Reconstruction Gallery

1862 Megalosaurus reconstruction

1862 Megalosaurus wallchart after Waterhouse Hawkins with Pterosaurs in background. One of six wall charts entitled "Waterhouse Hawkins's Diagrams of the Extinct Animals" for the Department of Science and Art. Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins attempted to scientifically reconstruct dinosaurs for the Crystal Palace 1852-55. He was helped by Richard Owen, the man who named the group. At this time there were few remains, so the endeavor was speculative. Megalosaurus was the first dinosaur described by Buckland in 1824. Owen supposed the giant reptile's appearance was between a crocodile and a pachyderm. Though innacurate, Waterhouse Hawkins reconstruction fired the publics' imagination. It would be only much later that Megalosaurs would appear as the nimble bipedal predator we know today.

© This image is copyright Paul D. Stewart 2009. Do not reproduce without permission of the photographer at Stewartpauld@aol.com.

1862 Dinosaurs and Pterosaurs

Lithograph with later hand colouring combining two of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins' six wall posters "Waterhouse Hawkins Diagrams of the Extinct Animals" produced for the Department of Science and Art in 1862. It includes nearly all the dinosaurs known up to that date. From left 1 & 2 Iguanodon, 3 Hylaeosaurus, 4&5 Megalosaurus. On cliffs in background are pterosaurs (not dnosaurs). In 1855 Waterhouse Hawkins produced lifesize reconstructions, with the scientific help of Richard Owen, for the gardens of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. When that project was curtailed he continued to use the designs for artwork such as this, also producing scale models of the sculptures for sale. Later he travelled to the USA where he began work on a similar project in New York's Central Park using more complete skeletal remains of dinosaurs recently discovered there. Sadly that project was never completed.

© This image is copyright Paul D. Stewart 2009. Do not reproduce without permission of the photographer at Stewartpauld@aol.com.

1858 Prehistoric marine reptiles

1858 Marine Monsters by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins. Plate 23, to face page 33, of the New Edition, postumously published, of William Buckland's "Geology and Mineralogy" - part of the Bridgewater Treatises series. Waterhouse Hawkins was commissioned to produce this new plate for the book by Francis Buckland, William's son. It shows reconstructions of these prehistoric reptiles as produced for the Crystal Palace Sydenham around 1854. The reptiles are identified in the plate. Notable is the lack of fin and straight (rather than correctly bilobe finned) tail of the icthyosaur (central) - these mistakes only became apparent when fin skin impressions were recognised in German specimens. All these species occupied British Coasts in the Jurassic.

© PAUL D STEWART/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY