428 



DINOSAURIA 



CHAP. 



induced the unfortunate late I'aul Albrecht to declare that 

 Iguanodon was a reptilian Duck ! The tarsal bones are separate. 

 The metatarsals and toes are reduced to three, with 3, 4, 5 phalanges 

 respectively, the first being a mere styliform vestige. The 

 anterior limbs are likewise very powerful, but are much shorter; 

 the hands are adapted for grasping, possibly for defence and 

 offence, as indicated by the pollex, which, although short, is 

 transformed into a formidable spur-like weapon, firmly fixed at 

 a right angle to the other kmv fingers, the phalanges of which 

 number 3, 3, 3, 4 ; the second and third fingers were protected 



Fig. 101. — ^\ie\Qion oi Jguanodon bernisxartensis. x 



(After Marsh.) 



l)y hoof-like nails, the fifth finger is feeble, and stands somewhat 

 apart. The whole vertebral column consists of more than eighty 

 vertebrae, of which ten are cervical, eighteen thoracic and luml>ar, 

 while five or six are fused into the sacrum. The cervical verte- 

 brae are opisthocoelous, and cai-ry short ribs, except the atlas, 

 wliich possesses two separate supra -dorsal pieces, whicli fill the 

 gap Ijetween it and the occiput. 



Many specimens of /. hernissartensis, which is now completely 

 known, including even the hyoid bones, were discovered in 18 78, 

 in the Belgian colliery of Bernissart, between Mons and Tournai, 

 close to the French frontier. The bones were in a fault or crack, 

 filled witli clay of Wealden age, about one thousand feet below 

 the present sea-level, and there al)out tliirty Tguanodons, all 



