3-082-802 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Iguanodon Skeleton, the original of which is in the Royal Museum at Brussels measuring 15 ft. in height and 30 ft. from head to tail, 1895. 'In 1878 no fewer than twenty-five skeletons of Iguanodons were discovered at Bernissart, Belgium, entombed in a natural crevasse...which was an open valley of the Wealden period cut out of the carboniferous rocks that formed the old land surface, at that time clothed with a vegetation of cycads, of ferns, and Equiseta. Freshwater tortoises and large fishes inhabited the river, while crocodiles, lizards, and giant Iguanodons frequented its banks... The skeleton...is set up in the position in which it is considered the animal usually walked. The Iguanodon is a good example of that singular class of extinct reptiles, the Dinosauria, from which it is believed that our modern birds were derived. The British Museum of Natural History is indebted to M. Dupont, the Director of the Brussels Museum, for the opportunity of acquiring by exchange this very interesting reproduction; the originals are all preserved there, and have been admirably described and figured by M. Dollo. The restoration and reconstruction were carried out by M. Depauw, another member of the staff of the Brussels Museum".' From "Illustrated London News", 1895.