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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 13h

A very roughly remembered but pleasingly early (1854) take on the @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social. Coloured engraving from Maclure, MacDonald & MacGregor, William Tegg & Co. Digital image © London Museum, Object ID: 58.22/49 (www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/...).

A print showing the full span of the Crystal Palace grounds.

A close-up of Waterhouse Hawkins's models, some more accurately drawn than others.

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

We found this fantastic old colour shot, possibly taken at some point between the end of the 1960s to mid-1970s. Zoom in for the interesting eye paint of the iguanodon, and a pretty mucky megalosaurus - which may have been just about to enter its "red paint" phase.. www.flickr.com/photos/found...

Colour scanned photo. view from the path overlooking the dino end of the Secondary Island

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Blake Leyh @earlofedgecombe.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I found a few more pictures from that same day. The pictures were taken for my mom's book "Children Make Sculpture."

Two boys sit with their backs to the camera, looking at a statue of the dinosaur Ichthyosaurus in a stream at Crystal Palace Park in 1972. Photo by Alexandra Blanshard.

A page from "Children Make Sculpture" by Elizabeth Leyh, with three pictures of the dinosaur sculptures in Crystal Palace park. Photos by Alexandra Blanshard.

The cover of the book "Children Make Sculpture" by Elizabeth Leyh, published in 1972. It shows a large classical lion sculpture with a young girl dwarfed sitting in front of it.

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The standing Crystal Palace Iguanodon is comprised of: “4x iron columns, 9 feet long by 7 inches diameter [the legs] 600 bricks 650 5-inch half-round drain-tiles 900 plain tiles 38 casks of cement 90 casks of broken stone 100 feet of iron-hooping 20 feet of cube inch bar”

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Inside the Megalosaurus! We were recently sent details of a visit done in March (before the recent conservation began) by the Historic England Structural Engineering Team The sheer amount of detail to go into warrants a thread or the dark arts of..*cackles above a cauldron*..a BLOG POST

Colour photo. Inside the beast, looking towards the mouth. A narrow brick-walked space dominated by a thick iron “spine” pipe, supported by iron truss bars.

Colour photo, looking towards the rear. The brickwork tapers, and is complemented by drain tiles, towards the hollow tail

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Earlier today, one of the more rarer birds to be spotted among the Dinos - a (juvenile?) grey heron squaring off with the Dicynodons!

Colour photo zoom-in of a rather hunched up heron face-on with the Dicynodons in the September sunshine

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

This is the stuffed body of Martha, the last known surviving passenger pigeon, on display in the Natural History Building of the Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum circa 1920 Martha, poor lonely Martha, has an interesting connection to the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs... 🧵

black and white photo. Martha, looking to one side towards the camera, on a wooden-looking perch, looking to the camera against a blank background. her appearance is long, slender and upright.

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Do drop in to @geolsoc.bsky.social for today’s open house! See the Mary Anning portrait, the William Smith map and I’ve put together a tour of the stones used in the interior. The Geol Soc gents toilets are pretty special in the world of #urbangeology! 😉 programme.openhouse.org.uk/listings/4938

A chimney piece made of a red and yellow mottled marble in the library

The portrait of Mary Anning hung on a wall over a fossil ichthyosaur jaw in a glass case standing on a limestone plinth

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Earlier today: a close-up of the @nhm-london.bsky.social bronze Crystal Palace Iguanodon model, on display in the newly-reopened Nature and Us gallery in the museum! ✨

Colour photo. Side view close-up of the standing Iguanodon model against a lovely orange background

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

very much looking forward to this (obvs)

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Coming up later: a thread about a pigeon..

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Dr Stephan Lautenschlager @palaeostephan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

New paper out today! Led by Daniel Schwarz, we retrodeformed the skull and reconstructed the cranio-mandibular musculature of the giant stem-amphibian Mastodonsaurus giganteus. Our results show that Mastodonsaurus had a powerful bite and a crocodile- like bite-and-hold feeding style.

