Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis
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Mantellisaurus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 125 Ma |
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| Holotype skeleton, Natural History Museum, London | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | †Ornithischia |
| Suborder: | †Ornithopoda |
| Clade: | †Styracosterna |
| Clade: | †Hadrosauriformes |
| Genus: |
†Mantellisaurus Paul, 2007 |
| Species: | †M. atherfieldensis |
| Binomial name | |
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Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis (Hooley, 1925 [originally Iguanodon]) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Iguanodon atherfieldensis Hooley, 1925 |
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Iguanodon atherfieldensis Hooley, 1925
Dollodon bampingi Paul, 2008
Proplanicoxa galtoni? Carpenter & Ishida, 2010
Mantellisaurus is a genus of dinosaur formerly known as Iguanodon atherfieldensis that lived in the Barremian and possibly the early Aptian ages of the Early Cretaceous Period of Europe. Its remains are known from Belgium (Bernissart), England and possibly Germany. The new genus was erected by Gregory Paul in 2007. According to Paul, it is more lightly built than Iguanodon and more closely related to Ouranosaurus, making Iguanodon in its traditional sense paraphyletic. It is known from many complete and almost complete skeletons. The genus name honours Gideon Mantell, the discoverer of Iguanodon. Mantellisaurus lived during the Early Cretaceous in what is now England.
Mantellisaurus was a lightly constructed iguanodont. Compared to Iguanodon bernissartensis, Mantellisaurus was smaller, estimated at 0.75 tons in weight. Its forelimbs were proportionally shorter than those of I. bernissartensis. In Mantellisaurus the forelimbs were about half the length of the hindlimbs whereas they were about 70 percent the length of the hindlimbs in I. bernissartensis. Due to the short length of its forelimbs and the shortness of its body, Paul proposed that it was primarily bipedal, only going on all fours when standing still or moving slowly.
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