of concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most ...
sculpted over a steel and brick framework; two iguanodonts (based on the Maidstone specimen), one standing and one resting on its belly, were included. Before the sculpture of the standing iguanodont was completed, he held a banquet for twenty inside it.[Norman, David B. ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs.'' p. 11.]
Bernissart mine discoveries and Dollo's new reconstruction
The largest find of ''Iguanodon'' remains to that date occurred on 28 February 1878 in a coal mine at Bernissart in Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
, at a depth of ,[ when two mineworkers, Jules Créteur and Alphonse Blanchard, accidentally hit on a skeleton that they initially took for ]petrified wood
Petrified wood, also known as petrified tree (from Ancient Greek meaning 'rock' or 'stone'; literally 'wood turned into stone'), is the name given to a special type of '' fossilized wood'', the fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. ' ...
. With the encouragement of Alphonse Briart, supervisor of mines at nearby Morlanwelz, Louis de Pauw on 15 May 1878 started to excavate the skeletons and in 1882 Louis Dollo reconstructed them. At least 38 ''Iguanodon'' individuals were uncovered,[ most of which were adults.] In 1882, the holotype specimen of ''I. bernissartensis'' became one of the first ever dinosaur skeletons mounted for display. It was put together in a chapel at the Palace of Charles of Lorraine
The Palace of Charles of Lorraine (french: Palais de Charles de Lorraine, nl, Paleis van Karel van Lotharingen) is a neoclassical palace in the Royal Quarter of Brussels, Belgium. Its construction started in 1757 to serve as the residence of ...
using a series of adjustable ropes attached to scaffolding so that a lifelike pose could be achieved during the mounting process.[ This specimen, along with several others, first opened for public viewing in an inner courtyard of the palace in July 1883. In 1891 they were moved to the Royal Museum of Natural History, where they are still on display; nine are displayed as standing mounts, and nineteen more are still in the Museum's basement.][ The exhibit makes an impressive display in the ]Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
The Museum of Natural Sciences of Belgium (french: Muséum des sciences naturelles de Belgique, nl, Museum voor Natuurwetenschappen van België) is a museum dedicated to natural history, located in Brussels, Belgium. The museum is a part of t ...
, in Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
. A replica of one of these is on display at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and at the Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge. Most of the remains were referred to a new species, ''I. bernissartensis'', a larger and much more robust animal than the English remains had yet revealed. One specimen, IRSNB 1551, was at first referred to the nebulous, gracile ''I. mantelli'', but is currently referred to '' Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis''. The skeletons were some of the first complete dinosaur skeletons known. Found with the dinosaur skeletons were the remains of plants, fish, and other reptiles,[ including the crocodyliform '']Bernissartia
''Bernissartia'' ('of Bernissart') is an extinct genus of neosuchian crocodyliform that lived in the Early Cretaceous, around 130 million years ago.
At only in length, ''Bernissartia'' is one of the smallest crocodyliforms that ever lived. It ...
''.[Palmer, D. ed. (1999). ''The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals''. London: Marshall Editions. p. 100 .]
The science of conserving fossil remains was in its infancy, and new techniques had to be improvised to deal with what soon became known as "pyrite
The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral.
Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue giv ...
disease". Crystalline pyrite in the bones was being oxidized to iron sulphate, accompanied by an increase in volume that caused the remains to crack and crumble. When in the ground, the bones were isolated by anoxic moist clay that prevented this from happening, but when removed into the drier open air, the natural chemical conversion began to occur. To limit this effect, De Pauw immediately, in the mine-gallery, re-covered the dug-out fossils with wet clay, sealing them with paper and plaster reinforced by iron rings, forming in total about six hundred transportable blocks with a combined weight of a hundred and thirty tons. In Brussels after opening the plaster he impregnated the bones with boiling gelatine mixed with oil of cloves as a preservative
A preservative is a substance or a chemical that is added to products such as food products, beverages, pharmaceutical drugs, paints, biological samples, cosmetics, wood, and many other products to prevent decomposition by microbial growth or ...
. Removing most of the visible pyrite he then hardened them with hide glue, finishing with a final layer of tin foil. Damage was repaired with papier-mâché
upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti
upright=1.3, Papier-mâché Catrinas, traditional figures for day of the dead celebrations in Mexico
Papier-mâché (, ; , literally "chewed paper") is a composite material consisting of p ...
