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 
1841 and 1848, however, portions of the lower jaw, with some 
teeth attached, were found ; and his memoir On the Structm'e of 
the Jaws a 7 id Teeth of the Iguanodon 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. Mr. 
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, 
which he names after the Iguanodon, Cetiosaurus, and Megalosaurus. 
