#Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins

[gwydpolls]

Time Travel Question 57: 19th Century

These Questions are the result of suggestions from the previous iteration.

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Please add new suggestions below if you have them for future consideration.

[lionofchaeronea]

Early Jurassic Marine Reptiles, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, 1876

[earlypalaeoart]

Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins with his statue of the Irish elk, Megaloceros, [1853?]

https://ansp.org/research/library/archives/0800-0899/hawkins803/

[arthistoryanimalia]

For #WorldDugongDay:

Plate 23 in John Edward Gray’s Illustrations of Indian Zoology, V. 2, 1833-4. "Indian Dugong, Halicora Dugung" (now Dugong, Dugong dugon). Hand-colored lithograph of an original illustration by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (English, 1807-1894).

[dianeramic]

Something a bit different than what I usually do: a very, very retro Yi Qi done in the style of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, drawn some years back.

[philoursmars]

Il y a une petite quinzaine, je suis allé avec Julien et Katie, au Louvre-Lens pour une expo temporaire : "Animaux Fantastiques". Une très belle expo ! Ici des dragons et leurs cousins, les dinosaures !

John Martin, illustrateur pour le livre de Thomas Hawkins - "Le Livre des grands dragons de la mer, ichtyosaures et plésiosaures" -Londres,1840

Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins - Iguanodon - Londres,1855 (on est bien loin de la représentation actuelle de ce dinosaure !!) - et...voir le dernier.

les 3 suivants : Rahan, Bibi Fricotin et autres magazines des années 70

Eric Pellé - "Multispecies incroyabilis" (E. Pellé est un préparateur en ostéologie du Muséum national d'Histoire Naturelle)

[dinodorks]

[ Visitors pass by some of the iconic sculptures of prehistoric life within Crystal Palace Park. Photo by Richard Baker. ]

"When the Crystal Palace and Park opened in south London in 1854, it was an instant sensation. Visitors came from far and wide to see the giant glass structure that had been rebuilt there, bigger and better, after the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park. Wide-eyed spectators wandered freely through Egyptian and Medieval Courts, delighted in high-wire circus acts, and were transported by a 4,000-piece orchestra. Tucked away in a corner of the vast gardens that fanned out from the palace, past sweeping terraces and more fountains than even at Versailles, was a smaller but no less ambitious attraction. Scattered across several islands in the middle of a lake stood three dozen life-size sculptures of prehistoric animals, including several dinosaurs up to 30 feet long—the world’s first attempt to model them at full scale. The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs were the work of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, a natural history artist who, aided by some of the leading scientists of the day, had dreamt up a grand experiment in visual education, bringing to life the “dry bones or oddly shaped stones” found in the British Museum and introducing the masses to the burgeoning science of paleontology. By reconstructing Britain’s long-extinct animals, he hoped to “render the appearance and names of the ancient inhabitants of our globe as familiar as household words.” The palace burned down in the 1930s, but, almost 170 years after they were crafted, most of Hawkins’ original sculptures still stand sentry in the park. Today, they’re mostly famous for being wildly inaccurate. With few complete fossils to work off, Hawkins had to use his imagination and the advice of comparative anatomists to breathe life into his models, which, in addition to four true dinosaurs, also depict prehistoric mammals, reptiles and amphibians. As a result, the sculptures look suspiciously like many modern-day creatures. “People kind of scoff and giggle, because they look so wrong today, but at the time they were really cutting-edge,” says Bob Nicholls, a paleoartist who, through careful study of archival images, recently reconstructed a lost sculpture that had disappeared from the park sometime in the 1960s. His tapir-like model of Palaeotherium magnum, an animal we now know looked a lot more like a horse, was unveiled in July and now stands among Hawkins’ own surviving creations."

Read more: "How a Victorian Dinosaur Park Became a Time Capsule of Early Paleontology" by Yannic Rack.

[alphynix]

Crystal Palace Field Trip Part 1: Walking With Victorian Monsters

The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs take their name from the original Crystal Palace, a glass-paned exhibition building originally constructed for a World's Fair in Hyde Park in 1851.

In 1854 the structure was relocated 14km (~9 miles) south to the newly-created Crystal Palace Park, and a collection of over 30 life-sized statues of prehistoric animals were commissioned to accompany the reopening – creating a sort of Victorian dinosaur theme park – sculpted by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins with consultation from paleontologist Sir Richard Owen.