. This treatment had the unintended effect of sealing in moisture and extending the period of damage. In 1932 museum director Victor van Straelen decided that the specimens had to be completely restored again to safeguard their preservation. From December 1935 to August 1936 the staff at the museum in Brussels treated the problem with a combination of alcohol, arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, bu ...
, and 390 kilograms of shellac
Shellac () is a resin secreted by the female lac bug on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. It is processed and sold as dry flakes and dissolved in alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze and ...
. This combination was intended to simultaneously penetrate the fossils (with alcohol), prevent the development of mold (with arsenic), and harden them (with shellac). The fossils entered a third round of conservation from 2003 until May 2007, when the shellac, hide glue and gelatine were removed and impregnated with polyvinyl acetate
Polyvinyl acetate (PVA, PVAc, poly(ethenyl ethanoate)), commonly known as wood glue, PVA glue, white glue, carpenter's glue, school glue, or Elmer's glue in the US, is a widely available adhesive used for porous materials like wood, paper, and ...
and cyanoacrylate and epoxy
Epoxy is the family of basic components or Curing (chemistry), cured end products of epoxy resins. Epoxy resins, also known as polyepoxides, are a class of reactive prepolymers and polymers which contain epoxide groups. The epoxide functional ...
glues. Modern treatments of this problem typically involve either monitoring the humidity of fossil storage, or, for fresh specimens, preparing a special coating of polyethylene glycol
Polyethylene glycol (PEG; ) is a polyether compound derived from petroleum with many applications, from industrial manufacturing to medicine. PEG is also known as polyethylene oxide (PEO) or polyoxyethylene (POE), depending on its molecular w ...
that is then heated in a vacuum pump, so that moisture is immediately removed and pore spaces are infiltrated with polyethylene glycol to seal and strengthen the fossil.[
Dollo's specimens allowed him to show that Owen's prehistoric pachyderms were not correct for ''Iguanodon''. He instead modelled the skeletal mounts after the ]cassowary
Cassowaries ( tpi, muruk, id, kasuari) are flightless birds of the genus ''Casuarius'' in the order Casuariiformes. They are classified as ratites (flightless birds without a keel on their sternum bones) and are native to the tropical ...
and wallaby
A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and some ...
, and put the spike that had been on the nose firmly on the thumb
The thumb is the first digit of the hand, next to the index finger. When a person is standing in the medical anatomical position (where the palm is facing to the front), the thumb is the outermost digit. The Medical Latin English noun for thu ...
. His reconstruction would prevail for a long period of time, but would later be discounted.[
Excavations at the quarry were stopped in 1881, although it was not exhausted of fossils, as recent drilling operations have shown.][ Abstracts of Papers, Sixty-Third Annual Meeting.] During World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, when the town was occupied by German forces, preparations were made to reopen the mine for palaeontology, and Otto Jaekel
Otto Max Johannes Jaekel (21 February 1863 – 6 March 1929) was a German paleontologist and geologist.
Biography
Jaekel was born in Neusalz (Nowa Sól), Prussian Silesia, the son of a builder and the youngest of seven children. He studied at t ...
was sent from Berlin
Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
to supervise. Just as the first fossiliferous layer was about to be uncovered, however, the German army surrendered and had to withdraw. Further attempts to reopen the mine were hindered by financial problems and were stopped altogether in 1921 when the mine flooded.[Cordier, S (2017). ''De botten van de Borinage. De iguanodons van Bernissart van 125 miljoen voor Christus tot vandaag''. Antwerpen: Vrijdag . ]
Turn of the century and the Dinosaur Renaissance
Research on ''Iguanodon'' decreased during the early part of the 20th century as World Wars and the Great Depression enveloped Europe. A new species that would become the subject of much study and taxonomic controversy, ''I. atherfieldensis'', was named in 1925 by R. W. Hooley, for a specimen collected at Atherfield Point on the Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...
.
