Acrotholus: Prehistoric Animal of the Week

This week I will be reviewing a newly discovered dinosaur that was just published about this month!  Acrotholus audeti was a small, (about six feet long) plant eating dinosaur that lived in what is now Alberta, Canada 85 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous era.  Its genus name translates to "high dome" because of the shape of its skull.  It belonged to the dinosaur family called pachycephalosauridae and was an earlier relative of the larger and more well known Pachycephalosaurus.  These dinosaurs are characterized by having large heads with thick skulls that may have been used for display and/or as a ramming weapon.

Life reconstruction of Acrotholus audeti by Christopher DiPiazza

Acrotholus is only known from skull chunks from a few individuals, specifically the domed tops of their heads which are two inches thick.  Small dinosaurs tend not to fossilize as often as large ones because their bones are more fragile.  Since the skulls of these Acrotholus were so thick, however, they managed to preserve to be discovered by paleontologists millions of years later after they died.

One of the skull fragments from Acrotholus that was discovered.  This would have been the top of the animal's head.  Check out how thick it is! 

Acrotholus is amongst the oldest known pachycephalosaurids and is THE oldest known pachycephalosaurid native to North America.   Even though it is more basal than all the other pachycephalosaurids that lived after it, it's head is still well-developed and thick for its size.  This tells us that this adaptation, which is common in varying forms throughout the family, probably evolved much earlier than the time of Acrotholus. 

That's all for this week!  As always feel free to comment below or on our facebook page.  If there is a dinosaur or other prehistoric creature you want to see reviewed and illustrated let me know! 

References

Evans, D. C.; Schott, R. K.; Larson, D. W.; Brown, C. M.; Ryan, M. J. (2013). "The oldest North American pachycephalosaurid and the hidden diversity of small-bodied ornithischian dinosaurs". Nature Communications 4: 1828. doi:10.1038/ncomms2749

"Cleveland Museum of Natural History." Acrotholus Audeti. N.p., n.d. Web.

Maiasaura: Prehistoric Animal of the Week

Happy Mother's Day!  Today mothers of all kinds get recognized for all the wonderful things they do for their children.  (Honestly every day should be like mothers day but lets not say no to an official holiday either)  Did you know that we have scientific evidence of a number of dinosaurs that were probably devoted mothers as well?  Its true.  Good parenting is evident in most birds and crocodilians and even in a few species of snakes, lizards and tortoises!  It should be no surprise that certain non-avian dinosaurs shared these caring characteristics with their modern relatives.  Today we respectfully and graciously honor Maiasaura peeblesorum, the "Caring Mother Dinosaur".

Maiasaura peeblesorum mother and baby life reconstruction by Christopher DiPiazza.

Maiasaura belongs to the hadrosaur dinosaur family, also commonly referred to as the "duck-billed dinosaurs".  These dinosaurs get their casual name because they had wide, flat bills like modern ducks (they are not directly related to modern ducks, however) which they may have used for eating tough plant material.  Unlike ducks, hadrosaurs had hundreds of tiny teeth in their mouths for chewing.  Another example of a hadrosaur is Parasaurolophus.  Maiasaura lived in what is now Montana, USA, 74 million years ago during the late Cretaceous era.  Unlike a lot of other dinosaur species where we are lucky to find even a partial skeleton of, Maiasaura is known from literally hundreds of complete or nearly complete fossilized specimens, ranging from babies just out of the egg all the way up to thirty foot long adults!

Skeletal mount of Maiasaura adult and juvenile.

I chose Maiasaura to review on Mother's Day because it was the first non-avian dinosaur discovered that provided concrete evidence of parental care in an extinct dinosaur.  Back in the 1980s hundreds of fossilized Maiasaura nests with eggs along with the of bones from adults and juveniles were unearthed in an area of Montana called the Two Medicine Formation.  The reason why we know these dinosaurs were actually caring for their young and not simply dumping the eggs off like some other reptiles do is that some of the skeletons from babies were too big to be hatchlings yet still were in the nest.  Why would a baby dinosaur stick around after hatching?  Because its parents were still feeding and protecting it, that's why.  This is very similar to how most modern birds care for their young.  The actual hatchling Maiasaura that were discovered appear to have hatched with legs still too underdeveloped to walk around.  This is an example of an altricial animal which means that it requires care from its parents in order to survive upon being born.  This is also observable in many kinds of modern birds.

