A coloring page of Iguanodon, the big plant-eater with a spike where its thumb ought to be. Two sheets come inside the PDF — the line art, and a finished color version to compare against — and each carries a short list of facts printed in Japanese. Free to download and print, no registration needed.
PDF (2 pages: line art and a finished color version, each with a short fact list in Japanese)
🗣 Conversation Starters — for care activities and family time
Had you come across the name Iguanodon before?
Dinosaur science is close to two hundred years old now. Does it strike you how far the picture has moved?
Did it surprise you that dinosaur fossils turn up in Europe too?
Which dinosaur did you like best when you were small?
What kind of dinosaur was Iguanodon?
A large plant-eater of the Early Cretaceous, around 125 million years ago, known above all from Europe and reaching roughly 10 metres in length. It sits on the branch of ornithopods closely related to the duck-billed hadrosaurs that came later, and it could walk on all fours or rear up on its hind legs.
What was the thumb spike for?
The first digit of each hand carried a large cone of bone. Defence is the usual suggestion, and it may also have served for breaking into tough plant food. When the first bones were described nobody knew where the spike belonged, and early reconstructions perched it on the animal’s nose like a rhinoceros horn.
How was it discovered?
The find is traditionally credited to Mary Ann Mantell in England in 1822, with her husband Gideon Mantell describing the fossil teeth; how exact that story is has always been hard to pin down. The name means “iguana tooth”, after the resemblance he noticed, and Iguanodon was among the very first dinosaurs ever to be named — which makes it a landmark in the history of the science.
