94 EXTINCT MONSTERS. 



and other authorities to exalt them, from their former position of 

 a mere order in the reptile class, to the dignity of a sub-class all 

 to themselves ; and there is much to be said for this view. Com- 

 pared with the Marsupials, living and extinct, they show an equal 

 diversity of structure and variations in size from by far the 

 largest land animals known down to some of the smallest.^ 



The importance of discovering, if possible, a portion of the jaw 

 of an Iguanodon was fully recognised by Dr, Mantell, and, urged 

 on by the encouragement he had received from the illustrious 

 Cuvier, he eagerly sought for the required evidence. But nearly 

 a quarter of a century elapsed before it was forthcoming. In 

 1 841 and 1848, however, portions of the lower jaw, with some 

 teeth attached, were found ; and his memoir On the Structure of 

 the Jaws and Teeth of the Jguanodon was published by the Royal 

 Society in 1848. For this important communication the gold 

 medal of the society was awarded to the author. The second 

 of these finds (by Captain Brickenden) confirmed in every 

 essential particular the inferences suggested by the detached 

 teeth. 



The first important connected series of bones of this monster 

 was discovered in 1834, by Mr. Bensted, in the *' Kentish Rag" 

 quarries of the Lower Greensand formation at Maidstone. ISIr. 

 Bensted, who was the proprietor of the quarry, one day had his 

 attention drawn by the workmen to what they supposed to be 

 petrified wood in some pieces of stone which they had been 

 blasting. He perceived that what they supposed to be wood was 

 fossil bone, and, with a zeal and care which have always 

 characterised this estimable man (says Professor Owen) in his 

 endeavour to secure for science any evidence of fossil remains in 

 his quarry, he immediately resorted to the spot. He found that 

 the bore, or blast, by which these remains were brought to light 



' Bauer, after a full critical examination of the Dinosauria, considers that 

 one order is insufficient, and has proposed to make three orders of them, 

 whicli he names after the Tguanodon, Cetiosaurus, and Megalosaurus. 



