XIII. On the structure of the jaws and teeth of the iguanodon

Abstract

In the deltas and estuaries of rivers that are of great extent, and which flow through countries of varied geological structure, we naturally expect to find the remains of terrestrial vertebrated animals that have been transported by the currents from far-distant lands, in a more or less mutilated state; the skeletons broken up—the bones dissevered, fractured, and waterworn—the teeth detached from the jaws and dispersed— and all these separated parts promiscuously imbedded in the mud, silt, and sand of the delta, and intermingled with the debris of the flora of the country, and the durable remains of fishes, mollusks, and crustaceans, that inhabited the freshwater, or were denizens of the adjacent sea. Such is the condition in which the bones and teeth of oviparous quadrupeds are found in the Wealden formation of the south-east of England; and hence the difficulty of obtaining satisfactory evidence of the form and structure of the extinct reptiles whose relics are so abundant in some of these deposits. To this cause may be ascribed the remarkable fact, that although several hundred teeth, belonging to seven or eight genera of Saurians, have been collected from these fluviatile strata, scarcely a portion of the cranium, and but a few fragments of the jaws, have been discovered. Every relic of this kind is consequently in the highest degree interesting, and it is therefore most gratifying to me to have it in my power to lay before the Royal Society a considerable portion of the lower jaw, with teeth, of an Iguanodon, recently obtained from a quarry near Cuckfield in Sussex; the locality in which, nearly thirty years since, I first discovered the teeth of this colossal herbivorous Lizard.