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This
illustration depicts a scene from the Wealden area of South East England
from around 115 million years ago.
In the
foreground is the dinosaur iguanodon.
This was one of the first dinosaurs to be named from southern
England. The name comes
from the fact that its teeth are shaped very much like those of a modern
day iguana and it’s diet would have been fairly similar.
The main differences between iguanodon and modern reptiles, is
that this dinosaur had the ability for rudimentary chewing which helped
it to process the vegetation in its diet much more easily.
There was also a hardened beak at the end of the mouth which
would also have aided iguanodon whilst feeding.
The hands were also extremely well designed for grasping. Whilst not as manipulative as primates, the ‘little’
finger had some ability to move across the palm of the hand to help
grasp objects, much like the human thumb.
Iguanodon lived during the Cretaceous period of about 120 million
years ago and is one of the most well-known and widespread of all
dinosaur families, remains having been discovered in most continents.
One of the most characteristic features of iguanodon was the
large spike on its hand. Although
this is often portrayed as an offensive weapon to deter predators, it
was probably more likely used in attracting mates or feeding, as with
modern day animals which have horns or tusks such as elephants, deer and
antelope.
The
smaller dinosaur in the background is hypsilophodon.
This only grew to about 2 metres long and was the smallest
dinosaur known from this period. It
had long back legs, and a stiffened tail which were designed for fast
running.
In
the sky are a group of ornithocheirid pterosaurs.
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