Iggy is our shy, bow-tied, iguanodon. He worries a lot about his friends thinking he gets special treatment, just because he’s Mr. Iguanadon’s son. But, Iggy has nothing to worry about. The other dinos wish they could be him, because they love his dad so much. They also think Iggy is a great friend and lots of fun to be around. Iggy can be found studying how the clean-energy log trains were made. He wants to one day design and improve the trains that use a pulley system in Prehistoria. It’s the safest, cleanest way to travel in town and Iggy thinks trains are the coolest thing ever!
Iguanodon lived mostly during the late Jurassic and early Cretaceous period, 140-110 million years ago. Iguanodon fossils were found to be living throughout the United Kingdom, Belgium, North America, North and Southern parts of Africa, Australia, and Asia. They were one of the most widely spread dinosaurs during the dinosaur age. At least that we’ve found so far! Every day scientists find more and more bone fragments that were fossilized from millions of years ago. Many times the information we learn about dinosaurs are from pieces of a dinosaur. It is very difficult to find entire skeletons of a single dinosaur.
Iguanodons were closely related to duck-billed dinosaurs like parasaurolophus. They are known for their large spiked thumb which they probably used for pulling leaves from trees. This means they hand five fingers just like you! Their bodies appear to be designed so that iguanodon could walk on all fours and on two legs. This would have allowed them to dig around the ground and reach up trees in search of food. Being able to walk on two legs and eating plants means they belong to the family of dinosaurs called euornithopods. Fossil evidence of an iguanodon’s skull suggests that they most likely had long tongues, much like an anteater or a giraffe. They were about 30 feet long, 8.9 feet tall and weigh between 8,800 and 11,000 pounds!
Iguanodons were herbivores which means they were plant eaters. They mostly ate low lying vegetation like ferns and horsetails that grew along the side of rivers and streams, where they could also snag a drink of water if they were thirsty too!
All Thumbs Activity
The Iguanodon used its thumb as a tool, especially for eating. What sort of tools do you use for eating? What would you do without those tools? Talk about this with a loved one. Then, go cook yourself something healthy for a snack or meal. Can you find a tool to make your food shaped into a dinosaur? Try it out! Get help from a grown up as necessary.