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Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works,

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Hey, brain Stuff. Lauren vogelbam Here celebrated

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paleo artist Ray Troll told us in

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an email, shared passion for an obscure

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topic is what binds scientists and artists.

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They're both curiosity driven, and

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he would know. Based in Alaska, Troll

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builds on scientific findings to create art

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that depicts prehistoric life.

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Through paleo art, fossils are revived.

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A single drawing or sculpture can define

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how the public will visualize and extinct species,

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so paleo artists strive to keep their work

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as accurate as possible, a task that

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gets harder when the experts disagree. It's

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a tough job, to be sure, but also a dream

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job for loads of fossil fans and dinosaur

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enthusiasts. But how do they go about

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creating it? First off, a

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little history. A dinosaur

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renaissance changed the game. Paleo

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art didn't always feature dinosaurs. All

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prehistoric organisms, from early palm

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trees to wooly mammoth make worthy subjects.

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Nevertheless, the fascinating reptiles were at

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the center of a significant period in the history

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of this art form, called the dinosaur renaissance.

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Prior to the nineteen sixties, dinosaurs were

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largely written off as dimwitted, tail

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dragging hulks. Most paleo art

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from the early twentieth century reflects that view,

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but in nineteen sixty nine, Yale paleontologist

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John Ostrom published a new paper on Dano

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Nikes and eleven foot that's three point three

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meter predator akin to the Jurassic Park

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imagining of velociraptor. Noting

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its long legs and sickle shaped claws,

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Ostrom claimed Dano Niicus was an athletic

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beast who ran down its prey and might have

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even hunted in packs. The scientist

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went on to popularize the now widely accepted

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idea that today's birds are descended from

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Mesozoic dinosaurs. Exciting

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hypotheses like these changed the discourse

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about how dinosaurs looked and behaved. In

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the nineteen seventies and eighties, A growing number

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of artists responded by illustrating the creatures

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and active dynamic poses. What

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followed was a renewed public interest in both the

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study of dinosaurs and in paleo art

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itself, But there

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was a problem. Bare bones and skeletons

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often don't tell you a whole lot about the overlying

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soft tissue. Hence, some

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paleo artists have chosen to reconstruct animals

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reptiles in particular, as lanky beasts

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with ultra low body fat, skinny tails,

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and heads that are largely devoid of cartilage or

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loose skin. This practice

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has been called shrink wrapping, and if

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you couldn't tell from the moniker, it's been contentious.

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Troll broke it down for us quote.

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I think there are some really valid points to be made

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about shrink wrapping. Many paleo artists

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are reluctant to jump into more speculative reconstructions,

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preferring to play it safer. So

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by keeping their animals lean and mean, paleo

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artists can highlight known skeletal anatomy

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without making conjectural guesses about an

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animal soft tissues that might not have been preserved.

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Back in the dinosaur Renaissance, shrink rapping

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was in fashion. That's no longer the case.

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Modern critics point out that living animals tend

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to look a lot different than you might expect if you had nothing

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to go on but their naked skeletons. Troll

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pointed out that things like trunks, ears, and

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blubber don't usually fossilize. We

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also spoke via email with Matt Celeski,

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paleo artist and museum exhibit designer, who

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also offered his thoughts on the issue quote,

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today's paleo artists are looking more closely

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at the extent of soft tissue in living animals.

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I think this fleshing out of paleo art makes

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for heightened levels of believability in the reconstructions

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and greater diversity in the way artists approach their

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subjects. In other words, chunky

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limbs and necks and not to mention, poufy

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dino feathers have gone mainstream,

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but figuring out what those features might have looked

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like takes some serious research. To

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scientists, the skeletal drawing is one of the most

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useful forms of paleo art. An

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animal skeleton is usually depicted in an upright

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position that is standing or running, and

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juxtaposed against a black silhouette that

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represents the creature's body profile. Unfortunately,

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in the fossil record, complete skeletons tend

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to be rare. When parts are missing or

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broken, scientists and artists

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can only speculate about why those elements looked

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like Sluski said. Every

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skeleton presents unique challenges, but

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I find the most difficult thing is filling in the

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parts you don't know, extrapolating the shapes

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of missing bones, or correcting the shapes of bones

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that have been damaged or distorted by time. Filling

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in each missing piece involves a complex mix

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of research, inference and educated guesses,

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and I always wonder if they are better choices than the ones

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I end up making. But

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these efforts aren't new. Let me

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take you back to eighteen fifty three, when sculpture

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Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins was hired to build

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more than thirty full sized concrete

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models of prehistoric animals for Crystal

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Palace Park in London, England. The

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man really did his homework, consulting experts,

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scrutinizing fossils, and reviewing the scientific

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literature. In short, he was a dedicated

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paleo artist. One of

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hawkins guandon molds had a carnivorous

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gut big enough to hold a table and some chairs,

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so as a publicity stund for his project, twenty

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one guests, including paleontologists William

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Buckland and Sir Richard Owen, were invited

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to climb down into the belly of the beast. An

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eight course dinner party, The Big Shindig,

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took place on New Year's Eve in eighteen fifty three.

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Restoration projects have helped these master works

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survived to the present day. The beasts attract

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thousands of visitors every year, even though

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they're no longer deemed accurate. Hawkins

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Megalosaurus, for example, stands menacingly

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on all fours, but scientists now think the

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meat eating dinosaur was by pedal. Nevertheless,

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the Victorian era giants capture the prevailing

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wisdom of their time, giving them immense cultural

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value. Prehistory matters, but

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so does our history.

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Today's episode was written by Mark Mancini and produced

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by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production

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of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more

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on this and lots of other well preserved topics, visit

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our home planet how Stuff Works dot com,

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