Collectively, the Ichthyosaur models show different species: Ichthyosaurus communis and I. tenuirostris, meaning 'fish lizard', and Temnodontosaurus platydon, meaning 'cutting-tooth lizard'.

The Crystal Palace lake statues collectively show several species of extinct mammals, amphibians, therapsids, marine reptiles, pterosaurs and dinosaurs. They represent the first attempt to accurately reconstruct the three dinosaur species known to the scientific world by the 1850s within their geological environment and the sculptures and associated geological strata form a unique display of the state of palaeological understanding in the 1850s, opened five years before the publication of Darwin's 'Origin of Species'. The works are of exceptional historic interest.