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Bromley Council recently shared with us an unearthed archived letter from 1859: Waterhouse Hawkins offering to “rebuild” the mammoth for £400! He suggested that lectures and a fête could help return costs, and wanted his old superintendent role and responsibilities for the duration of the works

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

An extremely good day to you all from this Pachycephalosaurus statue - which was located in a park in an actual town called Dinosaur, in Colorado (Pop. 243) (Photo from 1991, part of the John Margolies Roadside America photo archive, www.loc.gov/pictures/ite...)

colour photo. close-up of the head of the dino statue. it has the domed head, and some lumps of armour, but "lumpy" would be a good word to summarise this very rough messily-sculpted affair, which is dark brown with a "normal" white and black eye

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

The reconstructed skull from Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins' mount of Hadrosaurus (1868), formerly displayed at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Photo from my last visit to ANSP in 2021. #FossilFriday

Large plaster skull with a vaguely iguana-like appearance. The jaw is placed separately on a shelf with the rest of the cranium. They are both painted a shade of greenish-gray.

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

We have enjoyed the Richard Holmes books we have read - THE AGE OF WONDER and FALLING UPWARDS spring to mind - but he can be the first recipient of our new Megalosaurus Side-eye™ award..

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

An incredible photo from a great vantage point! Shots from the 1970s are fairly rare 🏆

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Dr Alex Fitzpatrick @animalarchaeology.com · 19/08/2026

And finally, my first ever episode for Eons, which was about my beloved Irish elk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZEY...

youtube.com

When Giant Deer Roamed Eurasia

YouTube video by PBS Eons

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Chris Manias @chrismanias.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

On Thursday 3 September, at King's College London, we'll have a panel discussion entitled "Deep Time Cultures, Current Crises," thinking about how art & culture around deep time can (and can’t) help us engage with the current world Full info: shorturl.at/ufxe2 & sign-up link: shorturl.at/CklAN

A poster for the event "Deep Time Cultures, Current Crises," a panel discussion at King's College London, Thursday 3 September 2026, 18:00-20:00 (these words are used as the heading). On the left is an image by artist Mark Witton of Tiktaalik, a fish-like amphibious creature, in a swampy environment looking at a sunset. On the right are images of the five discussants: Jay Balamurugan, Emy Moss, Elsa Panciroli, Jamie Perera and Mark Witton

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Darren Naish @tetzoo.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Ok, time for a thread about what I saw yesterday at #CrystalPalace. As you can see, just about everything has been repaired and re-painted, and in places (like the previously misidentified Xiphodon) re-positioned. It looks fantastic and you have to check it out, even if you've visited before...

View of some of Crystal Palace models from top of the hill.

3D print of pterosaur head being held in front of actual models way back in the distance, Iguanodon at left.

Local mural on side of building celebrating Crystal Palace prehistoric animals. Art by Nacho Welles.

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Folk Horror Revival 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @folkhorrorrevival.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Spent the day visiting the freshly refurbished and repaired @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social with their new paint jobs to reflect how they would have originally looked when they were first installed, and they look amazing.

Photograph of the Crystal Palace Megalosaurus sculpture.

Photograph of the two Crystal Palace Iguanodons.

Photograph of one of the Crystal Palace ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs in the foreground and a couple more ichthyosaurs in the background. The ichthyosaur in the foreground has an Egyptian goose perched on its head.

Photograph of the Megaloceros/ Irish elk sculptures on display at Crystal Palace. In the foreground is the female sitting down and behind her is a male with large antlers.

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splendidhand.bsky.social @splendidhand.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Just finished this painting called ‘The Rivals’ inspired heavily by the Crystal Palace Iguanodon!

