The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs with Mark Witton

Plymouth, summer of 1841. Richard Owen stepped before the British Association for the Advancement of Science and coined a word that would reshape our understanding of the deep past: Dinosauria. This episode follows that word from Owen’s meeting hall to South London, where sculptor Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins turned fragmentary bones into life-size stone giants.
I am joined by palaeoartist and author Mark Witton for a conversation about the history of the site and then Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs trustee Andrew Brady, and Jurassic Outpost’s Caleb Burnett and I go for a walk through the world’s oldest surviving prehistoric animal park.
For the extended interview with Mark Witton, you can hear it by subscribing to the Plus version of the podcast in Apple Podcasts or clicking the ‘support the show’ link below.

Guests

Mark Witton
Palaeoartist, palaeontologist and author
Markwitton.co.uk

@mark_witton

Andrew Brady
Trustee of the Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, the charity formed in 2013 to conserve and celebrate the geological court at Crystal Palace Park. Follow the ongoing restoration and find out how to support the project.

Cpdinosaurs.org

@CPDinosaurs

Facebook

Links
Report of the 11th Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Plymouth 1841

https://archive.org/details/reportofeleventh42lond

The Art and Science of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs by Eleanor Michel and Mark Witton
All author proceeds go to the Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs.

https://cpdinosaurs.org/projects/the-art-and-science-crystal-palace-dinosaurs

The Dragon of St Paul’s by Reginald Bacchus and Cyril Ranger Gull
The 1899 story referenced in the episode, in which a prehistoric creature thaws from a block of ice and runs amok across London. It can be found in Richard Fallon’a brilliant prehistoric story collection here:
https://amzn.eu/d/0ceDiAs4 (this is an affiliate link so might earn commission when using)

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Presented and produced by Roland Squire

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🎵 Theme music: Caleb Burnett (@calebcomposed)

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