Today, everyone knows about dinosaurs. Most of us have seen terrifyingly realistic-looking dinosaurs chase characters around movie screens.
The Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies imagine fictional theme parks where dinosaurs are brought back to life. The notion of cloning dinosaurs is a very modern kind of science fiction. But the idea of a dinosaur theme park is much older than any movie.
For over a century and a half, crowds have flocked to see the next best thing to living dinosaurs: realistic, life-sized sculptures of prehistoric beasts as they may have appeared when they were alive. Nowadays there are prehistoric theme parks in many countries. Museums often feature life-sized models of dinosaurs, mammoths, or other extinct creatures. Realistic models challenge us to imagine how would it feel to come face to face with prehistoric giants.