THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE IV. VOL. II. 



No. VII.— JULY, 1895. 



I, — Note on the Reconstruction of Iguanodon in the British 

 Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Eoad. 



By Henry "Woodwahd, LL.D., F.R.S., Pres.G.S. 



(PLATE X.) 



BY the kind assistance of Monsieur E. Dupont, the Director of 

 the Royal Museiun of Natural History in Brussels, a coloured 

 reproduction of the entire skeleton of Igunnodo7i Bernissartensis has 

 lately been acquired for the British Museum (Natural Histoiy), and 

 may now be seen admirably set up in the Reptile Gallery of the 

 Geological Department. 



Remains of Iguanodon had long been known from deposits of 

 Wealden age in this country, the first notice being that by Dr. G. A. 

 Mantell in 1825 (see Phil. Trans., p. 184:). All the English accounts 

 were founded upon teeth and detached bones of various individuals, 

 mostly from Hastings. Sussex, from Maidstone, Rent, and from the 

 Isle of Wight ; but no complete specimen was ever obtained in 

 this country. Many species have been established upon these verv 

 imperfect remains, but originally they were all referred to a single 

 species, for which the names I. anglicum, F. Holl (1829), and 

 I. Mantelli,^ H. von Meyer (1832), were proposed. The latter, 

 having been defined by Owen in 1851, is the species generally 

 recognized in this country. 



How imperfect was our acquaintance with the entire animal may 

 be seen from the restoration set up about forty years ago by 

 Waterhouse Hawkins (after Owen's suggestions) in the grounds of 

 the Crystal Palace, Sydenham. At length our knowledge of this 

 very remarkable reptile was destined to be perfected by the 

 discovery, in 1878, of no fewer than tM^enty-three more or less 

 complete skeletons of Iguanodon at Bernissart in Belgium, where 

 heretofore no Wealden strata had been known to exist. 



At this village, between Mons and Tournay, near the French 

 frontier, coal-mining had been carried on for years by M. Fages, 

 Director-General of the Society of Bernissart. A trial gallery, made 

 in order to discover the continuation of a missing seam of coal, led 

 to the finding of an ancient river-gorge, excavated by a stream in 



^ For an account and restored figure of Mantell's Iffuanodon see Geol. Mag. 

 1885, Dec. Ill, Vol. II, pp. 10-15, PL I, by H. Woodward. 



DECADE IV. VOL. II. — NO. VII. 19 



