Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm Lauren vogelbaumb and this is a classic episode from
Speaker 1: our podcast's archives. This one goes into the fascinating world
Speaker 1: of paleo art. Drawings of dinosaurs are necessarily cool, but
Speaker 1: the way that artists have depicted them, based on the
Speaker 1: best science available, has changed a lot over time. Here's
Speaker 1: some of that history.
Speaker 2: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vogelbomb here. Celebrated paleo artist Ray
Speaker 2: Troll told us in an email, shared passion for an
Speaker 2: obscure topic is what binds scientists and artists. They're both
Speaker 2: curiosity driven, and he would know. Based in Alaska, Troll
Speaker 2: builds on scientific findings to create art that depicts prehistoric life.
Speaker 2: Through paleo art, fossils are revived. A single drawing or
Speaker 2: sculpture can define how the public will visualize an extinct species,
Speaker 2: so paleo artists strive to keep their work as accurate
Speaker 2: as possible, a task that gets harder when the experts disagree.
Speaker 2: It's a tough job, to be sure, but also a
Speaker 2: dream job for loads of fossil fans and dinosaur enthusiasts.
Speaker 2: But how do they go about creating it. First off,
Speaker 2: a little history. A dinosaur renaissance changed the game. Paleo
Speaker 2: art didn't always feature dinosaurs. All prehistoric organisms, from early
Speaker 2: palm trees to wooly mammoths make worthy subjects. Nevertheless, the
Speaker 2: fascinating reptiles were at the center of a significant period
Speaker 2: in the history of this art form, called the dinosaur Renaissance.
Speaker 2: Prior to the nineteen sixties, dinosaurs were largely written off
Speaker 2: as dim witted, tail dragging hulks. Most paleo art from
Speaker 2: the early twentieth century reflects that view, but in nineteen
Speaker 2: sixty nine, Yale paleontologist John Ostrom published a new paper
Speaker 2: on Danonikus, an eleven foot that's three point three meter
Speaker 2: predator akin to the Jurassic Park imagining of velociraptor. Noting
Speaker 2: its long legs and sickle shaped claws, Ostrom claimed Danonikus
Speaker 2: was an athletic beast who ran down its prey and
Speaker 2: might have even hunted in packs. The scientist went on
Speaker 2: to popularize the now widely accepted idea that today's birds
Speaker 2: are descended from Mesozoic dinosaurs. Exciting hypotheses like these changed
Speaker 2: the discourse about how dinosaurs looked and behaved. In the
Speaker 2: nineteen seventies and eighties, a growing number of artists responded
Speaker 2: by illustrating the creatures in active, dynamic poses. What followed
Speaker 2: was a renewed public interest in both the study of
Speaker 2: dinosaurs and in paleo art itself. But there was a problem.
Speaker 2: Bare bones and skeletons often don't tell you a whole
Speaker 2: lot about the overlying soft tissue. Hence, some paleo artists
Speaker 2: have chosen to reconstruct animals reptiles in particular, as lanky
Speaker 2: beasts with ultra low body fat, skinny tails, and heads
Speaker 2: that are largely devoid of cartilage or loose skin. This
Speaker 2: practice has been called shrink wrapping, and if you couldn't
Speaker 2: tell from the moniker, it's been contentious. Troll broke it
Speaker 2: down for us quote. I think there are some really
Speaker 2: valid points to be made about shrink wrapping. Many paleo
Speaker 2: artists are reluctant to jump into more speculatives constructions, preferring
Speaker 2: to play it safer. So by keeping their animals lean
Speaker 2: and mean, paleo artists can highlight known skeletal anatomy without
Speaker 2: making conjectural guesses about an animal's soft tissues that might
Speaker 2: not have been preserved. Back in the dinosaur Renaissance, shrink
Speaker 2: wrapping was in fashion, that's no longer the case. Modern
Speaker 2: critics point out that living animals tend to look a
Speaker 2: lot different than you might expect if you had nothing
Speaker 2: to go on but their naked skeletons. A troll pointed
Speaker 2: out that things like trunks, ears, and blubber don't usually fossilize.
Speaker 2: We also spoke via email with Matt Celeski, a paleo
Speaker 2: artist and museum exhibit designer, who also offered his thoughts
Speaker 2: on the issue. Quote, today's paleo artists are looking more
Speaker 2: closely at the extent of soft tissue in living animals.
Speaker 2: I think this fleshing out of paleo art makes for
Speaker 2: heightened levels of believability in the reconstructions and greater diversity
Speaker 2: in the way artists approach their subjects. In other words,
Speaker 2: chunky limbs and necks and not to mention, puffy dino
Speaker 2: feathers have gone mainstream, but figuring out what those features
Speaker 2: might have looked like takes some serious research. To scientists,
Speaker 2: the skeletal drawing is one of the most useful forms
Speaker 2: of paleo art, an animal skeleton is usually depicted in
Speaker 2: an upright position that is standing or running, and juxtaposed
Speaker 2: against a black silhouette that represents the creature's body profile. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: in the fossil record, complete skeletons tend to be rare.
Speaker 2: When parts are missing or broken, scientists and artists can
Speaker 2: only speculate about what those elements looked like. Zeleski said,
Speaker 2: every skeleton presents unique challenges, but I find the most
Speaker 2: difficult thing is filling in the parts you don't know,
Speaker 2: extrapolating the shapes of missing bones, or correcting the shapes
Speaker 2: of bones that have been damaged or distorted by time.
Speaker 2: Filling in each missing piece involves a complex mix of research,
Speaker 2: inference and educated guesses, and I always wonder if they
Speaker 2: are better choices than the ones I end up making.
Speaker 2: But these efforts aren't new. Let me take you back
Speaker 2: to eighteen fifty three, when sculptor Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins was
Speaker 2: hired to build more than thirty full sized concrete models
Speaker 2: of prehistoric animals for Crystal Palace Park in London, England.
Speaker 2: The man really did his homework, consulting experts, scrutinizing fossils
Speaker 2: and reviewing the scientific literature. In short, he was a
Speaker 2: dedicated paleo artist. One of hawkins Guanadon molds had a
Speaker 2: carnivorous gut big enough to hold a table and some chairs,
Speaker 2: so as a publicity stunt for his project, twenty one guests,
Speaker 2: including paleontologists William Buckland and Sir Richard Owen, were invited
Speaker 2: to climb down into the belly of the beast for
Speaker 2: an eight course dinner party. The Big Shindig took place
Speaker 2: on New Year's Eve in eighteen fifty three. Restoration projects
Speaker 2: have helped these master works survive to the present day.
Speaker 2: The beasts attract thousands of visitors every year, even though
Speaker 2: they are no longer deemed accurate. Hawkins Megalosaurus, for example,
Speaker 2: stands menacingly on all fours, but scientists now think the
Speaker 2: meat eating dinosaur was by pedal. Nevertheless, the Victorian era
Speaker 2: giants capture the prevailing wisdom of their time, giving them
Speaker 2: immense cultural value. Prehistory matters, but so does our history.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article five you Didn't
Speaker 1: Know about paleo Art on Howstuffwork dot Com, written by
Speaker 1: Mark Mancini. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership
Speaker 1: with HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang.
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