''Iguanodon'' was not part of the initial work of the dinosaur renaissance that began with the description of '' Deinonychus'' in 1969, but it was not neglected for long. David B. Weishampel's work on ornithopod feeding mechanisms provided a better understanding of how it fed, and David B. Norman
David Bruce Norman (born 20 June 1952 in the United Kingdom) is a British paleontologist, currently the main curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge University. From 1991 to 2011, Norman has also been the Sedgwick Mus ...
's work on numerous aspects of the genus has made it one of the best-known dinosaurs. In addition, a further find of numerous disarticulated ''Iguanodon'' bones in Nehden, Nordrhein-Westphalen, Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
, has provided evidence for gregariousness in this genus, as the animals in this areally restricted find appear to have been killed by flash flood
A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas: washes, rivers, dry lakes and depressions. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, or tropical storm, or by meltwater from ice or snow flowing ...
s. At least 15 individuals, from long, have been found here, most of the individuals belong to the related '' Mantellisaurus'' (described as ''I. atherfieldensis'', at that time believed to be another species of ''Iguanodon''). but some are of ''I. bernissartensis.''
One major revision to ''Iguanodon'' brought by the Renaissance would be another re-thinking of how to reconstruct the animal. A major flaw with Dollo's reconstruction was the bend he introduced into the tail
The tail is the section at the rear end of certain kinds of animals’ bodies; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso. It is the part of the body that corresponds roughly to the sacrum and coccyx in mammals ...
. This organ was more or less straight, as shown by the skeletons he was excavating, and the presence of ossified tendons. In fact, to get the bend in the tail for a more wallaby or kangaroo
Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...
-like posture, the tail would have had to be broken. With its correct, straight tail and back, the animal would have walked with its body held horizontal to the ground, arms in place to support the body if needed.
21st century research and the splitting of the genus
In the 21st century, ''Iguanodon'' material has been used in the search for dinosaur biomolecule
A biomolecule or biological molecule is a loosely used term for molecules present in organisms that are essential to one or more typically biological processes, such as cell division, morphogenesis, or development. Biomolecules include larg ...
s. In research by Graham Embery ''et al.,'' ''Iguanodon'' bones were processed to look for remnant protein
Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respon ...
s. In this research, identifiable remains of typical bone proteins, such as phosphoproteins and proteoglycan
Proteoglycans are proteins that are heavily glycosylated. The basic proteoglycan unit consists of a "core protein" with one or more covalently attached glycosaminoglycan (GAG) chain(s). The point of attachment is a serine (Ser) residue to w ...
s, were found in a rib. In 2007, Gregory S. Paul split ''I. atherfieldensis'' into a new, separate genus, '' Mantellisaurus'' which has been generally accepted. In 2009 fragmentary iguanodontid material was described from upper Barremian Paris Basin
The Paris Basin is one of the major geological regions of France. It developed since the Triassic over remnant uplands of the Variscan orogeny (Hercynian orogeny). The sedimentary basin, no longer a single drainage basin, is a large sag in the ...
deposits in Auxerre
Auxerre ( , ) is the capital of the Yonne department and the fourth-largest city in Burgundy. Auxerre's population today is about 35,000; the urban area (''aire d'attraction'') comprises roughly 113,000 inhabitants. Residents of Auxerre are re ...
, Burgundy
Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The ...
. While not definitively diagnosable to the genus/species level, the specimen shares "obvious morphological and dimensional affinities" with ''I. bernissartensis.''
In 2010, David Norman split the Valanginian species ''I. dawsoni'' and ''I. fittoni'' into '' Barilium'' and '' Hypselospinus'' respectively. After Norman 2010, over half a dozen new genera were named off English "''Iguanodon"'' material. Carpenter and Ishida in 2010 named ''Proplanicoxa, Torilion'' and ''Sellacoxa'' while Gregory S. Paul in 2012 named ''Darwinsaurus'', ''Huxleysaurus'' and ''Mantellodon'' and Macdonald et al. in 2012 named ''Kukufeldia''. These species named after Norman 2010 are not considered valid and are considered various junior synonyms
The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently.
* In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linnae ...
of ''Mantellisaurus'', ''Barilium'' and ''Hypselospinus.''
