The Crystal Palace building burned down in 1936. An aging sports center now stands where spectacular fountains once awed Victorian crowds. But Hawkins’ dinosaurs still lurk today in a quiet park on the outskirts of London. They aren’t quite forgotten—they appeared in an episode of the 2019 Amazon television series Good Omens, for example. But they’re an out of the way historical sight in a city with countless famous historical attractions. Because they were built in the earliest days of dinosaur paleontology, they also have a reputation for being primitive and inaccurate. Across town, visitors to London’s Natural History Museum can not only see mounted dinosaur skeletons but also fancier modern models—including an animatronic T. rex that roars and moves. By comparison, Hawkins’ creatures seem very old fashioned. But is it fair to dismiss historical artifacts for being old?
Science Improves Over Time
It’s true that many details of Hawkins’ creatures are now outdated. Consider his Megalosaurus (below). Because modern lizards and crocodiles stand on four legs and drag their tails on the ground, Owen and Hawkins assumed that Megalosaurus must have done the same. Today we know that Megalosaurus belonged to a dinosaur group called the “theropods,” which includes the related predators T. rex and Velociraptor. In reality, these animals stalked on two legs and held their tails out behind them. Hawkins’ Iguanodon statues are outdated as well. We now know that Iguanodon’s front legs were smaller than their bulky rear legs. They could stand on four legs but run on two. As well, Hawkins sculpted his Iguanodon statues with small horns on their noses. Today we know that these were really thumb spikes.