Iguanodon Facts for Kids
ih-GWAH-noh-don · its name means “iguana tooth”
A big plant-eater with a spiky thumb on each hand.
- 📏 33 ft10 m1 long
- ⚖️ weight: not yet checked
- 🕰️ the Cretaceous
- 🍽️ plants
Iguanodon was a big plant-eater. It had a sharp spike for a thumb. It could walk on two legs or four.
Iguanodon had a big spike on each thumb and a beak for snipping plants. It was one of the very first dinosaurs ever named, after its teeth, which looked like a giant iguana's.
When Iguanodon's bones were first found in England, scientists thought the thumb spike went on its nose like a horn. Later, whole skeletons found in Belgium showed it was a thumb. Iguanodon could walk on four legs or rear up on two.
Every dinosaur number is scientists’ best guess from bones, so each one says where it came from.
How big was Iguanodon?
Iguanodon in numbers
| Length (nose to tail) | 33 ft10 m1scientists' estimate |
|---|---|
| Height at the hips | no checked number yet |
| Weight | no checked number yet |
| When it lived | no checked number yet |
| What it ate | ferns, horsetails and other plants |
| Fossils found in | Europe, especially Belgium and England |
| What kind | an ornithopod: a beaked plant-eater that walked on two legs or four |
Wow!
- Its thumb spike was once put on its nose by mistake.
- It was one of the first dinosaurs ever named.
- Its name means iguana tooth.
🦴 Iguanodon’s bones
Books about Iguanodon, free at the library
Ask a grown-up to tap the button: it shows where to borrow a book about Iguanodon for free.
Where was the land back then?
The continents were in different places when Iguanodon lived, in the Cretaceous. Open Planet Earth, pick Drifting continents, and slide back in time to see where the land was.
Its neighbours in time
Where these numbers come from
- Wikidata, from the Natural History Museum's Dino Directory, checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, Iguanodon (Q130980), checked 30 October 2026.
To read more: the Natural History Museum’s Dino Directory (see also, not copied).