A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



sagittirostris, which certainly does not belong to the genus whose name 

 it bears, is typified by a specimen from the Hastings Sands of St, 

 Leonards, now preserved in the British Museum among the Beckles 

 collection. 



From an historical point of view the most interesting of the extinct 

 reptiles from the Wealden of Sussex is however the huge dinosaur to 

 which Mantell gave the name of Iguanodon, on account of a supposed 

 resemblance between its teeth and those of the tropical American lizards 

 known as iguanas. The history of the discovery, as told by Mantell,' 

 is as follows : ' Soon after my first discovery of remains of large verte- 

 brated animals in the strata of Tilgate Forest some teeth of a very 

 remarkable character in a block of stone on the roadside particularly 

 engaged my attention from their dissimilarity to any that had previously 

 come under my notice. Additional examples were soon discovered, and 

 at length I obtained a series of teeth in various conditions, from the 

 pointed incised tooth of the young reptile to the obtuse, worn, flat 

 crown of the adult.' To the reptile indicated by these teeth the name 

 Iguamdon was applied by Mantell in 1825, but it was not till 1832 that 

 H. von Meyer described the species as /. mantelli. Remains of this 

 reptile were subsequently obtained from Battle, Cuckfield, Hawkbourne, 

 Hastings, Horsham and Knellstone ; but it was not till comparatively 

 recently, when entire skeletons were discovered in Belgium, that the 

 true structure of the skeleton of the iguanodon was realized. These 

 Belgian specimens showed individuals of two sizes, the smaller being 

 identified with /. viantelli, and the larger described as a second species 

 with the name of /. bernissartensis. Both types occur in the Sussex 

 Wealden. Iguanodon was an herbivorous reptile, walking on its three- 

 toed hind limbs, with the aid of some support from its long and powerful 

 tail. The largest individuals stood but little short of 20 feet in height. 

 Their three-toed footprints have been preserved in the Wealden sand- 

 stones of Hastings and Bexhill. 



Two other species of iguanodon, /. dawsoni and I.Jittoni, have been 

 described from the Wadhurst Clay of Hastings, and a third (/. holling- 

 toniensis) from the same stratum at Hollington. The much smaller but 

 alUed dinosaur known as Hypsilopbodon foxi, typically from the Wealden 

 of the Isle of Wight, is also recorded from Cuckfield. 



A totally different type of dinosaur is indicated by a huge bone of 

 the fore-limb (humerus) from Tilgate Forest, described by Mantell 

 under the name of Pelorosaiirus conybeari, and now in the British 

 Museum. American specimens show that the huge reptiles of this 

 type were herbivorous and quadrupedal, with a length of 60 feet or 

 more. The bodies of their vertebrae were excavated into large chambers. 

 Such a vertebra has been obtained from the Wealden of Hastings, and 

 may belong either to Pelorosaurus or to an allied form (typified by a 

 tooth from the Isle of Wight) known as Hoplosaunts armatus. Smaller 

 vertebra of a similar type from Cuckfield and Hastings belong to a 



1 Wonden of Geology, i. 436. 

 36 



