Science related Art Week
History of Paleontology Art
Since the beginning of times, the way we see dinosaurs has been in constant evolution, with the discovery of new fossils and their study. Let's take a look at the history of this illlustration.
Dark Ages
Fossils of gigantic animals have been discovered far before the 19th century, and in general used as proof of the existence of dragons and other mythical creatures.
The Giant Reptiles
The first remains of dinosaurs to be identified by science as remains of extinct animals have been classified as some kind of lizard. The Iguanodon and the Megalosaur have been described as giant lizards. Since the complete skeleton was unknown, the first reconstitutions in the 19th century gave them a shape similar to our present-day reptiles, just far larger in size.
The discovery of complete skeletons of Iguanodon in 1880 has shown that this vision of dinosaur was wrong.
The Kangaroo Era
At the end of the 19th century, the shape of dinosaurs was far more accurate. Many complete skeletons have been discovered, and large families of species have been identified. Seen as cold blood giant lizard with a very small brain, the animals are depicted as slow and stupid.
The most common position for theropods is with the tail on the ground like a resting kangaroo. A common vision was also the sauropod in a lake. Now we know that these animals were terrestrial. These visions are giving the sense of large lethargic animals barely able to sustain their own weight.
That era starts with the great depression and continues up to the late 70's.
Even if dinosaurs were not very famous, some artists made great work with their restoration.
Zdeněk Burian
Charles R. Knight
The Dinosaur Renaissance
The discovery of small and agile dinosaurs similar to birds changed the vision of dinosaurs. The old kangaroo position is now seen as unrealistic. A new vision of the dinosaur, and interest for this subject, grew within the public.
Gregory S. Paul
Gregory has been one of the first artists to represent dinosaurs as active warm-blooded animals.
gspauldino.com/index.html
Feathers !
Dinosaurs have been known to have feathers since the 19th century, but fossils have shown that more and more dinosaurs had feathers. From large ones to small filaments. This discovery allows artists to create much more variety in the aspect of dinosaurs. The first picture showing a dinosaur with feathers was made by Sarah Landry in 1975, but did not become common until the 90's.
Many great artists are now working in the area of paleo-art, so here is one example :
Julius csotonyi
csotonyi.com/
With Accurate Colours...
Some recent studies of feather fossils with electronic microscopes have allowed the study of feather colours. Scientists have been able to create for the first time the picture of a dinosaur with real colours.
Paleo-art Feature
Among all the articles of this Project Educate week, this feature is probably the most difficult to make. So many great dinosaur related art is on DeviantART.
