Images Dated 21st March 2012

Lithograph with later hand colouring combining two of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins'

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

© www.naturepl.com