WEBVTT - How Do Paleoartists Create Dinosaur Drawings? 0:00:02.000 --> 0:00:07.040 Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff. 0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:11.319 Lauren vogelbam Here celebrated paleo artist Ray Troll told us 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:14.400 in an email, shared passion for an obscure topic is 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:18.840 what binds scientists and artists. They're both curiosity driven, and 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:22.480 he would know. Based in Alaska, Troll builds on scientific 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:27.480 findings to create art that depicts prehistoric life. Through paleo art, 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:31.280 fossils are revived. A single drawing or sculpture can define 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:34.760 how the public will visualize and extinct species, so paleo 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:37.320 artists strive to keep their work as accurate as possible, 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:40.640 a task that gets harder when the experts disagree. It's 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:42.840 a tough job, to be sure, but also a dream 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:46.400 job for loads of fossil fans and dinosaur enthusiasts. But 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:49.400 how do they go about creating it? First off, a 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:54.639 little history. A dinosaur renaissance changed the game. Paleo art 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:58.960 didn't always feature dinosaurs. All prehistoric organisms, from early palm 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:03.200 trees to wooly mammoth make worthy subjects. Nevertheless, the fascinating 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:05.520 reptiles were at the center of a significant period in 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:08.640 the history of this art form, called the dinosaur renaissance. 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:12.280 Prior to the nineteen sixties, dinosaurs were largely written off 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:15.880 as dimwitted, tail dragging hulks. Most paleo art from the 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:20.119 early twentieth century reflects that view, but in nineteen sixty nine, 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:23.640 Yale paleontologist John Ostrom published a new paper on Dano 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:26.480 Nikes and eleven foot that's three point three meter predator 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:30.680 akin to the Jurassic Park imagining of velociraptor. Noting its 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:33.960 long legs and sickle shaped claws, Ostrom claimed Dano Niicus 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:36.480 was an athletic beast who ran down its prey and 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:39.319 might have even hunted in packs. The scientist went on 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:42.640 to popularize the now widely accepted idea that today's birds 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:47.600 are descended from Mesozoic dinosaurs. Exciting hypotheses like these changed 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:50.640 the discourse about how dinosaurs looked and behaved. In the 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:53.840 nineteen seventies and eighties, A growing number of artists responded 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:57.960 by illustrating the creatures and active dynamic poses. What followed 0:01:58.000 --> 0:01:59.920 was a renewed public interest in both the study of 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:04.720 dinosaurs and in paleo art itself, But there was a problem. 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:07.400 Bare bones and skeletons often don't tell you a whole 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:11.400 lot about the overlying soft tissue. Hence, some paleo artists 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:14.960 have chosen to reconstruct animals reptiles in particular, as lanky 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:18.120 beasts with ultra low body fat, skinny tails, and heads 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:21.520 that are largely devoid of cartilage or loose skin. This 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:24.520 practice has been called shrink wrapping, and if you couldn't 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:27.920 tell from the moniker, it's been contentious. Troll broke it 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:30.560 down for us quote. I think there are some really 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:33.519 valid points to be made about shrink wrapping. Many paleo 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:37.280 artists are reluctant to jump into more speculative reconstructions, preferring 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.960 to play it safer. So by keeping their animals lean 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:44.880 and mean, paleo artists can highlight known skeletal anatomy without 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:48.119 making conjectural guesses about an animal soft tissues that might 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:51.680 not have been preserved. Back in the dinosaur Renaissance, shrink 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:55.120 rapping was in fashion. That's no longer the case. Modern 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:57.200 critics point out that living animals tend to look a 0:02:57.240 --> 0:02:59.120 lot different than you might expect if you had nothing 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:01.919 to go on but their naked skeletons. Troll pointed out 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:05.240 that things like trunks, ears, and blubber don't usually fossilize. 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:10.040 We also spoke via email with Matt Celeski, paleo artist 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:12.800 and museum exhibit designer, who also offered his thoughts on 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:16.600 the issue quote, today's paleo artists are looking more closely 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:19.320 at the extent of soft tissue in living animals. I 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:21.800 think this fleshing out of paleo art makes for heightened 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:25.120 levels of believability in the reconstructions and greater diversity in 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:28.720 the way artists approach their subjects. In other words, chunky 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:31.480 limbs and necks and not to mention, poufy dino feathers 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:35.680 have gone mainstream, but figuring out what those features might 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:38.960 have looked like takes some serious research. To scientists, the 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:41.280 skeletal drawing is one of the most useful forms of 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:44.320 paleo art. An animal skeleton is usually depicted in an 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:47.880 upright position that is standing or running, and juxtaposed against 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:52.360 a black silhouette that represents the creature's body profile. Unfortunately, 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:55.000 in the fossil record, complete skeletons tend to be rare. 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:58.840 When parts are missing or broken, scientists and artists can 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:02.600 only speculate about why those elements looked like Sluski said. 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:06.000 Every skeleton presents unique challenges, but I find the most 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:08.120 difficult thing is filling in the parts you don't know, 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:11.560 extrapolating the shapes of missing bones, or correcting the shapes 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:13.720 of bones that have been damaged or distorted by time. 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:17.680 Filling in each missing piece involves a complex mix of research, 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:20.760 inference and educated guesses, and I always wonder if they 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:22.679 are better choices than the ones I end up making. 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:26.960 But these efforts aren't new. Let me take you back 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:30.359 to eighteen fifty three, when sculpture Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins was 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:33.479 hired to build more than thirty full sized concrete models 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:36.799 of prehistoric animals for Crystal Palace Park in London, England. 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:40.800 The man really did his homework, consulting experts, scrutinizing fossils, 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:43.680 and reviewing the scientific literature. In short, he was a 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:47.880 dedicated paleo artist. One of hawkins guandon molds had a 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:51.200 carnivorous gut big enough to hold a table and some chairs, 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:54.239 so as a publicity stund for his project, twenty one guests, 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:58.000 including paleontologists William Buckland and Sir Richard Owen, were invited 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:00.160 to climb down into the belly of the beast. An 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:02.760 eight course dinner party, The Big Shindig, took place on 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:06.680 New Year's Eve in eighteen fifty three. Restoration projects have 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:09.359 helped these master works survived to the present day. The 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:12.479 beasts attract thousands of visitors every year, even though they're 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:17.160 no longer deemed accurate. Hawkins Megalosaurus, for example, stands menacingly 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:19.720 on all fours, but scientists now think the meat eating 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:24.480 dinosaur was by pedal. Nevertheless, the Victorian era giants capture 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:27.800 the prevailing wisdom of their time, giving them immense cultural value. 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:36.360 Prehistory matters, but so does our history. Today's episode was 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:39.320 written by Mark Mancini and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:41.520 Stuff is a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:43.880 For more on this and lots of other well preserved topics, 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.560 visit our home planet how Stuff Works dot com, and 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:49.000 for more podcasts. For my heart Radio, visit the iHeart 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:51.560 Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:52.240 favorite shows.