00:00Sam, why is the Iguanodon so significant and what makes Maidstone's museum's specimen special?
00:08We're so lucky to have the Iguanodon at Maidstone.
00:11The thing that makes it so special is it was actually found in 1831 near Maidstone in the Queens Road.
00:19There was routine quarrying going on there and they found fossilised bones
00:24and it was known as the best articulated specimen of an Iguanodon,
00:28which means there was enough bits of it in roughly the right places for them to work out what it
00:32might have looked like as a dinosaur.
00:34And this was at a time before really the history or the study of dinosaurs had been developed.
00:40So it was the equivalent really of finding a fully preserved alien maybe even locally in the area.
00:47So it was really, really fascinating in the history of the science of dinosaurs and paleontology.
00:51And why are fossils like this so important for helping us understand the Earth's history?
00:56And what can they tell us that we might not have otherwise known?
01:01It's important because we know that by the Cretaceous period we would have been, or this area was above water
01:08level.
01:09We can understand a little bit about how they would have lived and the types of food they would have
01:13eaten as well.
01:15But we're also lucky in Kent not only to have the Iguanodon, but there's lots of other fossils that have
01:19been found.
01:20Particularly, for example, in East Kent, you've got the Kent Coalfields.
01:23They regularly produce a lot of fossils, particularly things like fossilised plants as well.
01:28So when people think of fossils, they often think of the animals and even things like the ammonites and the
01:33water creatures.
01:34But actually we do have fossilised plants in the collection too, which do tell us a lot about the geology
01:39and the atmosphere that was going on at the time too.
01:44And the county recently saw National Fossil Day.
01:47So what would you say to someone who thinks fossils are maybe just some old bones in a museum?
01:51Why should they come and see the Iguanodon for themselves in Maidstone?
01:56Dinosaurs are cool. Everyone knows dinosaurs are cool.
02:00And we're really lucky again that Maidstone, fun fact, Maidstone is one of the only towns in the world to
02:05have a dinosaur in its coat of arms.
02:07It was updated in the 1940s. So we actually have the Iguanodon on one side of our coat of arms.
02:13And they seem otherworldly, but they have a huge scientific basis.
02:17It's constantly evolving what we know about them.
02:19Our Iguanodon is not now an Iguanodon. It's actually been reclassified as a Mantellosaurus, which is a subspecies of an
02:26Iguanodon as well.
02:27And that's only happened in the last sort of 20, 30 years that that re-identification has happened as well.
02:32So they are huge. They are almost inexplicable and totally different to anything that is roaming the earth now.
02:41Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Sam, and telling us more about the Iguanodon.
