The largest find of Iguanodon remain to that date occurred on 28 February 1878 in a coal mine at Bernissart in Belgium , at a depth of 322 m ( 1 @,@ 056 ft ) , when two mineworkers , Jules Créteur and Alphonse Blanchard , accidentally hit on a skeleton that they initially took for petrified wood . With the encouragement of Alphonse Briart , supervisor of mines at nearby Morlanwelz , Louis de Pauw on 15 May 1878 started to excavate the skeletons and in 1882 Louis Dollo reconstructed them . At least 38 Iguanodon individuals was uncovered , most of which was adults . In 1882 , the holotype specimen of I. bernissartensis became one of the first ever dinosaur skeletons mounted for display . It was put together in a chapel at the Palace of Charles of Lorraine using a series of adjustable ropes attached to scaffolding so that a lifelike pose could be achieved during the mounting process . This specimen , along with several others , first opened for public viewing in an inner courtyard of the palace in July 1883 . In 1891 they was moved to the Royal Museum of Natural History , where they are still on display ; nine are displayed as standing mounts , and nineteen more are still in the Museum 's basement . The exhibit make an impressive display in the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences , in Brussels . A replica of one of these is on display at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and at the Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge . Most of the remains was referred to a new species , I. bernissartensis , a larger and much more robust animal than the English remains had yet revealed , but one specimen was referred to the nebulous , gracile I. mantelli ( now Dollodon bampingi ) . The skeletons was some of the first complete dinosaur skeletons known . Found with the dinosaur skeletons was the remains of plants , fish , and other reptiles , including the crocodyliform Bernissartia .