The Palace building itself burned down completely in 1936, and today only the ruins of its terraces remain in the northeast of the park grounds.

The Crystal Palace building then and now Left image circa 1854 (public domain) Right image circa 2011 by Mark Ahsmann (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Six sphinx statues based on the Great Sphinx of Tanis also survive up among the Palace ruins, flanking some of the terrace staircases. They fell into serious disrepair during the latter half of the 20th century, but in 2017 they all finally got some much-needed preservation work, repairing them and restoring their original Victorian red paint jobs.

———

…But let's get to what we're really here for. Dinosaurs! (…And assorted other prehistoric beasties!)

The "Dinosaur Court" down in the south end of the park still remains to this day, displayed across several islands in a man-made lake. Over the decades they've been through multiple cycles of neglect and renovation, and are currently cared for by the London Borough of Bromley (Crystal Palace Park Trust are due to take over custodial duties in September 2023), with promotion and fundraising assistance from organizations like Historic England and the Friends of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs charity.

Just about 170 years old now, the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs represent fifteen different types of fossil creatures known to 1850s Victorian science, with only three actual dinosaur species featured. Although often derided for being outdated and very inaccurate by modern standards, they were actually incredibly good efforts at the time, especially taking into account that the field of paleontology was still in its very early days.

They also just have a lot of charm, with toothy grins and surprisingly dynamic poses.

Unfortunately on the day I visited in early August 2023 most of the statues were heavily obscured by plant growth, both on their islands and on the sides of the paths they can usually be viewed from. Since I'd seen images from about a month ago showing things being less overgrown, this was probably just some unlucky timing on my part coinciding with some explosive summer foliage growth.

The first island on the trail features a few Permian and Triassic animals which were only known from fragmentary remains in the 1850s. These "labyrinthodonts" were recognized as having similarities to both amphibians and reptiles, and so were depicted with boxy toothy jaws, warty skin, stumpy tails, and long frog-like back legs.

Today we'd call these particular animals temnospondyl amphibians, specifically Mastodonsaurus, and we know they were actually shaped more like giant salamanders with longer flatter crocodilian-like jaws, smaller legs, and long paddle-like tails.

———

Somewhere in the foliage beyond this specific "labyrinthodont" there was also supposed to be a pair of dicynodonts, but I couldn't see much of them at all and didn't manage to get a remotely visible photograph.

Crystal Palace Dicynodon when much less overgrown Left photo by London looks (CC BY 2.0) Right photo by Loz Pycock (CC BY SA 2.0)

These Dicynodon are depicted as looking like sabre-toothed turtles complete with shells. That was fairly speculative even for the time, but considering only their weird turtle-beaked-and-walrus-tusked skulls were known it was probably the best guess Hawkins and Owen had. Today we know these animals were actually synapsids related to modern mammals, but Victorian understanding considered them to be a type of reptile.

Modern reconstructions of dicynodonts have a slightly different face shape, along with squat pig-like bodies and semi-sprawling limbs. They may have had fur, but currently the only known actual skin impressions from the genus Lystrosaurus show leathery bumpy hairless skin.

———

Next time: the Jurassic and Cretaceous sculptures!

[bobnichollsart]

IT'S COMING HOME!

I have painstakingly reconstructed Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins' Palaeotherium magnum sculpture. Lost decades ago, join us (Ellinor Michel, Mark Witton, Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs) this Sunday to see its return.

More here: https://www.londonfestivalofarchitecture.org/event/beyond-the-dinosaurs-a-series-of-tours/

[tsaagan]

Damn you Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins for making Iguanodons too sexy! *shakes fist*

[balanceoflightanddark]

Slurpasaurs: A History

When it comes to classic dinosaur films, what is typically the first special effect that comes to mind which is used to bring the prehistoric beasts to life?

Stop motion with figurines like in The Lost World (1925)?

Suitmation made famous by Gojira (1954)?

...put some crummy ass fins and horns on your pet iguana and call it a day?

Yeah, we're gonna be talking about the last one for today's post.

The term "slurpasaur" is used to describe a peculiar method of bringing creatures to life that was used quite well up until the 60s. As I said, it refers to using a pet lizard or reptile and filming it in a way to appear more monstrous than they actually are (to...varying degrees of effectiveness). Usually this includes filming them close up and in slow-motion to give them more "weight" and make them appear larger. Horns, fins, and other adornments were often used to more vaguely resemble the dinosaurs they're supposed to portray.

