iguanodon

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a large herbivorous ornithopod dinosaur of the Early Cretaceous genus Iguanodon, known for its thumb spikes

   The museum's iguanodon skeleton showed the animal's distinctive conical thumb spike.

Coined in 1825 from iguana + Greek odous, genitive odontos ('tooth'). Gideon Mantell chose the name, literally 'iguana tooth,' because the fossil teeth resembled those of a modern iguana, though on a much larger scale.

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