Crystal Palace Park's Prehistoric Monster Trail

All of the monsters that have been created for this park were as the Victorians believed they looked at the time using the fossils that they had found. However, it has since been discovered that these are not the correct representation of the dinosaurs.

It was decided to leave the models as they were made so as to show how the Victorians perceived these creatures using the minimal amount of fossils that they possessed at the time.

Some of the more well-known dinosaurs such as the T-Rex and Stegosaurus are not present in this collection as they'd yet to be discovered.

The name Plesiosaurus means 'ribbon reptile' and it lived during the late Triassic period. It dominated the seas in the Jurassic period and died out in the early Cretaceous period.

Plesiosaurus was a carnivore eating mainly squid and fish.

There are three types of Plesiosaurus on show:

Plesiosaur Macrocephalus (long headed)
Plesiosaur Dolichoderius (long necked)
Plesiosaur Hawkinsii (named after Thomas Hawkins who discovered it)

Could the Loch Ness Monster be a distant relative of the Plesiosaur?

Models of Dinosaurs and Other Species at the Crystal Palace Sydenham Giclee Print
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The name Megalosaurus means 'Great lizard' and it was the first dinosaur to be named.

It lived during the Jurassic period and preyed on smaller creatures and also large planting eating dinosaurs like the Iguanodon.

Fossil bones of the Megalosaurus have only been found in Europe.

As no complete skeleton had been found in 1852, Hawkins and Owen compared it with other similar carnivores that lived at the same time.

Most huge dinosaurs were thought only to be able to walk on two legs so Hawkins decided that the Megalosaurus could walk on four. It has since been suggested that these animals were actually more likely to have walked on two.

Teleosaurus means 'end reptile' and it belonged to the group of successful crocodilians that emerged during the late Triassic period. It survived the Cretaceous mass extinctions.

The first fossil was found in 1758 within the lias cliffs of the Yorkshire coast. Teleosaurus lived in salt-water and fed on fish and other small reptiles.

The Teleosaurus is associated with the modern day crocodile that live in the River Ganges in India.

The name Iguanadon means 'Iguana Tooth' as their fossilized teeth had a similar structure to the modern day Iguana.

The Iguanadon lived during the Cretaceous period and was a herbivore. The plant on which it leans is the extinct Cycad and, because of fossils found at the same time as the Iguanadon, is thought to have existed at the same time.

The horn on its head has now been discovered to have been placed on its wrist instead. It is also depicted to have walked on four legs although it is now thought to have walked on both four and two legs.

Crystal Palace, Sydenham, circa 1862 Giclee Print
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The name Megatherium means 'giant beast'. It's also known as a Giant Ground Sloth.

It lived in the Ice age and was found in North and South America.

They were herbivores and used their strength to pull up trees to eat the roots and leaves.

The preserved skin and hair of the Megatherium has identified it to have had long, shaggy and dark, brown hair.

Preserved dung has also identified the Sloth to have eaten vegetation.

A recent documentary of Prehistoric Dinosaurs also showed this monster eating carrion. They would scare away smaller predators to steal their kill.

The name Megaloceros means 'giant antler' and it is also known as an Irish Elk.

The Irish Elk emerged around 400, 000 years ago and died out during the Ice Age (10, 000 years ago.)

It is known as the Irish Elk as the best fossils have been found in peat bogs in Ireland. It was also found in Europe and China.

The male Irish Elk would have had to have eaten a huge amount of vegetation in order to maintain their huge antlers and this could have been their downfall in the Ice Age as much of the ground would have been covered with a thick layer of snow.

Many of the fossil antlers that have been found showed the animals to have suffered from malnutrition.

Anoplotherium were the first creatures to depict the early mammals that lived in the Tertiary period about 50 million years ago.

They were given a camel-like face but were discovered to be more closely related to pigs or hippos.

In Crystal Palace there are three models which represent two sub-species: A.graclis (graceful) and A. commune (common).

They were given hoofs but were discovered to be clawed animals.