Part I: Dinosaurs Galore
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Plate 1. This is the first thing you see as you approach the Dinosaur Islands from the ruins of the main building via the modern-day sports centre. From left to right, you can see a Mosasaur (since only the head had been discovered at the time, Hawkins cleverly submerged the rest of the animal in water), a nest of pterodactyls, and a famously ill-reconstructed Iguanadon. I'd first thought that this was the one in which a publicity-stunt dinner was famously staged in 1853, but apparently it was the mould used to make it that was the dining room. |
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Plate 2. Continuing on with the island on your left, we come to another, equally ill-reconstructed Iguanadon (that horn on its nose was later found to be a thumb) and a Hylaeosaurus looking the other way. The head of the latter is actually a fibreglass replica of the original (which is currently in front of the tourist information office), but one can't really tell from this angle. |
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Plate 3. A Megalosaur in medium closeup. Behind it you can see some Teleosaurs, which are a non-dinosaur prehistoric reptile which looks a bit like a crocodile in need of a nose-job. |
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Plate
4. An assortment of aquatic dinosaurs--two
Plesiosaurs, a few Labyrinthodons and a really
nice-looking Icthyosaurus--along with some of their more
recent descendants. These dinosaurs are somewhat more the
worse for wear than the land-based ones, which is a pity,
because they're more interesting and lively-looking, if
no more accurate. |