MODERN DINOSAUR VISIONS: NEITHER NEW TECHNOLOGY NOR NEW FOSSILS CHANGE THE BASIC FACTORS INFLUENCING DINOSAUR ART

Humans have made visual representations of what we think living non-avian dinosaurs looked like since before the term and concept of “dinosaur” were invented in 1842. Over the next 175 years, images of dinosaurs have varied widely, from mammal-like “elephantine lizards”, to ponderous dim-witted reptiles, to high-energy intelligent endotherms.

The current era of dinosaur paleobiology began in the late 1960s, and emphasized conceptions of dinosaurs as more active and diverse in their metabolism, ecology, and behavior than had previously been the case. Over the past 25 years in particular, two events – the rise of computer-generated images in popular films (beginning with the first Jurassic Park in 1993), and the discovery of spectacularly preserved fossils from the Early Cretaceous of China (Liaoning/Jehol biota), which have revolutionized our understanding of the evolution of feathers among many other aspects of dinosaur biology – have contributed to enormous acceleration of this shift in paleobiological thinking and also artistic representations of dinosaurs and their close relatives. Yet despite these spectacular innovations in visualization technology and spectacular fossils, dinosaur paleoart is still fundamentally shaped by the same basic set of influences that affected previous, now-discarded, images. These include 1) changes in ideas of how evolution works and which modern forms are the best bases for uniformitarian comparison with extinct taxa; 2) the discovery and unpredictable qualities of new fossils; 3) the enabling effects of new artistic techniques; and 4) the ever-present pressures of the marketplace, whether these be in public “educational” attractions, popular entertainment, or publishing, with its unavoidable ubiquity of both copying and imperfect replication. Modern dinosaur paleontologists -- and the artists that work with or from them -- reasonably believe that current conceptions and images are closer to “what dinosaurs really looked like” than their predecessors, but they should remain cognizant of the long history of their joint enterprise and the persistence of the factors, scientific and otherwise, that have guided it.