Iguanodon bernissartensis

Boulenger, 1881
1899-1 MNHN.F.CTE241
Reptilia, Dinosauria, Ornithischia, Ornithopoda, Iguanodontidae
Lower Jurassic, Barremian-Aptian, 121 million years
Bernissart Mines, Belgium

Iguanadon is an herbivorous dinosaur weighing about 3 tonnes and measuring 6 to 10 m in length.

Iguanodon was quadrupedal, but could occasionally stand on its hind legs. Its vertebral column and tail were supported and reinforced by ossified tendons which are visible on this cast. Its five-fingered hand appears to have functioned like a veritable Swiss army knife: the thumb is shaped like a spur and its function is still debated; the next three digits have a large hoof-shaped phalange at their extremity, which would have helped to support the animal’s weight when moving; the last digit bends and has a prehensile function. The thumb and fifth digit are perpendicular to the three central digits.

The word dinosaur was invented in 1842 by Richard Owen who wanted to bring together, within one group, 3 recently discovered fossils: Iguanodon, Megalosaurus and Hylaeosaurus.

The cast displayed here was given to the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle by the Royal Museum of Natural History in Brussels in 1899, a year after the opening of the Galleries. The original came from the mines at Bernissart in Wallonia (Belgium) which in 1878 yielded 38 specimens of the same species. These were the first complete dinosaur skeletons ever found.