On the structure of the iguanodon, and on the fauna and flora of the Wealden formation / Gideon Algernon Mantell.

  • Mantell, Gideon Algernon, 1790-1852.
Date:
[1852]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the structure of the iguanodon, and on the fauna and flora of the Wealden formation / Gideon Algernon Mantell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    1/6 (page 141)
    WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, %0. Friday, March 5. W. R. Hamilton, Esq. F.R.S., F.S.A., Vice-President, in the Chair. Gideon Algernon Mantell, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S., President of the West London Medical Society, &c. On the Structure of the I guano don, and on the Fauna and Flora of the Wealden Formation. The geological phenomena of the South-East of England, com- prising the lithological characters and organic remains of the Diluvial, Tertiary, Cretaceous, Wealden, and Oolitic deposits, were described in two Lectures delivered to the Members of the Royal Institution by Dr. Mantell in 1836 and 1849. In those dis- courses the Fauna and Flora of the Wealden were cursorily noticed, and the Iguanodon and other gigantic terrestrial reptiles, whose || fossil remains have invested the strata of Tilgate Forest with a high degree of interest, were briefly alluded to. The present Lecture was restricted to a consideration of the Fauna and Flora of the countries whence the deposits constituting the Wealden districts were derived ; and the osteological characters of the most remarkable | fossil Saurians peculiar to this geological epoch, were especially illustrated. After a concise exposition of the characters of the various formations which have succeeded, and now overlie, or in other words, are of more recent origin than the Wealden, — namely, the Drift or Diluvium, containing bones of large mammalia, as the Mammoth, Mastodon, Rhinoceros, Horse, Deer, &c;—the Eocene, or ancient tertiary strata of the London basin, abounding in marine exuviae of special and for the most part extinct types;— and the Cretaceous or Chalk-Formation, comprising the White-Chalk of the North and South Downs, and the Chalk-marl, Galt, and Greensand, of Surrey, Kent, and Sussex, the whole characterized by innumerable marine shells, zoophytes, fishes, reptiles, &c. of extinct species and genera ; — Dr. Mantell proceeded to illustrate the structure of the Iguanodon as exemplified by the isolated parts of the skeleton hitherto discovered, and of which numerous examples were exhibited on the tables of the Institution. The perfect germ, and the unused tooth, of the Iguanodon, are 1 characterised by the prismatic form of the crown, which is traversed j on the thick enamelled face by three or four longitudinal ridges, and has the lateral margins denticulated, and the summit finely crenated ; in this state the teeth resemble those of the living Iguana of the West Indies, —a resemblance which suggested the generic name of Iguanodon. But the fossil teeth are of enormous size in comparison with their recent prototypes; for the teeth of the Iguana are as