In 2011, a new genus ''Delapparentia'' was named for a specimen in Spain that was originally thought to belong to ''I. bernissartensis''. The previous identification was subsequently reaffirmed in a new analysis of individual variation in the Belgian specimens, finding that the ''Delapparentia'' specimen was within the range of ''I. bernissartensis''. In 2015 a new species of ''Iguanodon'', ''I. galvensis'', was named based on material including 13 juvenile ( perinate) individuals found in the Camarillas Formation near Galve, Spain. In 2017 a new study was done of ''I. galvensis,'' with further evidence of distinctiveness from ''I. bernissartensis'' including several new autapomorphies. It was also found that the ''Delapparentia'' holotype (which is also from the Camarillas Formation) was not distinguishable from either ''I. bernissartensis'' or ''I. galvensis''.
Description
''Iguanodon'' were bulky herbivores that could shift from bipedality to quadruped
Quadrupedalism is a form of locomotion where four limbs are used to bear weight and move around. An animal or machine that usually maintains a four-legged posture and moves using all four limbs is said to be a quadruped (from Latin ''quattuo ...
ality. The only well-supported species, ''I. bernissartensis'', is estimated to have measured about long as an adult, with some specimens possibly as long as , although this is likely an overestimate, given that the maximum body length of ''I. bernissartensis'' is reported to be . Although Gregory S. Paul suggested a body mass of on average, constructing a 3D mathematical model and employing allomery-based estimate suggests an ''I. bernissartensis'' close to long (smaller than average) weighs close to in body mass. Specimens of relatively large individuals have been reported in the 2020s: a specimen referred to as ''I.'' cf. ''galvensis'' was measured up to in length, while a new specimen of ''I. bernissartensis'' from the upper Barremian
The Barremian is an age in the geologic timescale (or a chronostratigraphic stage) between 129.4 ± 1.5 Ma ( million years ago) and 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma). It is a subdivision of the Early Cretaceous Epoch (or Lower Cretaceous Series). It is pre ...
of the Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
was measured up to in length. Such large individuals would have weighed approximately .
The arms of ''I. bernissartensis'' were long (up to 75% the length of the legs) and robust,[ with rather inflexible hands built so that the three central fingers could bear weight.][ The thumbs were conical spikes that stuck out away from the three main digits. In early restorations, the spike was placed on the animal's nose. Later fossils revealed the true nature of the thumb spikes,] although their exact function is still debated. They could have been used for defense, or for foraging for food. The little finger was elongated and dextrous, and could have been used to manipulate objects. The phalangeal formula is 2-3-3-2-4, meaning that the innermost finger (phalange) has two bones, the next has three, etc. The legs were powerful, but not built for running, and each foot had three toes. The backbone and tail were supported and stiffened by ossified tendon
A tendon or sinew is a tough, high-tensile-strength band of dense fibrous connective tissue that connects muscle to bone. It is able to transmit the mechanical forces of muscle contraction to the skeletal system without sacrificing its ability ...
s, which were tendons that turned to bone during life (these rod-like bones are usually omitted from skeletal mounts and drawings).[
These animals had large, tall but narrow skulls, with toothless ]beak
The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomical structure found mostly in birds, but also in turtles, non-avian dinosaurs and a few mammals. A beak is used for eating, preening, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for fo ...
s probably covered with keratin
Keratin () is one of a family of structural fibrous proteins also known as ''scleroproteins''. Alpha-keratin (α-keratin) is a type of keratin found in vertebrates. It is the key structural material making up scales, hair, nails, feathers, ...
, and teeth like those of iguana
''Iguana'' (, ) is a genus of herbivorous lizards that are native to tropical areas of Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. The genus was first described in 1768 by Austrian naturalist Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in his ...
s, as the name suggests, but much larger and more closely packed.[ Unlike hadrosaurids, which had columns of replacement teeth, ''Iguanodon'' only had one replacement tooth at a time for each position. The upper jaw held up to 29 teeth per side, with none at the front of the jaw, and the lower jaw 25; the numbers differ because teeth in the lower jaw are broader than those in the upper.][ Because the tooth rows are deeply inset from the outside of the jaws, and because of other anatomical details, it is believed that, as with most other ornithischians, ''Iguanodon'' had some sort of cheek-like structure, muscular or non-muscular, to retain food in the mouth.][Fastovsky, D.E., and Smith, J.B. "Dinosaur paleoecology." ''The Dinosauria'', 614–626.]
