- 일반명 : 이구아노돈
- 학명 : Iguanodon sp.
- 형태 : 골격화석 Skeleton
- 시대 : 전기 백악기 Early Cretaceous
- 크기 : 6m×0.8m×4m
- 원산지 : 내몽고 Neimenggu
IGUANODON "Iguana Tooth"
Iguanodon was a plant-eating dinosaur that had a conical spike on each thumb. This 30-foot-long dinosaur lived during the early Cretaceous period, about 135 to 125 million years ago.
ANATOMY
Iguanodon was a dinosaur that had a horny, toothless beak and tightly-packed cheek teeth. On each hand, Iguanodon had four fingers plus a conical thumb spike on each hand (that was perpendicular to the other fingers). The thumb spikes may have been used for defense or in obtaining food; it ranged from 2 to 6 inches long. Iguanodon had a flat, stiff tail and three-toed hind feet with hoof-like claws. Its legs were much larger than its arms.
Iguanodon averaged about 30 feet long (9.3 m), 16 feet tall (5 m), 9 ft (2.7 m) tall at the hips, and may have weighed 4 to 5 tons.
WHEN IGUANODON LIVED
Iguanodon lived in the early Cretaceous period, about 135-125 million years ago, toward the end of the Mesozoic. The supercontinent Pangaea was breaking up at this time, but Iguanodon managed to spread to all the continents except
BEHAVIOR
Iguanodon was probably a herding animal, as evidenced by bonebed discoveries in
DIET AND TEETH
Iguanodon was an herbivore, a plant eater. It probably nipped cycads and other prehistoric plants with its tough, toothed beak. It had no teeth in the front of its mouth, but had strong teeth (about 2 inches long) in the side of its jaw (cheek teeth) which it used to grind up tough plant material.
INTELLIGENCE
Iguanodon was an ornithopod, whose intelligence (as measured by its relative brain to body weight, or EQ) was midway among the dinosaurs.
LOCOMOTION
Iguanodon could run on two legs or walk on four; it was a relatively fast dinosaur. British paleontologist David Norman showed that some mature Iguanodons were quadrupedal. Iguanodon may have travelled as fast as 15-20 km/hr (according to D. Fastovsky and D. Weishampel in "The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs"). Dinosaur speeds are estimated using their morphology (characteristics like leg length and estimated body mass) and fossilized trackways.
DISCOVERY OF FOSSILS
Iguanodon was named by Gideon A. Mantell in 1825; its teeth and a few bones were found in 1822 (perhaps by Gideon Mantell's wife, Mrs Mary Mantell) in
CLASSIFICATION
Iguanodon belonged to the:
Kingdom Animalia (animals)
Phylum Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)
Class Archosauria (diapsids with socket-set teeth, etc.)
Order Ornithischia - bird-hipped, herbivorous dinosaurs
Suborder Ornithopoda - bird-footed, beaked, bipedal, herbivorous dinosaurs
Family Iguanodontidae - the family of large, bipedal, long-toed herbivores with thumb spikes, that included Ouranosaurus, Probactrosaurus, and others.
Genus Iguanodon
species: The type species is
IGUANODON LINKS
Lithographs of Iguanodon teeth from the Linda Hall