Again, mileage varies on how this...uh..."creative" way of bringing dinosaurs to life works.

(Hint: it rarely did)

Dinosaurs and lizards actually do go quite back aways to their earliest depictions. When dinosaurs such as Iguanodon and Megalosaurus were first discovered, their remains were very fragmentary at best. And so early paleontologists had to do what they could to properly reconstruct these mysterious finds. Since the teeth and bones seemed to vaguely resemble reptiles, it was thought they were lizards. As seen in the two depictions above: the left being the famous Crystal Palace dinosaurs designed by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, and the right being a painting of a Megalosaurus attacking an Iguanodon made by Édouard Riou.

Obviously future finds that showed dinosaurs weren't oversized lizards would render these depictions outdated, but the model would later find a surprising reemergence on the silver screen.

Since the use of stop motion was a slow, arduous, and expensive process while rubber suits had it's own set of problems (the suits being stiff and difficult to work in), the use of pet lizards provided a cheap and easy alternative. Not...necessarily the most effective special effects in the world, but movies are a business and sometimes in order to make some money back, you needed to cut some...

...corners.

Among the first users of the slurpasaur technique is the 1940 "classic", One Million B.C. The plot involves a pair of cavemen tribes learning to live together in a prehistoric world filled with hungry predators and exploding volcanos. Interestingly enough, this film got nominated for an Academy Award for special effects.

Let's see what everyone was so excited about!

(Fair warning about the clip in question...animal rights weren't really a thing back then, so it involves an actual fight between a gator and a monitor lizard. Be advised)

One Million B.C. (1940) Gatorsaurus vs. Tegudon - YouTube

...huh. That's some...award winning effects right there.

One Million B.C is also one of the most well-known practitioners of the slurpasaur technique, and stock footage taken from this film is often used in many future films that depict dinosaurs that may also involve slurpasaurs. Including some of the films in this post. One of them is the 1961 Valley of the Dragons, which also inspired the name of this blog cause admittedly that is a cool name for a dinosaur film.

Interesting note before we move on: the One Million Years B.C remake (1966) also used an iguana in a rather late usage of slurpasaur. Partly to pay homage to the original film. And partly to show just how far special effects had come.

Considering that Ray Harryhausen was in charge of special effects...quite a lot.

The next film on the list is The Land Unknown (1957) where a helicopter crashes in the South Pole and discovers a whole lost world of dinosaurs.

Who apparently evolved backwards to resemble monitor lizards.

Now to be fair, The Land Unknown didn't rely solely on slurpasaurs. Like One Million B.C it also used several other techniques to bring dinosaurs to life.

...which were just as effective.

Now to actually be fair, there were a...very few amount of slurpasaur applications that aren't too bad. Take this depiction of Dimetrodon from Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) which...wasn't too far off from older depictions of the species actually. I'll let this one slide.

Not as forgivable is King Dinosaur (1955). Set on an alien planet that features similar animals to those on earth (allegedly), our "heroes" find themselves on an island populated by lizar-er, I mean "dinosaurs".

Again, to be fair, the slurpasaur idea could work if the animals in question were portrayed as generic prehistoric reptiles that weren't based on a specific species. Still looks silly, but at least there would be some reason for it.

Not with King Dinosaur. Here, two of our "heroes" are trapped in a cave by the eponymous King Dinosaur, where one of them, a noted biologist I might add, looks at what is clearly an iguana...and identifies it as a TYRANNOSAURUS REX.

To show I am not high and making this up, here is the clip in question with expected commentary from Joel and the bots.

MST3K: King Dinosaur (FULL MOVIE) - YouTube

Repeat, a skilled biologist looked at this guy:

And thought he was a T.rex, one of the most recognizable dinosaurs in all history.

You may take this moment to facepalm.

And it wasn't just King Dinosaur either. The 1960 remake of The Lost World had Professor Challenger identify a slurpasaur as a Brontosaurus. For a little clarity, here is what a Brontosaurus looked like back then and what Challenger saw.

...can you see the family resemblance?

Which is part of the reason why the slurpasaur technique thankfully fell out of fashion since nobody can look at a lizard with fins and say that's a famous dinosaur. That and the gratuitous examples of animal violence. And that better effects were becoming cheaper and more accessible.

