Mantellisaurus

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.

Mantellisaurus

bryan... from Taipei, Taiwan · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
IguanodontiaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Ornithopoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Ornithischia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ornithischia

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 137.05 Mya to 121.4 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 119.57 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 17 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 17 of 17 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous144–143 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences143–142 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences142–141 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences141–140 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences140–140 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences140–139 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences139–138 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences138–137 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences137–136 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences136–135 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences135–135 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences135–134 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences134–133 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences133–132 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences132–131 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences131–131 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences131–130 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences130–129 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences129–128 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences128–127 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences127–126 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences126–126 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences126–125 Mya — about 2 occurrences125–124 Mya — about 2 occurrences124–123 Mya — about 2 occurrences123–122 Mya — about 2 occurrences122–122 Mya — about 2 occurrences122–121 Mya — about 1 occurrence121–120 Mya — about 1 occurrence120–119 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences137.05 Mya121.4 Mya143.6 Mya119.1 Mya

17 occurrences of Mantellisaurus on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

17 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

10 formations

Wessex — 50.70°N, 1.30°WWessex — 50.64°N, 1.41°WWessex — 50.65°N, 1.46°WArcillas de Morella — 40.62°N, 0.10°WArcillas de Morella — 40.49°N, 0.42°EVectis — 50.62°N, 1.35°WHythe — 51.19°N, 0.73°ECalcaires à Spatangues — 48.50°N, 4.95°EWeald Clay — 51.13°N, 0.35°WSainte-Barbe Clays — 50.48°N, 3.65°ELa Huérguina — 40.06°N, 1.88°WPapo Seco — 38.41°N, 9.22°WLower Bauxite — 46.95°N, 22.40°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Mantellisaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mantellisaurus and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Mantellisaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

381 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Mantellisaurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

15 references

Each of the 17 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 3 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Mantellisaurus

Credit
bryan... from Taipei, Taiwan
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itIguanodontia through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Paul 2007