Palaeoart: A Blast From The Past

I thought it would be interesting to look at the older palaeoart, to see how much our interpretation of the fossils has changed. I've chosen two famous dinosaurs and how they were reconstructed early on in Palaeontology's infancy.

Early reconstruction of Diplodocus. Art by Heinrich Harder.

First up is this early painting of Diplodocus by Heinrich Harder. At the time of this reconstruction, it was believed that dinosaurs were more like lizards, this included having sprawling legs like a lizard. Although it did not take too long for palaeontologists to realise that a sprawling stance could not be supported, not least because the animals abdomen would drag along the ground. Another glaring misinterpretation here is the position the neck and tail are being held in. We know now that sauropods used their tails to balance their long necks. This would require the tail and neck being along the same plane, i.e. neck outstretched in front with the tail raised level. The neck vertebrae of Diplodocus could not create such sharp angles as they differ from those of sauropods such as Brachiosaurus that allowed a more upright neck.

Early reconstruction of Iguanodon by Samuel Griswold Goodrich
c. 1859

Next we have Iguanodon one of the first dinosaurs to be officially described. Statues of these dinosaurs can be found in Crystal Palace Park in London. They are considered a monument to the advancements in Palaeontology that allow for more accurate reconstructions. In the drawing we see a reptilian monster with a bear like posture. The dinosaur is also shown with a horn on the end of it's nose, we know that this was in fact a thumb spike used in defense. The animal also has a more bird like posture, being both a quadruped and biped. Looking at the evolution of the dinosaurs in the present day through our reconstructions, we have gone from drawings of great lumbering lizards to more agile and more advanced animals, and in some cases feathered theropods that are shown to be incredibly bird like, this would have been unprecedented in the early stages of the science.