Maiasaura hatchling reconstruction by Jack Horner.  The eggs were about the same size as Ostrich eggs.

The nests of these Maiasaura each had a radius of about twenty feet of space around them, forming an almost geometric network pattern on the ground of hundreds of nests.  This is also something that can be observed in nesting colonies of some modern species of bird.  Unlike birds, however, Maiasaura wouldn't have been able to sit on its eggs to incubate them.  Instead it would have gathered vegetation to use as a blanket.  As the vegetation rots, it gives off heat to keep the eggs warm.  This kind of nesting behavior is seen in modern crocodilians.

Nesting colony of modern Gannets.  Note how they are all evenly spaced from each other and that the baby (in the center nest) hasn't left.  Like Maiasaura, it is incapable of survival for a period of time after hatching without its parents.

Thanks to this discovery, we know that at least certain kinds of dinosaurs did care for their young.  Since then parenting behavior has also been discovered in a few other kinds of dinosaur including a few theropods.  It is likely many other kinds of dinosaur were also good parents though. 

That's all for this week!  As always feel free to comment below or on our facebook page if you would like to see any particular dinosaur or other prehistoric creature reviewed.  Happy Mother's Day!  

References

 Dodson, Peter & Britt, Brooks & Carpenter, Kenneth & Forster, Catherine A. & Gillette, David D. & Norell, Mark A. & Olshevsky, George & Parrish, J. Michael & Weishampel, David B. The Age of Dinosaurs. Publications International, LTD. p. 116-117. ISBN 0-7853-0443-6.

 Horner, Jack and Gorman, James. (1988). Digging Dinosaurs: The Search that Unraveled the Mystery of Baby Dinosaurs, Workman Publishing Co.

Interview with Paleontologist: Steve Brusatte

Gary and I have been working hard to get really good interviews from paleo-artists and scientists as of late.  Last week we heard from the brilliant artist, James Gurney.  This week Gary and I had the pleasure of hearing from a great paleontologist who even worked with our blog's unofficial mascot, Dryptosaurus, Steve Brusatte! 

Steve Brusatte is a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He is American and recently moved to Scotland to begin his new job. Steve has a BS in geophysical sciences from the University of Chicago, two MSc degrees from the University of Bristol, and a PhD from Columbia University in New York. Steve studies vertebrate anatomy and evolution broadly, but is specifically interested in theropod dinosaurs, the rise of dinosaurs during the Triassic, the extinction of dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous, and the rise of mammals after the dinosaur extinction. He has written 60 scientific papers and four books (including the technical book Dinosaur Paleobiology and the coffee table book Dinosaurs), and has named several new species of dinosaurs and other fossil vertebrates. He has done fieldwork in the US, China, United Kingdom, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Lithuania. His work is frequently profiled in the popular press and he is the "resident paleontologist" for the BBC's Walking With Dinosaurs program (www.walkingwithdinosaurs.com).

 
 Question 1: Who did you admire growing up?

SB: Like many kids, I admired my parents more than anybody. I was also a big sports fanatic and was especially obsessed with baseball, basketball, and football. So I admired a lot of athletes. And for some reason I was fascinated by US politics and read a lot of books about the presidents, so I had a strange infatuation with Bill Clinton! I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I didn't really admire any scientists, or know much about science at all. It wasn't even on my radar. 

Question 2: At what age did you get inspired to pursue a career in paleontology?

SB: I wasn't one of those five-year-olds who knows the names and pronunciations of every dinosaur. I meet a lot of kids like that when I go into schools and talk about paleontology, and I always tell them that they are way ahead of where I was at their age! I didn't care much for science as a kid. I found it one of the more boring subjects at school, something to plod through. It didn't come very naturally. I was much more interested in history and social studies and English. But I became obsessed with paleontology very quickly when I was 14 years old, during my first year of high school. My youngest brother Chris was going through the "dinosaur phase" at the time. He had a room full of dinosaur books, toys, and posters. It was like the Jurassic Park franchise was sponsoring his bedroom! He asked me for help with a science fair project he was doing, so I started to read some of his books, and within days I was hooked. Sometimes people say dinosaurs are a "gateway drug" into science for kids. For me, dinosaurs definitely had a drug-like effect! 

Question 3: What was your favorite dinosaur growing up?  What dinosaur is your favorite now?

