[Dinosaur Birthday Party] ...Public fascination with dinosaurs...(continued)

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Opa Bert

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Apr 6, 2005, 9:11:42 PM4/6/05

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(Here is the 3rd in a series of blogs,
presenting Mr. Holland's article.)
(Please Note : TV listing may be outdated)

Nor has there ever been a time when they weren't roaming beyond the boundaries of scholarship. The first full-scale replicas of prehistoric monsters were built not for a museum but for the grounds of the Crystal Palace exhibition centre, where they remain to this day. Constructed of concrete, the most sophisticated building material then available, they were consciously presented as both proof and symbol of British scientific supremacy. The first dinosaurs had been discovered and categorized in England some 30 years before; however bizarre the Crystal Palace models may appear to us today, they were constructed according to the most up-to-date specifications of Richard Owen, the world's leading anatomist and the man who had first coined the word "dinosaur". Queen Victoria herself attended their opening, to admire the monsters which, in the words of their sculptor, Benjamin Hawkins, "the Almighty Creator designed to inhabit and precede us in possession of this part of the earth called Great Britain".

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You don't need to go to England to see dinosaurs. They can visit you at your home or sponsored event when you contact a "Dinosaur Guide" and fossil connoisseur.