That dinosaurs fascinate us is no secret. They constantly appear in pop culture and entertainment products. What is really surprising is that this has been happening since its discovery in the 19th century .
Following the discovery of the gigantic reptiles Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, and Hylaeosaurus , naturalist Richard Owen proposed grouping them within one group, Dinosauria . This happened in 1842, and we did not have to wait long for the discovery of these first dinosaurs to make the leap to society and popular culture through a first project that we could consider dissemination.
In the year 1851, the “Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations” was opened in London, which was the first World’s Fair . This great exhibition took place in central Hyde Park, very close to the Natural History Museum. To house it, the English built a building destined to be historic: a great iron and glass palace, the Crystal Palace . Prince Albert , husband of Queen Victoria , was the main promoter of this event and the construction of the Crystal Palace. The exhibition was a complete success, so that, at the end, they began to find a use for this imposing building.
It was eventually decided to move the Crystal Palace to a new location in the South London district of Bromley and convert it into a science museum. And it was again Prince Albert himself who suggested that real-scale recreations of some prehistoric animals, including the recently discovered dinosaurs, be placed in the new park where the Crystal Palace was going to be installed. The person in charge of creating these structures was Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins , who, in addition to being an artist and sculptor, was passionate about natural history and paleontology. In order for those sculptures to be as realistic and rigorous reconstructions as possible, they decided to have a consultant naturalist, and Gideon Mantell, discoverer of Iguanodon and Hylaeosaurus , was offered this job, who rejected it. Following this rejection of the project by Mantell, Sir Richard Owen took charge of the project himself. And therefore, the reconstructions of these dinosaurs had a very marked Owenian style – he placed their limbs like mammals, under the body, in contrast to Mantell’s reconstructions, which placed them on the sides, like in lizards- , although they retained Mantellian reminiscences, such as the spines on the back of Hylaeosaurus or the nasal horn of Iguanodon, which was actually a spike or spur on the thumb of the foreleg.
Hawkins made sketches of each dinosaur and other prehistoric animals to reconstruct. Once the sketches were approved, he went on to translate them into a small clay model . Then he went on to make the life-size clay sculpture, from which molds were taken, from which they obtained replicas in cement . The cement pieces were mounted on an iron and brick skeleton, and the statue was finished by painting it by hand. The commission was made in 1852 and these reconstructions were installed and inaugurated in 1854. In total, sculptures of the Iguanodon, Megalosaurus and Hylaeosaurus dinosaurs were made, as well as other Mesozoic fauna: ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, mosasaurs, pterodactyls, labyrinthodont amphibians and teleosaurs (some crocodile-like reptiles). Sculptures were also made depicting Permian dicynodonts and Cenozoic mammals , such as the giant moose Megaloceros or the giant sloth Megatherium.
In June 1854 the museum opened its doors, and the reaction of the public was immediate. It is said that both adults and children were amazed, and that even the smallest children were scared. As a result, they became quite an attraction of that time.
Almost a century later, in 1936, a fire completely destroyed the Crystal Palace, and it was never rebuilt. However, it continues to give the park its name. And the dinosaurs and other prehistoric fauna continue to decorate the park’s gardens, where we can visit them to travel not to the Mesozoic, but to the 19th century.
It is incredible that, already in the 19th century, that first “Jurassic Park” was built. The Professor of Paleontology at the Autonomous University of Madrid and expert on dinosaurs José Luis Sanz considers in his book “Dragon Hunters” that “dinomania” was born at this time. And since then, it has never stopped.
References:
McCarthy, S.; Gilbert, M. 1994. The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs. Crystal Palace Foundation.
Sanz, JL 2007. Dragon Hunters: History of the paleontologists who discovered and studied the dinosaurs. Ed. Ariel.
Gascó, F. 2021. That was not in my dinosaur history book. Guadalmazán.
Kerley, B.; Selznick, B. 2001. The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins: An Illuminating History of Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, Artist and Lecturer. Scholastic Press.
