Re: Hello and a question about Iguanodon mantelli

[Helen Anderson <redledger@cableinet.co.uk>]

Dear John

Thanks for the advice about Iguanodon atherfieldensis and the
acquisition number.  I have not seen a copy of Glut's Encyclopedia yet -
most of my old dinosaurs come from Lydekker's Catalogue of Fossil
Reptiles (1888-1890) which was my best 40th birthday present (all four
volumes of it).  It must have cost an arm and a leg but its worth it for
the footnotes alone.  (Just as many arguments amongst the 'gentlemen' of
the Victorian age as there are now).  What really amazes me is how much
these guys knew even though they only had a few dinosaurs to work from.
Sure, they made mistakes but they also were very often correct - they
realised dinosaurs were somehow allied to birds, they just didn't know
how.
 
My main problem with atherfieldensis is not this fine skeleton from the
Isle of Wight but the Maidstone Slab, which was accepted by many people
to be the type species of Iguanodon mantelli ('Description of some
Iguanodon-remains indicating a new species, I. Seelyi' Hulke, 1882,
Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 135-144 plus plates - see
p144 - there is a footnote which reads:

"The Iguanodon indicated by the remains in the well-known slab figured
in the Foss. Rept. of the Cretaceous formations, pls. xxiii. xxiv., is
taken as the type of I. mantelli"

The name mantelli seems to have gone but Dinogeorge has filled in a lot
of the gaps for me - see his recent posting about Mantell.  I. Seelyi
was really I. bernissartensis, I understand.  I am still looking at this
but I thought I should just say, thank you, for your response.  I shall
order the Encyclopedia soonest.

Helen