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Serhii Lykhosherstov

Serhii Lykhosherstov is a self-taught Yevpatoriia sculptor and a trained paleontologist, the author of the famous park monumental composition "The Battle of the Brontosaurus with the Celatosaurs" (Borotba brontozavra z tselatozavramy) (1932) in the town of Saky, depicted on the city's coat of arms.

Overview

Born in Sevastopol, he studied at the natural sciences faculty of Kharkiv University, specializing in paleontology. Since 1920 he lived in Yevpatoriia and worked as a teacher. Despite his scientific specialization, life circumstances forced him to devote himself to pedagogy and fine arts.

In the early 1930s, Lykhosherstov created a unique dinosaur composition in the Saky city park using a material he developed himself. He is also the author of a bas-relief on the monument to Lieutenant Schmidt in Sevastopol and a monument to liberated labor in Saky.

Key Details / Subtopics

  • Biography and Education: Born in Sevastopol, he received a higher education in paleontology at Kharkiv University. Since 1920 he lived in Yevpatoriia, where he taught.
  • Sculptural composition "The Battle of the Brontosaurus with the Celatosaurs" (Borotba brontozavra z tselatozavramy): Installed in the Saky park in 1932 — two years before the first official paleontological dinosaur find in Crimea (1934). The composition depicts a life-size brontosaurus and four four-meter celatosaurs. According to legend, the impulse for creating the sculpture was a lecture following the discovery of bones of extinct animals on a storm-eroded shore near Mykolaivka.
  • Innovative material and the fate of the monument: To create the dinosaurs, Lykhosherstov developed his own mixture of sawdust and magnesia cement from the Saky chemical plant. The sculpture "Brontyk" sustained minor damage during World War II, and in 1982 it was restored and recreated in concrete. In 2005, the silhouette of the dinosaur was placed on the official coat of arms of Saky.
  • Other monumental works: Author of a bas-relief on the monument to Lieutenant Schmidt in Sevastopol (preserved to this day) and a monument to liberated labor in Saky (a hammer-wielder shattering chains on a globe).