Gideon Mantell and the discovery of dinosaurs

by Dennis R. Dean

"How Gideon Algernon Mantell (1790-1852) actually discovered Iguanodon, the second dinosaur known to science and the first herbivorous one, is at last set right in this volume. It is not commonly known that Mantell also discovered seven other dinosaurs as well, proving at a time when majority opinion thought otherwise that they were not amphibious but walked on land - and sometimes on two legs. He devoted more than twenty-five years to restoring the original appearance of dinosaurs and almost singlehandedly established in popular understanding the now-familiar idea that an Age of Reptiles had preceded the Age of Mammals."--Jacket.