Barilium

Barilium was a heavily built iguanodontian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of southern England. Originally named as a species of Iguanodon by Richard Lydekker in the late nineteenth century, it was granted its own genus in 2010 following comprehensive revisions of European ornithopods. The name Barilium highlights its thick, heavy ilium bone within the pelvic girdle. Reaching around eight metres in length and weighing up to three tonnes, it was a stocky herbivore designed for processing coarse vegetation. It possessed robust forelimbs and short, stout vertebrae compared to contemporary plant-eaters like Hypselospinus. It inhabited coastal mudflats and forested wetland environments, feeding on ferns, horsetails, and cycads.

For over a century its fossils were classified under Iguanodon before being established as a distinct genus.

Where and when

Barilium lived in the Early Cretaceous, from 140 to 137 million years ago (Valanginian age). Its remains come from United Kingdom, in the Wadhurst Clay Formation.

The numbers

Length 7.5 m (estimates run from 7 to 8 m). Mass about 2.4 t. Hip height about 2.5 m. That is 4.4 human-lengths, or 0.67 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from partial skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.

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