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Armoured Dinosaurs and the Iguanodon: Dinosaur

The late Mr. J. W. Hulke, another English authority on Dinosaurs, described some twenty years ago a very remarkable and slender form of Dinosaur, on which we must now, in conclusion, say a few words. Professor Huxley has also helped to unravel the meaning of its structure. Hypsilophodon is the name this little creature has received, on account of the nature of its teeth. As far as we know it was the smallest of the Dinosaurs with the exception of the Compsognathus¹ and Hallopus, and Scleromochlus. It is certainly the least specialised that is, the least highly organised. It lived during the Wealden period, or, in other words, during the closing scenes of the great Mesozoic era, and so was contemporary with others of a much more specialised character. As a rule the remains of animals found in our English Wealden and Cretaceous strata are in a fragmentary condition; but in this case we have, fortunately, an exception. Almost the whole of its skeleton is now known, thanks to the labours of Mr. Hulke and the Rev. William Fox. The remains occur in a bed which crops out a short distance west of Barns High Cliff, and passes under the shore a few yards west of Cowleaze Chine, on the south coast of the Isle of Wight. A restoration of its skeleton, according to Hulke, is seen in Fig. 59, and in Plate XXV. we have the creature restored to life. The skull shows a combination of characters belonging to a crocodile and a lizard, but is 1 Greek-kompsos, elegant; gnathos, jaw. on the whole more lizard-like. The creature was about four feet long.