Pre Historic Gallery

Uffington White Horse, Oxfordshire, UK

The Uffington White Horse is a highly stylised prehistoric hill figure, 110 m long, formed from deep trenches filled with crushed white chalk. The figure has been shown to date back some 3, 000 years, to the Bronze Age, by means of optically stimulated luminescence dating carried out following archaeological investigations in 1994. These studies produced three dates ranging between 1400 and 600 BC. Iron Age coins that bear a representation comparable to the Uffington White Horse have been found, supporting the early dating of this artifact; counter suggestions that the figure was fashioned in the Anglo-Saxon period now seem untenable. Numerous other prominent prehistoric sites are located nearby, notably Wayland's Smithy long barrow. The Uffington is by far the oldest of the white horse figures in Britain, and is of an entirely different design from the others

© DAVID PARKER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs mating

Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs mating. Artwork of male (right) and female (left) Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs mating. Some theories say that this dinosaur had feathers and fur, as seen here. When fully grown, this bipedal dinosaur was one of the largest ever terrestrial predators, measuring over 12 metres in length from head to tail. It is thought to have combined hunting and scavenging to feed itself. Its fossils are found in North America, and date to 67 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period

© JOSE ANTONIO PE'AS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

1855 Punch Dinosaurs Crystal Palace

1855 Cartoon from Punch's Almanac of that year, ascribed to John Leech. "A visit to the antediluvian reptiles at Sydenham - master Tom strongly objects to having his mind improved". Clockwise from top; Iguanodon (with bird on its wrongly ascribed horn), Megalosaurus, Hylaeosaurus, prehistoric gharial (teleosaurus), ichthyosaur. The actual exhibits were designed to fit the victorian ideal of educating the masses. They were the work of artist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (based on the research of Owen, Mantell, Buckland, Conybeare and others). The Crystal Palace Antediluvians were the first life-size reconstructions of dinosaurs, and this cartoon indicates that many saw them as nightmarish monsters of a former age. Children would love dinosaurs ever after

© This image is Paul D. Stewart 2009. Do not reproduce without permission of the photographer at Stewartpauld@aol.com.