Iguanodon teeth

'The discovery of dinosaurs underlined how different life had been in the geological past and, of course, they still fire our imaginations today.'
Dr Paul Taylor, palaeobiologist

Although he was a medical doctor, Dr Gideon Mantell had a keen interest in geology. He uncovered a number of unusual fossils in Sussex during the nineteenth century.

His wife Mary Mantell found these fossil teeth in a pile of rubble while accompanying him on his rounds. Dr Mantell struggled to identify the animal they belonged to, but would eventually interpret them as the remains of an ancient and enormous reptile. He named the species Iguanodon, because its teeth resembled those of the modern iguana.

This was one of the first described examples of a group of enormous Mesozoic reptiles, later known as the dinosaurs. Despite Dr Mantell's monumental discovery, it is actually Museum founder Sir Richard Owen who is credited with coining the name Dinosauria.

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