Commissioned in 1852 and unveiled in 1854, the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs are the world's first dinosaur sculptures.
They were designed and sculpted by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, under the scientific direction of Sir Richard Owen. Sir Richard Owen is best known for coining the term 'Dinosauria'.
The sculptures also include other extinct animals and the collection is known as the 'Geological Court' or 'Dinosaur Court'.
By today's standards many of these sculptures are anatomically inaccurate. Many were sculpted on incorrectly assembled skeletons, showing the limit of 19th century scientific understanding. But, being the world's first, they paved the way for many of the advances in fossil understanding and palaeontology.
In 1952 a full restoration of the sculptures began, with some of the dinosaurs being moved. The sculptures were Grade II listed, in 1973. Between 2001-02 the sculptures were extensively restored, with fibreglass models replacing the more severely damaged ones. Some previous restorations had used lead, for the legs, linking these appendages to the bodies with iron rods. The iron had then corroded, causing more damage, resulting in new pieces to be cast.
In 2007, the sculptures were Grade I listed.
Of the fifteen genera of extinct animals only three are true dinosaurs. The periods that are covered by the sculptures include the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic.
In May of this year, Crystal Palace Park, the dinosaurs, playground, cafe and more began undergoing a multi-million pound refurbishment, which is due to be completed by summer 2026. The park is remaining open, but restrictions to certain areas may be in place.
Geological Time
When the Crystal Palace models were built, scientists dated fossils based on the type of rocks in which they were found. Fossils from deeper layers of rock were known to be older than those discovered closer to the Earth's surface. This provided a measure of the relative ages of the fossils, even if no one knew exactly how old each was.
The Sculptures: 258 million to 175 million years ago.
Plesiosaurus, Ichthyosaurus, Labyrinthodon and Dicynodon.
These ancient marine reptiles roamed the warm seas that once covered southern England, feeding on fish and relatives of squid and nautilus. They breathed air like mammals and gave birth to live young.
Unlike many of the Crystal Palace models these reconstructions were based on complete fossilised skeletons. However, any fleshy fins were not preserved in these specimens, leaving some uncertainty about how these animals might have looked.
The Sculptures: 175 million to 66 million years ago.
Mosasaurus, Pterodactyle, Iguanodon, Hylaeosaurus, Megalosaurus and Teleosaurus.
The sculptures on this island include the only representation of true dinosaurs seen at Crystal Palace. Scientists have classified Hylaeosaurus, Iguanodon and Megalosaurus as dinosaurs, while the other animals on this site belong to other specific groups.
The Sculptures: 66 million to 9,000 years ago.
Megatherium, Anoplotherium and Palaeotherium.
The models on this island are reconstructions of some of the first extinct animals to be scientifically described. When their fossilised remains were found they sparked controversy and debate. Scientists of the day were puzzled by how these fossils could even exist, when no one had ever seen such animals alive.
The Sculptures: 400,000 to 8,000 years ago.
Irish Elk
Of all the Crystal Palace sculptures, these models of the extinct Irish Elk look the most similar to present-day animals. Compared with dinosaurs, they lived much more recently, dying out just thousands - rather than millions - of years ago.
Many skeletons of these animals were available when the Crystal Palace models were built. The task of imagining how they once looked was therefore easier than for some of the other animals on this site.
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