SB: I never really had a favorite growing up. And it's hard to answer that question today. I've been privileged to work on a lot of neat dinosaurs, to examine specimens in museums and find new dinosaurs in the field. So I feel a bit like some parents probably do when somebody asks them to pick their favorite child. I just can't do it, and it wouldn't be fair to all of the other dinosaurs I've worked on. But I will say that the theropods are my favorite group. 

Question 4: Paleontology is such a diverse field these days involving many disciplines.  What advice would you give to an aspiring paleontologist today?

SB: Anybody who is seriously interested in pursuing paleontology as a career should be sure to study a diverse range of subjects in school. Paleontology is truly a multidisciplinary science. Many of the techniques we use are borrowed from other fields, like chemistry, engineering, and physics. So students should be sure to take as many science courses as they can, and math as well. Statistics are particularly important--it's hard to be a paleontologist without at least a basic understanding of statistics and how to handle large datasets. And don't forget about English and writing. All successful scientists have to communicate their findings to other scientists, and to the public. Being able to write in an understandable, coherent, and inspirational way is really key. You don't have to be a poet laureate, but you will need to do a fair bit of writing.  

Question 5: Going to college these days and then on to grad school has become a daunting task. Many people are unaware of how long it takes to make it to the finish line.  The rewards are great, but what would you say to someone pursuing professional studies after college?

SB: Being a paleontologist is a lot of fun. I can't imagine a better career. But it's a long slog to get here, and I've had a much shorter and more fortunate career journey than many of my colleagues. So I feel a bit guilty even talking about this. For me, I spent four years in college, two years doing my Masters', and then four and a half years doing my PhD. So the whole process took me about a decade. College is expensive, of course, but once you get into graduate school you are usually getting your tuition paid for, and you're getting a stipend. So it's basically like a real job, albeit a low-paid one! The real trouble is making that jump into a permanent academic job. There just aren't that many professorships these days. Science funding is getting cut left and right. So the job situation is not good. Anybody wanting to pursue a career in paleontology needs to know this. They need to understand this. Paleontology is really fun, and it is a great hobby for some people, but making a career out of it is a different matter. So if you want to do it you need to be very committed. It isn't always easy. As a grad student, you see your friends getting real jobs and earning real money, while you're dragging away in the lab all day for peanuts. You may need to move to a god-forsaken corner of the world to do graduate work (or take an academic job). It can be hard on your family if you have one, or put plans for starting a family on hold. But if you love it, then go for it! 

Question 6: What was or is your favorite research project?  What are some of your current projects?

SB: I've had the great privilege of working on a lot of neat projects with a lot of wonderful colleagues. My favorite part of the job are the travel we often get to do, and the friendships that are fostered through scientific collaborations. Many of my best friends are fellow scientists. I've been able to work on some really interesting projects concerning the origin of dinosaurs (was the rise of dinosaurs rapid or slow? why were dinosaurs able to become so successful?), the anatomy and phylogeny of carnivorous theropods, and the extinction of the dinosaurs. It's hard to pick a favorite. Right now I'm working on a lot of different threads. My PhD thesis, which I finished last November, is on the phylogeny of coelurosaurian theropods and patterns of morphological evolution during the dinosaur-bird transition. I'm working some of that into publication now. I've just started my new job at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, so I'm building up my research lab right now, applying for grants to try to get on my feet and to bring new students and postdocs into my lab. I'm doing fieldwork in New Mexico and Romania this month, and just returned from a fieldtrip in Scotland, looking for Jurassic dinosaurs. I'm doing projects now on theropods, Paleocene mammals that lived right after the dinosaur extinction, marine crocodiles from the Jurassic and Cretaceous, archosaur evolution during the Triassic, and various other things. I like to work on a lot of different projects at once. I like learning new things, new methods.

Question 7: Jurassic Park and Land Before Time (opposite ends of the spectrum I know) were the movies I remember as a kid that fueled my passion for dinosaurs.  What was your most memorable movie, book or TV program that inspired you with regards to paleontology?

SB: Jurassic Park and Walking With Dinosaurs were both very inspirational. I remember watching a lot of television documentaries when I was in high school, and I remember being awed by scenes of scientists out in the desert, doing fieldwork. But what I really remember is reading books on dinosaurs and fossils--a lot of books! During high school I must have read hundreds of books on paleontology. I was especially inspired by Jack Horner's books, Bob Bakker's Dinosaur Heresies, and the books of Stephen Jay Gould and Peter Ward. 

Question 8: I remember meeting my first professional paleontologist.  Do you remember the first paleontologist you ever met?  Were you a nervous wreck? 

