On This Day...Gideon Mantell

#OnThisDay in 1790, paleontologist Gideon Mantell was born.

Mantell was a doctor, geologist, and paleontologist. He discovered a number of #dinosaurs, including Iguanodon, the second named #dinosaur. (His wife Mary is often credited with finding the dino’s teeth.)

Iguanodon was a bulky herbivorous dino that lived in the Early Cretaceous, and it could walk on all fours or just two legs, depending on what it needed to do. Originally Mantell thought it had a nose spike, but we now know it had spikes on its thumbs (though we don’t yet know its purpose)

#Shorts