Nowadays the most you can expect from slurpasaurs is maybe a winking nod to their depiction. Like in this clip from South Park where the dinosaur is depicted by...a guinea pig.

guinea pig south park - YouTube

Only slightly harder to take seriously then an iguana trying to gum the viewer to death.

Which is the reason why slurpasaurs are fun to poke fun at. It's both absurd, silly, and kind of charming that early filmmakers tried to pass harmless lizards off as powerful and terrifying dinosaurs. These films do have that cheesy popcorn vibe that makes it fun to watch and bring up with friends.

Cause nothing says so bad it's good when a bunch of cavemen try to fend off that iguana you saw at your local reptile convention.

[wildbeautifuldamned]

Rare Antique 1850 Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins Bronze Heavy Snake CompassInkwell ebay The One Stop eShop

[earlypalaeoart]

Plesiosaurus head study by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, mid 1800s

[pixoplanet]

It's December 31st. 🦖 On this day in 1853, sculptor Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins hosted one of the most legendary events in the history of science – a New Year's Eve dinner party held inside an Iguanodon at London's Crystal Palace Park.

Sir Richard Owen, the "Father of Dinosaurs," was the guest of honor. Afterwards, he was often referred to as the brains of the gathering of 21 scientists and dinosaur enthusiasts – appropriate because his seat at the head of the table happened to also place him inside the head of the Iguanodon.

Owen was collaborating with Hawkins in populating the park with dinosaur sculptures. He verified the accuracy of all the sketches Hawkins used to sculpt the dinosaurs in poses the creatures would’ve assumed when they walked the Earth over 66 million years ago.

The dinner party cemented Owen's role as leader of the paleontological world in the United Kingdom. He offered a solemn toast "to the memory of Gideon Mantell, discoverer of the Iguanodon" who had died the previous year. Then the New Year's celebration began. A recurring scene throughout the festivities witnessed the guests enthusiastically singing the chorus to "The Jolly Old Beast."

The jolly old beast

Is not deceased.

There's life in him again!

ROAR!

Who says scientists don't know how to have fun!? ☮️ Peace… Jamiese of Pixoplanet

[yo-sostenible]

Tras milenios de inspirar toda clase de leyendas, en febrero de 1824 el primero de estos seres recibió su nombre. A dos siglos de aquel debut científico, los descubrimientos no paran. Gracias al uso de nuevas tecnologías, los paleontólogos amplían su intrincado árbol genealógico y revelan aspectos anteriormente desconocidos de estas especies increíblemente diversas que dominaron el planeta durante casi 165 millones de años Más que cualquier otro grupo de animales extintos, los dinosaurios cautivan la imaginación de grandes y pequeños. / Museo de Historia Natural de Dinamarca Por Federico Kukso Hace exactamente dos siglos, mientras el poeta Lord Byron languidecía y el continente americano se fracturaba en naciones soberanas y recién independizadas, nació una obsesión, un fenómeno cultural inagotable: la dinomanía. Fue por entonces, en febrero de 1824, cuando el naturalista y teólogo inglés William Buckland realizó la primera descripción científica de un dinosaurio: aquella mandíbula y enormes extremidades desenterradas en los siglos XVII y XVIII en una cantera cerca de Oxford, al sur de Inglaterra, no eran los restos de gigantes, dragones, grifos y otras de criaturas mitológicas como se especuló durante miles de años cada vez se encontraban materiales similares. Eran, más bien, fragmentos de un gran reptil. En las páginas de la revista de la Sociedad Geológica de Londres, este clérigo lo llamó Megalosaurus —justamente “gran reptil”— casi 20 años antes de que el biólogo Richard Owen acuñara en 1842 la palabra “dinosaurio”. Fue el despegue. En una época en la que se pensaba que la extinción era una idea descabellada, estas criaturas maravillosas capturaron la imaginación del público con mucha más fuerza que otros animales desaparecidos. Fue un enamoramiento inmediato: en 1852, el escritor Charles Dickens mencionó al Megalosaurus en el primer párrafo de su novela Bleak House y en 1854 el escultor Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins creó varias estatuas enormes de animales prehistóricos —incluido este depredador de 6 metros de largo que, como se supo tiempo después, vivió hace 166 millones de años— para los jardines del Crystal Palace en Londres. Además de gestar una industria millonaria —promovida por infinitas películas, documentales, juguetes, parques de atracciones, libros, o destinos turísticos—, este grupo de animales de todos los tamaños y formas conquistaron todos los continentes y constituyen un gran enigma científico, un misterio en pleno auge. Como repiten los paleontólogos, vivimos en la edad de oro del estudio de los dinosaurios En todas partes del mundo se están descubriendo nuevos fósiles a un ritmo asombroso. En promedio, cada dos semanas una nueva especie se suma a las casi 2000 conocidas. “La paleontología aún es un campo en el que realizamos continuamente nuevos hallazgos”, dice el paleontólogo Steve Brusatte de Universidad de Edimburgo y autor de Auge y caída de los dinosau rios: La nueva historia de un mundo perdido. “Nunca puedes predecir lo que vas a encontrar”. Un estudio estimó que se habían encontrado menos del 30 % de todos los dinosaurios no aviares y que aumentar el recuento hasta el 90 % requeriría más de un siglo de exploración. Es decir, la mayoría de las especies aún no se han descubierto. “Estudiar dinosaurios es como tratar de armar un rompecabezas de mil piezas pero contar solo con diez”, cuenta a SINC la paleontóloga argentina Ariana Paulina Carabajal. “Cada hallazgo es una nueva pieza que nos ayuda a tener una imagen un poco más clara”. La fascinación por los dinosaurios no se acaba. Científicos quieren saber cómo vivían, qué hacían, cómo nacían, de qué color eran, qué sonidos hacían, cómo morían, por qué desaparecieron. Nuestra comprensión de estos animales ha avanzado mucho en los últimos dos siglos. Hoy sabemos que ciertos dinosaurios se movían en manadas. Algunos tenían parásitos en los huesos y en los intestinos, cáncer y tumores...