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

We missed @dinoconuk.bsky.social this year. Here’s some pre-Jurassic Park dinomania from 1982: A Thames News feature on tne launch of the “Dinosaur Club”, featuring co-founder Richard Moody - who had a distinguished academic and commercial career in paleo and geology

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Haunting The Atom @hauntingtheatom.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

A headless Dante, overlooked by the Crystal Palace transmitter and a painterly sky, yesterday afternoon.

The sun pokes through long, streaky clouds that appear to rise from the statue's neck as it stands in front of the Italian terraces in Crystal Palace Park. In the distance, silhouetted against the blue sky, is the Crystal Palace transmitting station.

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

As part of the celebration events in Crystal Palace Park this weekend, the Dinosaurs will be illuminated each evening. We got a preview tonight..

Colour photo. The two Crystal Palace Iguanodons illuminated at twilight. Hues of purple and blue

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Mark Witton @markwitton.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Heading back early* from the big shindig to celebrate the restoration of Crystal Palace Park and the @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social. I'm proud to have played a part in a huge effort to repair and restore the Dinosaurs... *Stupid trains.

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Absolutely crushing news. His accomplishments were many, but the original Jurassic Park and its characters transformed palaeontology, and was so fundamental and formative to so many people on here - we feel and share your pain xxx

Black and white photo. A young Laura Derm and Sam Neill, radiant in a smiling embrace

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

An updated montage of Crystal Palace then and nows ⏰

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Something something kneecaps in Crystal Palace Park

Closeup of Labyrinthodon rear legs, with Dicynodons in the background

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Mark Witton @markwitton.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

If you know what this is, you'll be just as excited about it as I am.

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Darren Naish @tetzoo.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Huge thanks to Rhys at @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social for showing developing plans for #CrystalPalace Megaloceros antlers... they've explored various ideas and are updating the model with something way more accurate. And great news on what's being done with the pterosaurs :)

Megaloceros model with separate antlers.

Warped 3D print of original pterosaur head.

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Say hello to the newly restored pterosaurs at Crystal Palace, courtesy of research done on a mysterious head found in the lake over twenty years ago.. Thread about this to follow next week x

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

I admire a certain perverse need some people have to reiterate that the @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social are not accurate by the standards of current (or 1970s) science, no matter the context.

'Hawkins' models of the Iguanodon mistakenly portray the large thumb spike as a nose horn; also, the dinosaurs are shown as quadrupeds rather than bipeds and these mistakes are faithfully reproduced in the book. The book is no longer in print.'

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Now THIS is how you start a newspaper article From the Illustrated Crystal Palace Gazette, 1st Feb 1854, recounting the Iguanodon dinner of NYE 1853 (Somebody please please please make a “Osteo-Necromancer Richard Owen” Warhammer miniature 🙏

“YOUR COMPANY IS REQUESTED IN THE IGUANODON.
GENTLE reader, have you the nerve to put
"Time" on one side and follow the osteo-necro-mancer Owen, to the Ultima Thule of creation-to stand with him in his magic circle of skulls and marrow-bones, while he calls up the huge reptile hulks, dead and buried before Adam was born - to accept his terrible invitation to meet
a few select believers in his occult ontology, at dinner, inside the head of an awful lizard?”

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Our very best 100th birthday wishes to Sir David Attenborough 🦖🎂🦖 Sir David has visited the Dinos in the past, and we were thrilled to have his support back in 2020 - when the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs were added to the Historic England Heritage at Risk Register (Letter wording in ALT text)

“The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs are recognised internationally as important monuments in the history of science. This is where public outreach of science began.

I am delighted to join with the Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs in welcoming Historic England's decision to give these sculptures the protection they so badly need.

They are, after all, the first attempts to visualise the dramatic creatures from the distant past in the country where their remains were first discovered, recognised and named.

David Attenborough”

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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Nothing like a Mary Anning letter at the @theul.bsky.social @theulspeccoll.bsky.social to close off a sunny #FossilFriday.

