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WWD: Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis
🕑 Added 2023-05-25 07:41:35 +0000 UTCOne of the many species once considered to belong under the umbrella of Iguanodon, it was freed from the tyranny of lumping and placed in its own genus in 2007 (although a number of species have also been lumped into it). In the episode, there were two species of Iguanodon featured; it was, after all, easy to have two species of the same genus, because all you had to do was recolour the models slightly, and was a much cheaper option than portraying more distantly related animals.
The North American species of Iguanodon has since been reclassified as Dakotadon, thereby limiting the genus' known range to Europe, and curtailing the idea that the two continents were connected by a land bridge during the Early Cretaceous. Nonetheless, iguanodonts were extremely successful during the Cretaceous, spreading across every continent, and eventually evolving into the equally, if not even more successful, hadrosaurs.
Mantellisaurus is much smaller and more lightly-built than Iguanodon, at only about seven metres long and one ton versus over ten metres long and nearly five tonnes. Technically speaking, the two were contemporary, but Mantellisaurus works well enough as the North American Iguanodon stand-in, by inhabiting the starting region of Spain. It also lived in England alongside I. bernissartensis, so perhaps in this version of the episode it would show the two species living side-by-side.
