The Fossil Skeleton found at Maidstone. 101 



singular form, and differ essentially from any known clavicle ; 

 yet it seems impossible to assign them to any other place in 

 the skeleton. Two large hatchet-shaped bones, which appear 

 to belong to the pelvis : they are probably the ossa ilia. A 

 chevron bone, or one of the inferior spinous processes of the 

 tail. A portion of a tooth, and the impression of another : 

 the fortunate discovery of these leaves no doubt of the identity 

 of the animal with the Iguanodon Mantelh' of Tilgate Forest. 



" This specimen from Maidstone is of great value to the 

 comparative anatomist, because it affords decisive evidence 

 that the separate bones found in the strata of Tilgate Forest, 

 and assigned to the iguanodon by Dr. Mantell, solely from 

 analogy, have been correctly appropriated, and belong to that 

 animal ; and we thus obtain a certain knowledge of many in- 

 teresting facts relating to the structure and economy of the 

 original. The recent iguana, as is well known, lives chiefly 

 upon vegetables ; and it is furnished with long and slender 

 toes, by which it is enabled to climb trees with great facility in 

 search of food : but no tree could have borne the weight of 

 the colossal iguanodon. Its enormous bulk would require to 

 be supported by feet of corresponding solidity ; accordingly, 

 we find that the hind feet, as in the hippopotamus and rhino- 

 ceros, were composed of strong, short, massy bones, and 

 furnished with claws, not hooked, as in the iguana, but 

 compressed, as in the land tortoises. The feet thus formed a 

 massy base for the support of the enormous leg and thigh 

 bones. But, in the fore feet or hands of the iguanodon, the 

 bones are analogous to those of the fingers of the iguana; 

 Jong, slender, flexible, and armed with curved claw-bones, 

 the exact counterpart of the nail-bones of the recent animal; 

 thus furnishing a prehensile instrument, to seize and tear to 

 pieces the palms, arborescent ferns, and dragon-blood plants 

 (Dracaena), which constituted the food of the iguanodon." 



That the above families of plants supplied food for these 

 enormous reptiles may be fairly inferred from the abundant 

 fossil remains of their stems and leaves, which are found in 

 the same strata with the bones and teeth of the iguanodon. 

 These teeth, like those of the living iguana, are formed for 

 cutting vegetable substances ; and, from the manner in which 

 they are worn down, Dr. Mantell infers that they also served 

 to masticate their food. Indeed, from the size of the plants, 

 their parts and fibres would require mastication to convert 

 them into nourishing food. The geological position of the 

 Maidstone fossil differs from that in which the other remains 

 of the iguanodon have been found. It was not surrounded 

 by freshwater strata, but embedded in the grey arenaceous 



h 3 



