Pleistohorse

When dinosaurs ruled the Victorian Age

20 June 2015
That's just dinosaurs ruling the mid-1920's :p

This is dinosaurs ruling the Victorian Age.

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I like how the one on the right is so old it has to use a walking stick. "Bah, back in my day, Iguanodons didn't stand on two legs and have spikes on their thumbs!"
 
Funny thing is, these statues are no longer representations of Iguanodon, even inaccurate ones, and said taxon is no longer known from UK remains.

This is a result of the fact that the original holotype, ascribed to Iguanodon anglicus, is no longer deemed diagnostic at genus level - being based on a single tooth. All early reconstructions of the taxon were based on a second specimen, the Maidstone Slab. It is this specimen which was used to reconstruct the Crystal Palace statues. However, when the original type was officially dismissed in March 2000, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature changed the type species to the much better known I. bernissartensis. Further research revealed that the Maidstone Slab was sufficiently different to merit generic separation, and the taxon Mantellodon was erected.

So these statues, along with all other pre-Bernissart depictions of "Iguanodon", actually depict Mantellodon!
 

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