Mantellisaurus

Mantellisaurus
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, Barremian to early Aptian
130–120 Ma
Holotype skeleton (NHMUK PV R5764), Natural History Museum, London
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Ornithischia
Clade: Neornithischia
Clade: Ornithopoda
Clade: Hadrosauriformes
Genus: Mantellisaurus
Paul, 2007
Species:
M. atherfieldensis
Binomial name
Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis
(Hooley, 1925)
Synonyms
  • Heterosaurus neocomiensis? Cornuel, 1850
  • Vectisaurus valdensis Hulke, 1879
  • Iguanodon atherfieldensis Hooley, 1925
  • Dollodon bampingi Paul, 2008
  • Proplanicoxa galtoni Carpenter & Ishida, 2010
  • Mantellodon carpenteri Paul, 2012

Mantellisaurus is a genus of iguanodontian dinosaur that lived in the Barremian and early Aptian ages of the Early Cretaceous Period of Europe. Its remains are known from Belgium (Bernissart), England, Spain and Germany. The type and only species is M. atherfieldensis. Formerly known as Iguanodon atherfieldensis, the new genus Mantellisaurus was erected for the species by Gregory Paul in 2007. According to Paul, Mantellisaurus was 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.