On its hind legs, Iguanodon had three short, thick toes that were probably padded to cushion its feet from its massive weight. Scientists think the dino could walk either on two feet or all fours-unique for dinosaurs and people into pet play. It was about the same height as an African elephant but weighed twice as much, so Iguanodon needed strong leg bones to support its bulk, like the average American. In fact, this animal lived between 130 and 110 million years ago in what’s now Europe. Little by little, scientists began to understand that Iguanodon wasn’t an iguana but a whole new type of animal, one that had disappeared from this plane of existence. So when a paleontologist saw the fossil, he first thought it was the tooth of an extinct giant iguana and named the animal Iguanodon, meaning-of course-“iguana tooth.” (It is also believed to be one of the first english tooth to be ever discovered.) People had been finding dinosaur fossils for thousands of years, but they didn’t know what they were. Iguanodon was one of the first dinosaurs described by scientists after its fossilized tooth was found in southeast England in 1822.
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