NTU Undergraduates' research April 2014 - Biosciences | Page 59

In recent years, the ‘wastebasket’ genus Iguanodon has been split into several genera that
more accurately represent the diversity and relatedness within Iguanodontia, a subset of
Ornithopoda. The fossil collections of Nottingham, at Nottingham Natural History Museum
and the British Geological Survey, have not been updated since the reclassification, and their
Ornithopod material is exclusively labelled ‘Iguanodon’. Through sketches and photographs,
the NNHM and the BGS specimens were compared with their corresponding fossils in the
literature, based on their morphology and relevant dimensions. The most diagnostic fossils
were worked into a phylogenetic analysis with Iguanodonts throughout time and space. Most
of the specimens were determined to belong to Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis, although the
NNHM tibia and the BGS pes could also belong to Iguanodon bernissartensis and the later
also to Barilium dawsoni. One of the BGS dorsal vertebrae also appeared to be Iguanodon.
Among the BGS specimens, dorsal vertebrae labelled as ‘small species’, seemed to belong to
a large Dryosaur, and a large vertebrae was assigned to the robust Barilium dawsoni.