Classification and evolution
''Iguanodon'' gives its name to the unranked clade Iguanodontia, a very populous group of ornithopods with many species known from the Middle Jurassic
The Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 163.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relatively rare, but geological formations ...
to the Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', ...
. Aside from ''Iguanodon'', the best-known members of the clade include '' Dryosaurus'', '' Camptosaurus'', ''Ouranosaurus
''Ouranosaurus'' is a genus of herbivorous basal hadrosauriform dinosaur that lived during the Aptian stage of the Early Cretaceous of modern-day Niger and Cameroon. ''Ouranosaurus'' measured about long. Two rather complete fossils were found i ...
'', and the duck-bills, or hadrosaurs. In older sources, Iguanodontidae was shown as a distinct family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
.[Norman, David B. "Iguanodontidae". ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs'', 110–115.] This family traditionally has been something of a wastebasket taxon, including ornithopods that were neither hypsilophodontids or hadrosaurids. In practice, animals like '' Callovosaurus'', ''Camptosaurus'', '' Craspedodon'', '' Kangnasaurus'', '' Mochlodon'', '' Muttaburrasaurus'', ''Ouranosaurus'', and '' Probactrosaurus'' were usually assigned to this family.[
With the advent of ]cladistic analyses
Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups (" clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived char ...
, Iguanodontidae as traditionally construed was shown to be paraphyletic
In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...
, and these animals are recognised to fall at different points in relation to hadrosaurs on a cladogram
A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to ...
, instead of in a single distinct clade.[ Essentially, the modern concept of Iguanodontidae currently includes only ''Iguanodon''. Groups like Iguanodontoidea are still used as unranked clades in the scientific literature, though many traditional iguanodontids are now included in the superfamily Hadrosauroidea. ''Iguanodon'' lies between ''Camptosaurus'' and ''Ouranosaurus'' in cladograms, and is probably descended from a camptosaur-like animal.][ At one point, ]Jack Horner Jack Horner may refer to:
*''Little Jack Horner'', a nursery rhyme
People
* Jack Horner (baseball) (1863–1910), American professional baseball player
*Jack Horner (journalist) (1912–2005), Gordon John Horner, Minnesota sportscaster
* Jack B. H ...
suggested, based mostly on skull features, that hadrosaurids actually formed two more distantly related groups, with ''Iguanodon'' on the line to the flat-headed hadrosaurines, and ''Ouranosaurus'' on the line to the crested lambeosaurines
Lambeosaurinae is a group of crested hadrosaurid dinosaurs.
Classification
Lambeosaurines have been traditionally split into the tribes or clades Parasaurolophini (''Parasaurolophus'', ''Charonosaurus'', others (?).) and Lambeosaurini (''Coryt ...
, but his proposal has been rejected.
The cladogram below follows an analysis by Andrew McDonald, 2012.
Species
Because ''Iguanodon'' is one of the first dinosaur genera to have been named, numerous species have been assigned to it. While never becoming the wastebasket taxon several other early genera of dinosaurs (such as ''Megalosaurus'') became, ''Iguanodon'' has had a complicated history, and its taxonomy continues to undergo revisions. Although Gregory Paul recommended restricting ''I. bernissartensis'' to the famous sample from Bernissart, ornithopod workers like Norman and McDonald have disagreed with Paul's recommendations, except exercising caution when accepting records of ''Iguanodon'' from France and Spain as valid.
''I. anglicus'' was the original type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...
, but the lectotype
In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes th ...
was based on a single tooth and only partial remains of the species have been recovered since. In March 2000, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries.
Orga ...
changed the type species to the much better known ''I. bernissartensis'', with the new holotype being IRSNB 1534. The original ''Iguanodon'' tooth is held at Te Papa Tongarewa, the national museum of New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...
in Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by m ...
, although it is not on display. The fossil arrived in New Zealand following the move of Gideon Mantell's son Walter there; after the elder Mantell's death, his fossils went to Walter.
