Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs?

Europe's best song ever accompanied by an awkward Tyrannosaurus Rex equals greatness.

In 1841, Sir Richard Owen coined the term dinosaur. Well, what is a dinosaur? In Greek, deinos means “fearfully great” and sauros means “lizard;” so together this term created a fast growing intrigue. In the 17^th century, people all around the world were being bombarded by advertisements about the gargantuan pre-historic creatures that once roamed our planet. In the middle of the 17^th century, the “dinomania” was becoming old news. To nix this little problem, the Crystal Palace in London displayed an exhibit portraying replicas of dinosaurs. At this time, audiences did not exactly favor the exhibit due to lack of accuracy. On the other hand, regardless of whether people liked the exhibit or not, curiosity had set in and it was simply something everyone had to see for themselves.

Richard Waterhouse Hawkins, the artist of the thirty-three dinosaurs in the Crystal Palace’s 1851 exhibit, was a great artist, but he is not the artist that set the standard of how the 21^st century envisions dinosaurs. The man I feel needs the credit is Charles R. Knight. Hawkins was challenged whenever he was presented with a scarce amount of fossilized evidence, so he let his artistic skill lead him in the process of improvising. These creatures were out of proportion and they were…”off.” In comparison, Knight also took an imaginative route when composing his work, but his work was much more realistic and believable.  Knight never illustrated with the assistance of a photograph, because there obviously is no photographic evidence of dinosaurs. As humans, we rely on the instinct that “seeing is believing,” but Knight thought differently and went by the saying, “believing is seeing.” This drive is what made Knight famous.

In the past, our society was religiously driven and many people demanded concrete evidence in order to believe any scientific antics. In the present, I feel society has come to grips with the idea that uncertainty will always exist. This is another reason why I believe children are drawn to the idea of dinosaurs. Enormous dinosaurs, mystical sea creatures, and the mysteries of outer space satisfy the minds of children because even adults cannot fully explain these concepts. Specifically speaking of dinosaurs, children can use their imaginations and never have the fear of being criticized for it. Although society has become more open minded to various topics of discussion, dinosaurs present too much uncertainty for adults to even care about their existence. We care about the here and now rather than trying to constantly dig up the past.

So after childhood, does “dinomania” disappear? I wouldn’t say it disappears, I think society presses us to believe that vampires, aliens, and zombies are more important than dinosaurs in the more recent day and age. I can say I never had a dinosaur stage other than the time I spent with Barney and Godzilla; I was more intrigued by cowboys and Indians. Although I never went through the stage, I do think that even now my curiosity cannot even fathom the monstrosities that Knight illustrated to the world. So toast to Charles R. Knight and his restorations of the monstrosities, and toast to the Crystal Palace for attempting to awaken the dead curiosity of us boring minded adults. This is history, and it shall always be remembered.