Author’s Note: I just realized that I have an excellent book that covers the story of Gideon Mantell and the iguanodons. This book, Terrible Lizard by Deborah Cadbury, contains all sorts of juicy details about the scientific rivalries, the tooth, and the horn. Unfortunately, I haven’t read it entirely yet, so this post will be based on bits and pieces of what I have cobbled. They’re still tasty bits. Dinosaur Cobbler.
Gideon Mantell was thrilled to find the palm-sized rock that seemed unnaturally pointed and curved. He knew it came from an animal–probably an ancient animal. It seemed logical that it might be similar to a horn, like the one on a rhinoceros.
Oh, what a howling error! Mantell would be known forevermore for his mistake. Was it his fault, given that the foremost naturalist of his day insisted the animal was a rhinoceros? He also was pooh-poohed by the other scientists, only to have them become famous for his initial ideas. Maybe history should be kinder to Gideon. Still, he also dissed his wife. It was Mary who found the fossils, let him fill their dining room with samples, organized his papers, drew illustrations for his book, raised his children … and then was forced to move out when the house was turned into a museum. On second thought, let’s not cut him any slack.
Who Found the Tooth?
Iguanodon was only the second dinosaur to be discovered and named formally by the scientific community that runs such things, which in the early 19th century was in England. The idea of dinosaurs, the extent of dinosaurs rule over the planet, and their huge variation in function and design was all yet to be discovered in 1820. When the quarry near Gideon’s medical practice started revealing unusual fossil bones, there was some ambiguity about what animal it might have come from.
Continue reading “I is for Iguanodon”
