162 EXTINCT MONSTERS 



teeth belonged. Being hampered by arduous professional duties 

 in a provincial town, remote from museums and libraries, Dr. 

 Mantell transmitted to the Eoyal Society figures and drawings of 

 the specimens, and, at the suggestion of the Eev. W. D. Cony- 

 beare, adopted the name Iguanodon (Iguana-tooth) for the extinct 

 reptile, a name which pointed to the resemblance of its teeth to 

 those of the modern iguana, a land-lizard some three to five feet 

 long, inhabiting many parts of America and the West Indies, 

 and rarely met with north or south of the tropics. 



In all living reptiles the insects or vegetables on which they 

 feed are seized by the tongue or teeth, and swallowed whole, so 

 that a movable covering to the jaws, simila.r to the lips and cheeks 

 of the mammalia, is not necessary, either for seizing and retain- 

 ing food or for subjecting it by muscular movements to the action 

 of the teeth. It is the power of perfect mastication possessed by 

 the Iguanodon that is so strange, for it implies a most remarkable 

 approach in extinct reptiles to characters possessed now only by 

 herbivorous mammalia, such as horses, cows, deer, etc. From 

 this and other strange characters seen in the Dinosaurs, we learn 

 that they in their day played the part of our modern mammals, 

 whether carnivorous or herbivorous, and showed remarkable 

 approach to the mammalian type, which of course is a much 

 higher one. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at that Dr. 

 Mantell's contemporaries, with the exception of Cuvier, found in 

 these teeth an awkward puzzle and refused to believe that they 

 belonged to a reptile. Such a notion was at variance with all 

 previous experience; and we naturally form our conclusions 

 largely by experience. The importance of discovering, if possible, 

 a portion of the jaw of an Iguanodon was fully recognised by 

 Dr. Mantell, and, urged by the encouragement he had received 

 from the illustrious Cuvier, he eagerly sought for the required 



