A full-scale bronze Iguanodon statue stands outside the Maidstone Museum and Bentlif Art Gallery, marking the town's significant place in the history of palaeontology. In 1834, a remarkably complete Iguanodon skeleton was discovered in a local quarry — the "Maidstone Iguanodon" — and acquired by the geologist Gideon Mantell, who used it to substantially advance scientific understanding of these dinosaurs.
The statue is a popular spot for children visiting the museum, and the story of the discovery is told in the museum's natural history collection alongside other local geological finds. The Iguanodon connection gives Maidstone a small but genuine claim to scientific fame — this was one of the first well-documented dinosaur specimens in the world, discovered at a time when the concept of "dinosaurs" was itself being worked out.