Gideon & Mary Mantell and the discovery of the Iguanodon From displays at the Natural History Museum and other sources

An Inguanadon model - about feet in length

Unlike the Tyrannosaurus and other large dinosaurs that have been found in the USA the Iguanodon lived in Southern England. We know this because of where the specimens were found. Sussex, Dorset, Kent and Isle of Wight

We find an en explanation of how Mary found the original tooth at Cuckfield that helped Gideon identify it as like that of a giant Iguana hence the name Iguana-don (ie tooth of an Iguana)

A print used as the frontispiece of Mantell's Illustrations of the Geology of Sussex (1827) depicts a visit made by Mantell, Lyell and William Buckland, the first professor of geology at Oxford University and a biblical literalist, to the quarry at Cuckfield, a village 10 miles northwest of Lewes which had yielded up Mantell's dinosaur bones. It is a rainy afternoon in March, The three geologists are in top hats and gentlemanly garb. They are accompanied by half-a-dozen less formally attired quarry workmen. Mantell is presumably the person at right, standing behind a vertical slab of sandstone etched with a fossil fern. Lyell or Buckland wields a hammer to release a reptilian bone from the rock. In the background is the spire of Cuckfield Church (the quarry has since been filled in and a cricket field stands in its place).

Close to Cuckfield village there is a plate showing the location of the original finds

Cuckfield Museum has casts of Iguanadon footprints, teeth and other finds

From Gideon Mantell’s Brighton Museum catalogue

Mary’s drawings of the tooth fragments found

Mantell also identified what had been first thought of as a nose spike, as a thumb spike. This allowed the iguanadon to defend itself.

A model of an Iguanodon claw with spike

His birthplace in Lewes was in St Mary’s Lane (now Station Street) Gideon was born 3 Feb 1790 and after going away to school in Swindon where his uncle lived he was apprenticed to Dr Moore on the High Street in Lewes. He eventually took over the practice.

The move from Castle Place in Lewes to Brighton For many years Gideon kept a Museum in his house Castle Place, in Lewes where he was the local doctor. Against the counsel of his family Gideon moved all of his collection to 20 Old Steyne Brighton.

He moved all of his collections to Brighton in 1834 where they remained until sold to the British Museum. The following page comes from A Descriptive Catalogue of the objects of geology, natural history and antiquity (chiefly discovered in Sussex) In the Museum Attached to the Sussex Scientific and Literary Institution at Brighton by Gideon Mantell ESQ LL.D. FRS Dedicated to the Earl of Egrement

The “Mantell Piece” that was featured in his Museum in Brighton. This large item is now in Natural History Museum in London Approx 5ft

Gideon’s son Walter left for New Zealand around the time his wife and daughter abandoned him to his museum exhibits. Walter took many artefacts with him and corresponded with his father for the rest of his life, exchanging items. The museum at Te Papa in Wellington is the proud owner of an Iguanodon tooth. tooth/#comment-5579 Walter first came to New Zealand in 1839 with the New Zealand Company. He was to spend much of his adult life there and played a significant role in the early colonial development of New Zealand, including the establishment of the Colonial Museum, the original fore-runner to Te Papa. Many descendents of Walter Mantell reside in New Zealand to this day.