Iguanodon was a plant-eating dinosaur that had a conical spike on each thumb. This 30-foot-long dinosaur lived during the early Cretaceous period, about 135 to 125 million years ago. ANATOMY Iguanodon was a dinosaur that had a horny, toothless beak and tightly-packed cheek teeth. On each hand, Iguanodon had four fingers plus a conical thumb spike on each hand (that was perpendicular to the other fingers). The thumb spikes may have been used for defense or in obtaining food; it ranged from 2 to 6 inches long. Iguanodon had a flat, stiff tail and three-toed hind feet with hoof-like claws. Its legs were much larger than its arms. Iguanodon averaged about 30 feet long (9.3 m), 16 feet tall (5 m), 9 ft (2.7 m) tall at the hips, and may have weighed 4 to 5 tons. WHEN IGUANODON LIVED Iguanodon lived in the early Cretaceous period, about 135-125 million years ago, toward the end of the Mesozoic. The supercontinent Pangaea was breaking up at this time, but Iguanodon managed to spread to all the continents except Antarctica. Among the contemporaries of Iguanodon were Baryonyx, Brachiosaurus, and Hypsilophodon. BEHAVIOR Iguanodon was probably a herding animal, as evidenced by bonebed discoveries in Belgium. In these bonebeds, dozens of Iguanodon fossils were found together, suggesting that they congregated during their lives. DIET AND TEETH Iguanodon was an herbivore, a plant eater. It probably nipped cycads and other prehistoric plants with its tough, toothed beak. It had no teeth in the front of its mouth, but had strong teeth (about 2 inches long) in the side of its jaw (cheek teeth) which it used to grind up tough plant material. INTELLIGENCE Iguanodon was an ornithopod, whose intelligence (as measured by its relative brain to body weight, or EQ) was midway among the dinosaurs.
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