Dinosaurs at the Crystal Palace

Dinosaurs at the Crystal Palace

This article relates to Beasts of the Sea

In Beasts of the Sea, the reality of extinction is first discovered by the French anatomist and paleontologist Georges Cuvier when he is tasked with analyzing a mammoth tooth sent to him by none other than Thomas Jefferson, who is determined to track down a living mammoth. In a nightmarish sequence he walks through his vast collection of human and animal bones, contemplating why not a single explorer has ever come across a living mammoth or dinosaur. He comes to the startling realization that it is because they no longer exist. Feverishly, he calculates that dozens of species whose remains continue to fascinate the scientific community have disappeared completely and will never return.

Turpeinen writes that as the concept of extinction took hold, people clamored to know what these long-dead creatures looked like. That request would be granted, albeit inaccurately, in 1854 when the artist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins unveiled the Crystal Palace dinosaurs, the world's first attempt at life-sized recreations of creatures that up until then had only existed in people's imaginations.

The Crystal Palace was a grand glass hall originally part of London's Great Exhibition of 1851. When it was moved from its original location beginning in 1853, Hawkins was tasked with creating a series of statues representing extinct animals and dinosaurs to surround the Palace in a garden filled with rocks and plants representative of the time periods during which the creatures had lived, allowing visitors to feel as though they were walking through time and seeing each animal as it had lived. Working with a celebrity paleontologist named Richard Owen and several other scientific advisors, Hawkins created 33 different sculptures, including four dinosaurs: a Megalosaurus, a Hylaeosaurus, and two Iguanodons.

Before its grand opening to the public, Hawkins invited 21 special guests to a grand New Year's Eve dinner inside the mold used to create the Iguanodon statues. Guests, who included scientists, investors, and members of the press, enjoyed an eight-course meal and the exhibition enjoyed excellent publicity.

While today Hawkins's statues are considered by many to be almost comically inaccurate, they remain a vital part of paleontologic history. Dinosaur research was still in its infancy, and Hawkins and his team were working with very limited precedent, sometimes having to simply guess where things went. His work also gave the thousands who visited the sculptures their first understanding of what extinction was, planting the seeds that would eventually lead to our understanding of the role we play in extinction events.

Today the Friends of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, a group of local residents who live near the park, work to preserve Hawkins's statues and educate the public on their importance through lectures and programs designed to make sure the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs keep their place in history.

Illustration of Crystal Palace and dinosaur sculptures by G. Baxter, c. 1864, courtesy of Wellcome Collection

Filed under People, Eras & Events

This article relates to Beasts of the Sea. It first ran in the January 14, 2026 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.