The Megatherium, meaning 'Giant beast', commonly known as the giant ground sloth, lived in South America as recently as 9,000 years ago. It stood up to six metres tall, living on a diet of plants.

The sculpture can be viewed from the back from a nearby path, through foliage, or can be viewed in full from a distance across the water.

Hawkins' tree-grasping, upright Megatherium was progressive for the time, as its pose pre-dates theories of it being capable of such actions. Prior to this, it had been mostly depicted as a flat-footed, trunked quadruped.

https://cpdinosaurs.org/visit/statue-details/megatherium

Look across to the other island to see a Mosasaurus lying half in the water, with its head raised and mouth slightly open. Mosasaurus means 'Meuse lizard', as the fossils were first discovered around the European river. A top predator, it grew up to 17 metres.

A Mosasaurus features in the film Jurassic World (2015), leaping out of the water to eat a great white shark (though it likely did not grow quite as large as the film portrays: probably only up to 17 metres).

Hawkins' original sculpture was deliberately left incomplete, as it comprised only a head, neck, part of the back and a flipper. This may be because he didn't have enough information, or he ran out of building material/funds.

https://cpdinosaurs.org/visit/statue-details/mosasaurus

Hawkin's Anoplotherium are shown with four toes and camel-like faces, but today it is known that they had three toes and looked more like deer. In the nineteenth century, it was thought that Anoplotherium, with their large tails, were swimming mammals, but their long tails were used for balancing, stretching up to graze.

Anoplotherium used to live in Britain and mainland Europe around 36–33.7 million years ago.

https://cpdinosaurs.org/visit/statue-details/anoplotherium

The Palaeotherium sculptures are believed to be fairly accurate depictions – the first fossil skeletons of the animals were found nearly complete (in France), so their anatomy has been reasonably well known.

One of the models was fitted with a replacement in the late twentieth century, but unfortunately it's again headless. As recently as the 1950s, a larger third model once joined the group but there is no record as to its whereabouts.

https://cpdinosaurs.org/visit/statue-details/palaeotherium

Crossing over to the next island, the Pterosaur sculptures are situated within foliage and might be hard to see.

Originally, two main species of Pterodactylus (meaning 'winged finger') were sculpted for Crystal Palace, though at the time, not a lot was known about the species, and the species have since been renamed. Pterodactyl is actually a specific type of pterosaur in the group Pterosauria ('winged lizard). It is thought the models were based on complete skeletons, found in Germany, of the species Pterodactylus antiquus.

Pterosaur wingspans could stretch from the size of a sparrow to a fighter jet. They are close relatives of (but aren't) dinosaurs.

https://cpdinosaurs.org/visit/statue-details/pterosaur

Probably the most iconic and well-recognised dinosaurs are situated on the third lake island, including the group of Iguanodon (meaning 'iguana tooth').

The species that the statues were based on has since been renamed Mantellodon (meaning 'Mantell's tooth') after the scientist Gideon Mantel: his wife Mary Ann is generally credited with first discovering iguanodon remains.

After the Crystal Palace statues were constructed, it was learned from new finds that the bones that had been placed as horns on their noses should have been placed on the hand – they are thumb spikes, probably used for defence against predators.

https://cpdinosaurs.org/visit/statue-details/iguanodon

A large sculpture depicting the dinosaur Hylaeosaurus armatus (meaning 'forest lizard'). Hylaeosaurus was the first armoured (ankylosaurian) dinosaur known to science, living 139.8–132.9 million years ago.

The Hylaeosaurus can only be seen from the back as access to the island is restricted. The head is a fibreglass replica; the original sits on the ground, on a hill overlooking the Lower Lake. It is thought the sculpture was positioned to show off the dinosaur's armoured back.

https://cpdinosaurs.org/visit/statue-details/hylaeosaurus

At over six metres long – mid-sized for a theropod dinosaur, but large for a Middle Jurassic species – the Megalosaurus was a carnivorous dinosaur with wrinkled skin and sharp teeth. Though the model is shown with the mouth open, the teeth would have been visible when its mouth was shut (like crocodiles). It is now usually thought of as bipedal (stood on two legs) rather than a quadruped (stood on four legs).

https://cpdinosaurs.org/visit/statue-details/megalosaurus

A group of Teleosaurus, meaning 'perfect lizard'. The marine reptiles would have been fast, powerful swimmers.

Although the animals look a lot like the crocodiles we know today, they are in fact not in the same evolutionary lineage. This is an example of 'convergent evolution', where species that aren't closely related independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments.

https://cpdinosaurs.org/visit/statue-details/teleosaurus

Plesiosaurs were quite powerful predators, which hunted other sea creatures. Several different species of Plesiosaur are depicted. Despite being shown on land, it is not thought that the animals ever left the water (since they gave birth to live young). Their flippers likely had limited movement.

A complete Plesiosaurus skeleton was first discovered by the fossil hunter Mary Anning on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset. Experts thought it was a fake, having such a strange-looking long neck.

https://cpdinosaurs.org/visit/statue-details/plesiosaur

Scientists now know that these Ichthyosaurs, marine reptiles, were likely warm-blooded, giving birth to live young. They did have bony eye rings but these would not have been exposed, like the eyes of the Crystal Palace models.

The Crystal Palace statues were based on some of the earliest fossils of marine reptiles ever discovered, again found by Mary Anning on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset.

https://cpdinosaurs.org/visit/statue-details/ichthyosaur

Belonging to the group Synapsida, Dicynodon are described as 'mammal-like reptiles' – their two tusks similar to a walrus in appearance. Dicynodon was represented by many different species that ranged from rat- to elephant-sized, but their average length was just over two metres. Though the Crystal Palace sculptures hint at a turtle-like shell, it is not certainly known if they had shells.

https://cpdinosaurs.org/visit/statue-details/dicynodon

Although the sculptures in the park are still informally referred to as Labyrinthodon, the species is now recognised scientifically as Mastodonsaurus ('breast tooth lizard'), thought to be primitive amphibians. Though shown as frog-like, scientists now think the creatures were more like salamanders. Mastondonsaurus probably also had a well-developed tail, not depicted in the frog-like Crystal Palace models.

The Park's 'great green and gold Labyrinthodon' model features in H. G. Well's novel Kipps, starting with an 'inflexibly calm' gaze.

https://cpdinosaurs.org/visit/statue-details/labyrinthodon

Walking up a slope away from the lakes sits a lone head of a Hylaeosaurus on the ground. The head is the original made by Hawkin's for the Hylaeosaur model which stands by the lake (its current head is a replica).

More information about all the dinosaurs, plus artistic renderings of the animals by Mark Witton which factor in the latest scientific knowledge can be found at http://cpdinosaurs.org