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 12.31. (before 1950)

406 – Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gaul. 535 – Byzantine general Belisarius completes the conquest of Sicily, defeating the Gothic garrison of Palermo (Panormos), and ending his consulship for the year. 870 – Battle of Englefield: The Vikings clash with ealdorman Æthelwulf of Berkshire. The invaders are driven back to Reading (East Anglia); many Danes are killed. 1105 – Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV is forced to abdicate in favor of his son, Henry V, in Ingelheim. 1225 – The Lý dynasty of Vietnam ends after 216 years by the enthronement of the boy emperor Trần Thái Tông, husband of the last Lý monarch, Lý Chiêu Hoàng, starting the Trần dynasty. 1229 – James I the Conqueror, King of Aragon, enters Medina Mayurqa (now known as Palma, Spain), thus consummating the Christian reconquest of the island of Majorca. 1501 – The First Battle of Cannanore commences, seeing the first use of the naval line of battle. 1600 – The British East India Company is chartered. 1660 – James II of England is named Duke of Normandy by Louis XIV of France. 1670 – The expedition of John Narborough leaves Corral Bay, having surveyed the coast and lost four hostages to the Spanish. 1687 – The first Huguenots set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope. 1757 – Empress Elizabeth I of Russia issues her ukase incorporating Königsberg into Russia. 1759 – Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000-year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewing Guinness. 1775 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Quebec: British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army General Richard Montgomery. 1790 – Efimeris, the oldest Greek newspaper of which issues have survived till today, is published for the first time. 1796 – The incorporation of Baltimore as a city. 1831 – Gramercy Park is deeded to New York City. 1844 – The Philippines skipped this date in order to align the country with the rest of Asia, as the trading interest switched to China, Dutch East Indies and neighboring territories after Mexico gained independence from Spain on 27 September 1821. In the islands, Monday, 30 December 1844 was immediately followed by Wednesday, 1 January 1845. 1853 – A dinner party is held inside a life-size model of an iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London, England. 1857 – Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, then a small logging town, as the capital of the Province of Canada. 1862 – American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits West Virginia to the Union, thus dividing Virginia in two. 1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Stones River begins near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. 1878 – Karl Benz, working in Mannheim, Germany, files for a patent on his first reliable two-stroke gas engine. He was granted the patent in 1879. 1879 – Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time, in Menlo Park, New Jersey. 1906 – Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar signs the Persian Constitution of 1906. 1907 – The first ever ball drop in Times Square. 1942 – USS Essex, first aircraft carrier of a 24-ship class, is commissioned. 1942 – World War II: The Royal Navy defeats the Kriegsmarine at the Battle of the Barents Sea. This leads to the resignation of Grand Admiral Erich Raeder a month later. 1944 – World War II: Operation Nordwind, the last major Wehrmacht offensive on the Western Front, begins. 1946 – President Harry S. Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.