Support NeoGAF

[MisterGrey3000]

The fossil beds in China and Mongolia where these incredibly well preserved fossils are coming from basically just hit the sweet spot for fossil formation. Very low energy sediment deposit into cold anoxic water. We have been pulling some incredible fossil finds from East Asia over the past several decades.

We are getting better and better at creating bio-mechanically accurate portrayals of dinosaurs. Basically we can use evolutionary programming to produce efficient gates and then build the muscles of a size necessary to create those gates at the obvious attachment points (and based on their evolutionary place in the spectrum of life). From there we can use some of our best preserved fossils to recreate certain integument features, and in some remarkable specimens even see the structures of some soft tissues like organs. Even with all of this we are getting dead things, and if you have ever stumbled on a partially decomposed carcass, it is often quite different from the living animal. The scientist in me would always rather show only what we do know and let the artists embellish. But the art lover in me sees so much potential in the creative works of well informed artists willing to make bold embellishments.

That's a really great way to put it happypup.
I love the section from all yesterdays that talks about how a future intelligence might reconstruct modern day mammals and birds, but I imagine that their reconstructions might look a little more accurate than what was proposed in All Yesterdays; I think their reconstruction of a mandrill baboon would look quite alien to us, but I don't think it would look that monstrous if they have similar techniques to modern paleontologist or their are still synapsids (or archosaurs, in the case of birds) of some sort running around future earth (Go bat decedents, go!!)

Also, I never thought about early archosaurs (specifically Dinosauriformes) sporting whiskers/feelers that might have eventually developed in feathers; that's a very interesting hypothesis.

 

[See You Next Wednesday]

Missed this--very cool!



A gaffer already posted, but somewhat related: John Conway (whose art was posted in this thread) has a book series called "All Yesterdays" which explores and promotes unconventional portrayals of dinosaurs.



The idea is to speculate on dinosaur behavior outside of the "herbivores eat plants and predators hunt herbivores" mindset that has been ingrained.

Even better is that he and some others held a contest where they took fan submissions of unconventional paleo art, and then packaged it into a PDF called "All Your Yesterdays" for which you can name your own price. While the books discuss unconventional behavior, relationships, and appearance, there is a specific idea of "shrink-wrapping" that is prevalent in modern portrayals:



That quote is accompanied by this image from All Your Yesterdays:



And here are some images from All Yesterdays:

Spiky triceratops:


Chunky parasaurolophus


Camarasaurus in mud bath:


Tree-climbing protoceratops (based on goat behavior):


Sleepy peaceful Rex:


Allosaurus and camptosaurus not killing each other (again, based on behavior of carnivore-herbivore relationships today):


Fluffy leaellynasaura, compared to the traditional portrayal:


Patterned majungasaur, compared to traditional portrayal:


As a bonus, there is a section of All Yesterdays called "All Todays"that posits how we might portray contemporary animals if we were only going by bone structure. After all, here is a sperm whale vs its own skeleton:


So a baboon skeleton "shrink-wrapped" might look like this:


A "shrink-wrapped" swan might look like this terrifying thing:


Cats, as misinterpreted by a future species:


Some other non-traditional portrayals:

Tupandactylus

Sauropods


Sorry, I know this is a long post, but it is fascinating and frustrating that we will probably never know what dinosaurs/prehistoric creatures actually looked like.

That's what cats look like without their fur.

 

[Ziffles]

Missed this--very cool!


Cats, as misinterpreted by a future species:

I always liked Prehistoric TV Reconstruction Kitty:

 

[MisterGrey3000]

^^^
Lol

Hopefully we'll get lucky and our Cephalopod successors will base what we look like off of some fur covered primate-like synapsid that exists in their time.

They might end up making humanity look something like this:

Which would be pretty accurate for the most part.

 

[Log4Girlz]

 

[Amalthea]

I really wonder if you can buy that Triceratops somewhere.

 

[MisterGrey3000]

*fluffy colorful ceratopsian pic*

How about this:

I want to see MORE fluffy ceratopsian reconstructions!

 

[KillGore]

#TeamFeather reporting in.

It's time for GAF to accept the truth and ignore all these facts because of Jurassic Park (and old text books).

This is the whole pluto situation, all over again.

 

[sub_o]

Explains this bird:

He's very angry because his investments in futures just went bust.

 

[linkboy]

He's very angry because his investments in futures just went bust.

Either that or he's pissed off that his ancestor's used to be higher up in the food chain, got wiped out and were replaced by the things they used to eat, who now eat them.

He wants revenge.