More than 150 years ago, just before dino-mania struck, New York City was supposed to get a majestic dinosaur museum full of amazing models of dinos. There would have been nothing like it in the world. Until a bunch of thugs showed up with sledgehammers and smashed every bit of the models to smithereens — and buried it all in Central Park. Today we’re finding out what happened — and WHY. We speak with doctoral researcher Vicky Coules and paleontologist Carl Mehling.

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Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/ScienceVsTheGreatDinosaurSmashup

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) The amazing dino museum we didn’t get to have

(03:15) What we knew about dinos in the 1800s

(04:57) The famous Crystal Palace dinosaurs

(06:48) The plan for the Paleozoic Museum is born

(10:40) The Great Dinosaur Smashup of 1871

(12:52) Suspect No. 1: Boss Tweed

(17:58) Vicky cracks the case!

(26:17) One final mystery — where are the dino pieces??

This episode was produced by Blythe Terrell with help from Wendy Zukerman, R.E. Natowicz, Michelle Dang, Meryl Horn, Rose Rimler and Joel Werner. Editing by Wendy Zukerman. Fact checking by Erica Akiko Howard. Mix and sound design by Bobby Lord. Music written by Bobby Lord, Emma Munger, So Wylie, Bumi Hidaka and Peter Leonard. Thanks so much to everyone we spoke to about this episode, including Gowan Dawson, Robert Peck, Wendy Anthony and Jessica M. Lydon. Also thanks to Jack Weinstein, the Zukerman Family and Joseph Lavelle Wilson.

Science Vs is a Spotify Studios Original. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us and tap the bell for episode notifications.

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The Great Dinosaur Smashup