Inside an enclosure at the Crystal Palace Park inwards London , is a collection of over xxx concrete sculptures of dinosaurs. Built to a greater extent than than i hundred lx years agone , these sculptures were the outset e'er endeavour anywhere inwards the globe to model dinosaurs equally full-scale , three-dimensional creatures. Although the sculptures are wildly inaccurate yesteryear modern standards , they are nonetheless an of import business office of history because they demo how the Victorians viewed prehistoric life.
These concrete beasts were designed in addition to built yesteryear sculptor Benjamin Waterhouse-Hawkins inwards collaboration alongside Professor Richard Owen , a celebrated biologist in addition to paleontologist of the fourth dimension , best remembered today for beingness the i who coined the discussion “dinosaur” , pregnant “terrible lizard”. Hawkins in addition to Richards were asked to construct a total of xxx 3 models of dinosaurs , equally good equally other extinct animals , inwards 1852 equally business office of a novel attraction at the late relocated Crystal Palace Park inwards Sydenham inwards southward London. The problem was , Hawkins didn’t direct keep plenty fossil evidence to get with. For illustration , for the Iguanodon , the largest in addition to the close impressive of the sculptures , Hawkins had no to a greater extent than than a handful of teeth in addition to a few bones. So he did what anybody alongside a contract in addition to a looming deadline would direct keep done —he used his imagination.
A Megalosaurus model at Crystal Palace Park. Photo credit: Peter Reed/Flickr
Hawkins made sketches of the bones of fossilized animals in addition to compared them alongside the os structures of the nearest living creatures , in addition to produced an outline of what he idea the extinct creature would direct keep looked like. He thence made pocket-size clay models in addition to submitted them to Owen for his approval. Owen —not to direct keep anything away from the man— wasn’t whatsoever wiser than Hawkins. He liked Hawkins’s model of the Iguanodon standing on all fours in addition to having a horn similar a rhinoceros's. We straightaway know that the Iguanodons stands entirely on its hind legs in addition to it has no horn. The horn inwards Hawkins’s model is truly a pollex os , but Hawkins , inwards his ignorance , couldn’t figure out what it was in addition to figured it would await meliorate on function yesteryear of the nose.
Back inwards 1852 , to a greater extent than than one-half a decade earlier Charles Darwin proposed the theory of development , everything that Hawkins did seemed logical. The sculptor reasoned , in addition to his famed advisor Owen agreed , that an creature equally large equally the Iguanodon couldn’t direct keep stood on merely 2 legs. Eventually , the Iguanodon became thence large that its opened upward mold could arrange a New Year’s Eve dinner for Hawkins , Owen , in addition to xx other scientists inwards 1853.
The famous banquet within the mould of the Crystal Palace Iguanodon on New Year's Eve , 1853.
Inaccuracies of that variety were abound inwards Hawkins’s model of the dinosaurs. Another illustration is the Megalosaurus , which similar the Iguanodon , is depicted equally standing on 4 legs in addition to has a nonexistent hump. Similarly , the Ichthyosaurus looks similar a crocodile alongside a giant dorsal fin , whereas electrical flow recreations suggest it looked to a greater extent than similar a shark. And the Labyrinthodont? It resembles an oversized frog.
But dorsum thence , none of this mattered. The dinosaurs were an minute striking drawing millions of visitors to the commons each year. But equally the years rolled yesteryear , in addition to our agreement of dinosaurs improved , Hawkins’s models became a joke in addition to the dependent area of ridicule. Gradually , Blue Planet lost involvement in addition to they were forgotten until the early on 2000s when the displays were renovated. Missing parts were recreated in addition to damaged parts of the surviving models were recast. The commons reopened inwards 2002.
The models in addition to other elements of Crystal Palace Park were classed equally Grade II listed buildings from 1973. After the renovation , they were upgraded to Grade I.
Photo credit: Ian Wright/Wikimedia
A sign at Crystal Palace Park comparison models of Hawkins’s dinosaurs alongside contemporary models. Photo credit: Simon Q/Flickr
A sign at Crystal Palace Park comparison models of Hawkins’s dinosaurs alongside contemporary models. Photo credit: Simon Q/Flickr
An Ichthyosaurus at Crystal Palace Park. Photo credit: Loz Pycock/Flickr
Photo credit: Andrea Marchesetti/Flickr
Photo credit: Toby Bradbury/Flickr
A Labyrinthodont at Crystal Palace Park. Photo credit: Zoe Rimmer/Flickr
Photo credit: CGP Grey
Photo credit: vanessa lollipop/Flickr
Sources: Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs / New York Moon / The Victorian Web