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Marvels of the Universe 



THE IGUANODON 



BY R. I. POCOCK, F.R.S. 



The study of extinct reptiles has brought to light marvels only dimly guessed at half a century or 

 so ago, and has proved the nearly world-wide existence during the Mesozoic epoch — so appropriately 

 termed the age of reptiles — of large numbers of these cold-blooded vertebrates which, as compared 

 with existing members of that class, were no less remarkable for their colossal size than for their 

 grotesque appearance. But strange and interesting as these bygone organisms are in themselves, 

 one of the most important and unexpected results their investigation has led to is the discovery 

 that to them we must look for the parentage of the two most highly-organized classes of vertebrates, 

 the Birds and the Mammals. 



One of the earliest of the bird-like types to be revealed was the Iguanodon, whose bones, embedded 

 in rocks below the chalk, were found some fifty years ago by Dr. Mantell in the Weald of Sussex. The 

 name Iguanodon, meaning " Iguana-toothed," was suggested by the shape and structure of the 

 teeth, the crowns of which were compressed and pointed, while their edges, front and back, were 

 armed with small, close-set cusps like the serrations of a saw, thus resembling somewhat the teeth 



THE SKELETON OF THE IGUANODON. 



A splendid reconstruction in the Natural History Museum, South Kensington. The height of the Iguanodon was 

 fourteen feet and the length twenty-five feet The tail is deep and laterally compressed as if for swimming. 



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