The Origin of Iguanodontia: Reappraising the Phylogenetic Tree

Iguanodontia was one of the major clades of herbivorous ornithischian dinosaurs. Iguanodontians were once distributed across all continents, leaving a fossil record that spans Europe, North America, Asia and Africa. During the Late Jurassic, however, they were not yet the dominant players in herbivorous dinosaur faunas. Many terrestrial assemblages were still dominated by sauropodomorphs and thyreophorans. By the Early Cretaceous, that picture had changed dramatically: in many regions, iguanodontians had become common, and in some cases dominant, large-bodied herbivores. When did this clade originate? How were early iguanodontians related to one another?

Reconstruction of Iguanodon bernissartensis（Image source：Davide Bonadonna， CC BY 4.0 ）

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