Early Restorations
The Country of the Iguanodon, 1838
For years, after finding the initial Iguanodon teeth, Mantell had little further fossil evidence that could be used to reconstruct his giant fossil reptile, with the exception of a large horn that his wife had discovered. But in 1834, in a stone-quarry in Maidstone, a blast revealed a mass of rock containing a number of fossil bones of what proved to be an Iguanodon. The Maidstone slab provided enough evidence for a restoration. Mantell himself attempted one, with moderate success.
Much greater success was achieved by an artist, John Martin, who happened to visit Mantell's Museum and was inspired by the Maidstone slab to attempt his own restoration. In a painting which he called The Country of the Iguanodon, he not only gave life to the Iguanodon, but he showed it in its proper ecological setting, preyed on by Megalosaurus, flanked by a gigantic crocodile, watched by a pterodactyl, and surrounded by a landscape filled with cycads, tree-ferns, and yuccas. This painting was reproduced as a mezzotint for the first edition of Mantell's Wonders of Geology, where it appeared as the frontispiece to volume 1.
One of the other attractive plates in this book is an idealized geological section of the earth's crust. It is useful because it shows the relative positions of the dinosaur-bearing formations in England and the nomenclature then in use.
The Maidstone Iguanodon, 1840
In 1834, in a stone-quarry in Maidstone, a blast revealed a mass of rock containing the fossil bones of a gigantic animal. Gideon Mantell came into possession of the fragments, which he united into a single slab. One tooth was present, which identified the animal as an Iguanodon, and in addition there were two thigh bones, each nearly three feet long, and assorted other leg bones, bones of the fore- and hind-feet, and several vertebrae, ribs, and collar bones.
The slab was placed on display in Mantell's personal museum, where it became known as the "Mantle-piece" (see illustration at right). John Martin used it as the basis for his restoration, and Gideon Mantell made his own private reconstruction, which was never published, but which we reproduce here (see below).
The "Mantle-piece" is still on display, only now it is in the British Museum in London.
The Iguanodon "Horn," 1840
The Iguanodon "horn" has become quite notorious is the history of dinosaur discovery. It was found by Gideon Mantell's wife, and its resemblance to a rhinoceros horn core prompted most restorers, including Mantell himself, to place the horn on the nose of the Iguanodon. Since its namesake, the iguana, had such a nose horn, it seemed a reasonable enough assumption. But the discovery of the Bernissart iguanodons in 1878 (see item 17) would show that the horn was actually a thumb spike, rather than a nasal armament.
Mantell's Ideal Geological Section, 1838
This detail of a ideal geological section was published in Gideon Mantell's Wonders of Geology, 1838. It shows the dinosaur-bearing strata, using the nomenclature in use in England in the 1830s. Weald was the term used for the middle Cretaceous formations of southeast England; Chalk denoted the upper Cretaceous; Oolite was upper Jurassic, and Lias was lower Jurassic. Megalosaurus was found in the Oolite of Oxfordshire, while Iguanodon was found in the Weald of Sussex and the Isle of Wight.
A section similar to this was reconstructed on the grounds of Sydenham Park in London, when the full-size dinosaur restorations of Waterhouse Hawkins were erected in 1854 (see second illustration at item 5).