Species currently accepted as valid
Only two species assigned to ''Iguanodon'' are still considered to be valid.[
*''I. bernissartensis'', described by ]George Albert Boulenger
George Albert Boulenger (19 October 1858 – 23 November 1937) was a Belgian-British zoologist who described and gave scientific names to over 2,000 new animal species, chiefly fish, reptiles, and amphibians. Boulenger was also an active botan ...
in 1881, is the type species for the genus. This species is best known for the many skeletons discovered in the Sainte-Barbe Clays Formation at Bernissart, but is also known from remains across Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...
.
**''Delapparentia turolensis'', named in 2011 based on a specimen previously assigned to ''Iguanodon bernissartensis'', was argued to be distinct from the latter based on the relative height of its neural spines
The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic i ...
. However, a 2017 study noted that this is easily within the range of individual variation, and that the difference may also arise from ''D. turolensis'' being an adult older than other specimens of ''I. bernissartensis''.
**''I. seelyi'' (also incorrectly spelled ''I. seeleyi''), described by John Hulke in 1882, has also been synonymised with ''Iguanodon bernissartensis'', though this is not universally accepted. It was discovered in Brook, on the Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...
, and named after Charles Seely MP, Liberal politician and philanthropist, on whose estate it was found.
**David Norman has suggested that ''I. bernissartensis'' includes the dubious Mongolian ''I. orientalis'' (see also below), but this has not been followed by other researchers.[
*''I. galvensis'', described in 2015, is based on adult and juvenile remains found in ]Barremian
The Barremian is an age in the geologic timescale (or a chronostratigraphic stage) between 129.4 ± 1.5 Ma ( million years ago) and 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma). It is a subdivision of the Early Cretaceous Epoch (or Lower Cretaceous Series). It is pre ...
-age deposits in Teruel
Teruel () is a city in Aragon, located in eastern Spain, and is also the capital of Teruel Province. It has a population of 35,675 in 2014 making it the least populated provincial capital in the country. It is noted for its harsh climate, with ...
, Spain.
Reassigned species of ''Iguanodon''
* ''I. albinus'' (or ''Albisaurus scutifer''), described by Czech palaeontologist Antonin Fritsch in 1893, is a dubious nondinosaurian reptile now known as '' Albisaurus albinus''.
* ''I. atherfieldensis'', described by R.W. Hooley in 1925,[ was smaller and less robust than ''I. bernissartensis'', with longer neural spines. It was renamed '' Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis'' in 2007.][ The Bernissart specimen RBINS 1551 was described as ''Dollodon bampingi'' in 2008, but McDonald and Norman returned ''Dollodon'' to synonymy with ''Mantellisaurus''.]
* ''I. dawsoni'', described by Lydekker in 1888, is known from two partial skeletons found in East Sussex
East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East ...
, England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
,[ from the middle Valanginian-age Lower Cretaceous Wadhurst Clay.][ It is now the type species of '' Barilium''.]
* ''I. exogyrarum'' was described by Fritsch in 1878. It is a ''nomen dubium'' based on very poor material and was renamed '' Ponerosteus'' in 2000.
* ''I. fittoni'' was described by Lydekker in 1889. Like ''I. dawsoni'', this species was described from the Wadhurst Clay[ of East Sussex.][ It is now the type species of '' Hypselospinus''.][
* ''I. hilli'', coined by Edwin Tully Newton in 1892 for a tooth from the early Cenomanian ]Upper Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', ...
Lower Chalk of Hertfordshire, has been considered an early hadrosaurid of some sort.[Horner, John R., David B. Weishampel and Catherine A. Forster. "Hadrosauridae". ''The Dinosauria'', pp 438–463.] However, recent work places it as indeterminate beyond Hadrosauroidea outside Hadrosauridae
Hadrosaurids (), or duck-billed dinosaurs, are members of the ornithischian family Hadrosauridae. This group is known as the duck-billed dinosaurs for the flat duck-bill appearance of the bones in their snouts. The ornithopod family, which incl ...
.
* ''I. hoggi'' (also spelled ''I. boggii'' or ''hoggii''), named by Owen for a lower jaw from the Tithonian
In the geological timescale, the Tithonian is the latest age of the Late Jurassic Epoch and the uppermost stage of the Upper Jurassic Series. It spans the time between 152.1 ± 4 Ma and 145.0 ± 4 Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by t ...
– Berriasian-age Upper Jurassic–