The new Iguanodontian dinosaur: Paludohadros proudlovii
Meet Paludohadros proudlovii! The iguanodon relative that was just named from fossils originally discovered 25 years ago! At only 16 feet in length, this dinosaur wasn't full grown but even as a juvenile it would've been sharing its ecosystem with intimidating predators like Baryonyx!
10/27/20261 min read
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This 25-year-old fossil finally got a name. So, the smokejack brickworks in Surrey are probably a lot more famous than you realize. It's famous for its early Cretaceous exposures, which include fossils like coprolites and croc teeth and iguanodon and even the original Baryonyx walkeri fossil. Well, these fossils, which include a partial skull and postcranial material, were originally found in 2001 and identified as probably iguanodon, which was common for iguanodontian material at the time from that area and then were donated to the natural history museum where they've been sitting ever since. Luckily, 25 years later, they were just revisited. Meet Paludohadros proudlovii, the newly named 16 foot long iguanodontian, but decidedly not iguanodon from early Cretaceous England about 125 million years ago. And at 16 ft long, this roughly rhinoceros sized animal wasn't even fully grown yet. Paleontologists know this because the bones aren't fully fused. And they may be giving some good hints about how the ecosystem worked because they were only found about 300 ft away from Berionics. And even though berionics is usually thought of as a fish eater, it has been found with gut contents including unidentifiable dinosaur remains, which really makes you wonder how close was it really hanging out to these juvenile iguanadontians. As usual, if you want more information, here's the source.
Ricardo J. Sacamoto, Jeremy A. F. Lockwood, Max C. Langer, Brett Clark, Paul M. Barrett, Alice Turner & Susannah C. R. Maidment, A new iguanodontian dinosaur from the Weald Clay Formation (Lower Cretaceous) of Smokejacks Brickworks, southern England', Journal of Systematic Palaeontology (2026). DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2026.2726221
Meet Paludohadros proudlovii! The iguanodon relative that was just named from fossils originally discovered 25 years ago! At only 16 feet in length, this dinosaur wasn't full grown but even as a juvenile it would've been sharing its ecosystem with intimidating predators like Baryonyx!