Extinct Monsters: A Popular Account of Some of the Larger Forms of Ancient Animal LifeHutchinson, H. N. (Henry Neville)
Science
Extinct Monsters: A Popular Account of Some of the Larger Forms of Ancient Animal Life
Hutchinson, H. N. (Henry Neville)
Paleontology
[17] In August, 1892, Mr. Dollo wrote, in answer to inquiries from
South Kensington, to say that five are already mounted and exhibited,
and five more are almost ready for mounting. He also stated that the
remains represent twenty-nine individuals, not twenty-three, as above.
[18] _Geological Magazine_, January, 1885.
The specimens so skilfully set up by M. de Pauw represent two
distinct species. The larger one, Iguanodon Bernissartensis, cannot be
less than fifteen feet high, and, measured from the tip of the snout
to the end of the tail, is rather over thirty feet long, covering
nearly twenty-four feet of ground in its erect position (see Fig. 21).
Iguanodon Mantelli is smaller and more slender looking, with a height
of over ten feet, and a length of about twenty feet. (See Fig. 22.)
[Illustration: Fig. 21.--Skeleton of _Iguanodon Bernissartensis_.]
[Illustration: Plate VIII.
IGUANODON MANTELLI.
Length about 20 feet.]
[Illustration: Fig. 22.--Skull and skeleton of _Iguanodon Mantelli_.
(From Bernissart.)]
The huge three-toed impressions found in Sussex prove that the
monster, although owning a body as large as that of an elephant,
habitually walked on its hind legs! Some of the thighbones found by
Dr. Mantell measured between four and five feet in length. It will be
seen that the fore limbs are small in comparison to the hind limbs. A
remarkable feature of the hand is the large pointed bone at the end of
the thumb, forming a kind of spur. The conical shape of this bone
found by Dr. Mantell, who had no clue to its place in the skeleton,
led him to suppose that it was a horn answering to that of a
rhinoceros--a conclusion which Professor Owen refused for various
reasons to accept. The latter concluded that it belonged to the hand,
and now we see that he was right. Unfortunately, certain popular works
on geology, such as _Our Earth and its Story_ (Cassell) still continue
to spread this error, by showing a (very indifferent) restoration of
the Iguanodon with the impossible horn on its nose. It has been
suggested that the spur was a weapon of offence, and that, when
attacked, an Iguanodon may have seized its aggressor in its short
arms, and made use of the spur as a dagger. But this is only
conjecture, and perhaps the spur may have been useful in seizing and
pulling down the foliage and branches of trees, or in grubbing them up
by the roots. Detached specimens of this curious bone may be seen
among the other remains of Iguanodon at South Kensington, and also
some of the gigantic tracks already alluded to. (Gallery IV. on plan,
Wall-cases 5 and 6; and Gallery XI., Wall-case 7.)
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