A sketch of an ichthyosaur skeleton across a folder letter

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

The often-hidden, toothless serenity of the Crystal Palace Hylaeosaurus, enjoying it’s new paint and the weather (so far)

Colour photo. Side zoomed view of the upper front half of the Hylaeosaurus, in new pastel green paint scheme (more on this in the future). The head of the sprawling Iguanodon is in the foreground

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Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Happy birthday to Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska (1925-2015) a Polish #paleobiologist, famous for a series of Polish-Mongolian expeditions she lead from 1963-1971 to the Gobi desert! 🧪🐡👩🏼‍🔬 #histsci There she discovered dinosaurs including the Deinocheirus, plus she & team found the “Fighting Dinosaurs”

My linocut portrait of Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska shows her as in slacks and sleeveless button down with collar turned in a 3/4 view with her right arm extended and left arm bent and resting on the small of her back. She has short hair and appears brightly lit from the left side. In front of her are the Fighting Dinosaurs fossils: a protoceratops and velociraptor entwined. Above her hand is a Cretaceous rodent Catopsbaatar and behind her is a Deinocheirus dinosaur. She is in the field in Mongolia with mountains in the distance. The print is made in a gradient of sandy golden green through dark green-brown through a dark rust from the bottom to the top.

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

St. George's Day! “St. George and the pterodactyl”, by Crystal Palace Dinosaur mastermind Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, ~1870 A strong call-to-arms for our country to unite against the immigrant pterosaurs (and cephalopods?!) comin’ over here and invading our many Giants Causeway-esque caves

Illustration. St George, minus any armour, on horseback, brandishing a cross and a short spear, apparently in a Giants Causeway-esque cave, facing off against a pale and quite large pterodactyl on the ground. He also appears to be under attack by an adjacent octopus because why not

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

We’re happy to announce that we will be at the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival this year, 13-14th June, in a building called The Hub - part of the Museum and Artists Quarter More info to come! x

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

The aeronaut Henry Coxwell transports the Megalosaurus across the Crystal Palace grounds in his giant balloon "Mammoth" Please note that this did not happen

black and white illustration of a large vertically-striped balloon, with the Palace partly in view in the background. A Megalosaurus is suspended underneath it

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Ruth Siddall @pavementgeology.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

A nice walk this afternoon looking at urban and bedrock geology in Walthamstow with a team of TfL engineers. We started of with a bit of Jurassic pavement palaeontology #urbangeology

Brown paving slab with a section through the spiral shell of an ammonite

A fossil belemnite with the phragmacone preserved in a paving slab. This is a dark brown, cigar shaped fossil with a cone-shaped, flared structure in which the individual chambers of the shell can be seen. It’s rare for this phragmacone to be preserved.

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Some photos from a sunny walk in Crystal Palace Park this morning, showing progress on the actual dinosaurs Colours! Some different than others! Monocle emoji!

colour photo, closeup of the standing Iguanodon peering over scaffolding, a darkish shade of green

colour photo, side closeup of the Megalosaurus witin scaffolding, a shade of dark brown…

colour photo, the Hylaeosaurus within scaffolding, a more vibrant shade of green

colour photo, closeup of the sprawling Iguanodon within scaffolding, the same shade of green as the other one

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Invisible Palace @invispalace.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

This Easter holiday, pick up your free Secrets of the Sculptures booklet from The Paxton Centre and enjoy a walk through Crystal Palace Park, discovering the stories behind its historic statues ✨🌿 #heritage #history

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Crystal Palace Dinos @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

We’re super-excited to be at a press event this morning unveiling the start of the Megalosaurus paint scheme To have CPFC manager Oliver Glasner in high spirits was a real treat. Former manager Alan Pardew (not invited) delighted the press with his dancing while reeling off William Buckland facts

the Megalosaurus with a pale basecoat, with some really bad pixelated scales painted in CPFC stripes. Oliver Glasner is all in black and celebrating. Pardew is in the foreground doing his FA Cup dance

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