SB: I think I probably met paleontologists for the first time at the 1999 Burpee Museum PaleoFest in Rockford, Illinois. The Burpee Museum has been hosting these wonderful events for well over a decade now. They give the public a chance to meet paleontologists, hear lectures, and see real fossils. I grew up about 90 miles from Rockford so I would drag my family to PaleoFest every year. I remember meeting various paleontologists at that first PaleoFest, and then sometime around that time I also met Paul Sereno for the first time. This was a huge moment in my life, in hindsight. Paul is a professor at the University of Chicago. Growing up near Chicago, I would see him on the news and in the newspapers constantly. I was in awe when I met him. And I remember him being so nice--he took the time to talk to me and my family, and answered all of my nerdy teenage questions. And he kept in touch over email, which was incredible. I remember feeling so privileged--that this famous scientist was talking to me. A few years later, after graduating high school, I went to the University of Chicago for college and was Paul's student. He introduced me to studying fossils, to dinosaur anatomy, to digging up dinosaurs in the field. I owe a lot to Paul. 

Question 9: Dinosaurs and the animals that lived at the same time as them were amazing creatures.  Why do you feel they continue to fascinate us?

SB: This is the million-dollar-question. I suppose the important thing is that they do fascinate us, for whatever reason. They are such a perfect way to reach children and the public, introduce them to science, articulate that the world is a very old place, and pique their curiosity about the natural world. But why are dinosaurs so fascinating? I suppose it's because they're old and weird-looking, and many of them are big. There is nothing alive today that looks remotely like Tyrannosaurus or Brachiosaurus. These are monsters from ages past, but they are real! They really lived! They are distant enough not to be threatening, but real enough to invoke awe in anybody who looks at them. I think dinosaurs are much more incredible than any mythical creatures ever invented in human myth or fantasy. 

Dryptosaurus aquilunguis claw and jaw casts from Gary Vecchiarelli's personal collection.

Question 10: You took part in writing a scientific paper about Dryptosaurus.  Tell us about that! 

SB: That's right! And that's one reason why I'm so happy and honored to be featured on this blog! Dryptosaurus is a very special dinosaur to me, just as I know it is to Chris and Gary here on the blog. Dryptosaurus was found a long time ago, just a year after the Civil War ended. It was one of the first dinosaurs known from a decently complete skeleton, from anywhere in the world. It was studied by Cope and Marsh and displayed in Philadelphia, to much public acclaim. But then for a long time it was largely forgotten about. It just wasn't clear what kind of theropod Dryptosaurus was. More recently it's become clear that it is a tyrannosaur--a close relative of T. rex and Albertosaurus, but a bit more primitive. I was working on tyrannosaurs as a PhD student so I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the Dryptosaurus skeleton and reassess its anatomy and its genealogical position. So I joined up with my friend and colleague Roger Benson, a specialist on theropods, and my PhD advisor, Mark Norell, and we took another look at the specimen, photographed it, measured it, compared it to other tyrannosaurs, and put this together into a new scientific paper giving the latest information on this very old dinosaur specimen. 

Dryptosaurus life restoration by Christopher DiPiazza

Question 11: You wrote a new book.  Can you tell us a little about it?   

SB: Yes, about a year ago I published a book called Dinosaur Paleobiology. It was published by Wiley-Blackwell, the academic publishers. So it is a somewhat technical book, more for professionals and graduate students than the general public. But it is meant to be accessible to younger students and members of the public with a background knowledge in dinosaurs and anatomy. The purpose of the book is to describe what we currently know about dinosaur biology and evolution, and what methods we use to derive this information. We have learned so much about dinosaurs over the past decade. We probably learned more in the last decade than in all of the previous decades of dinosaur research combined. Scientists are finding a new species of dinosaur once per week on average. The field is moving at a very fast pace, and this book aims to summarize what it is that we actually know about dinosaurs. Of course, by now, it is already quite outdated! Hopefully I'll have the chance to revise it in a few years. I also have a new kids' book coming out in November: the Walking With Dinosaurs Encyclopedia. There will be a new WWD 3D film hitting theaters around Christmas this year, and I have been involved in a lot of things surrounding the film, including this book and the Walking With Dinosaurs website. I consult on the website and answer weekly questions from readers. So if you have any questions about dinosaurs, head on over to the website (walkingwithdinosaurs.com) and send them in!

  

Question 12: What is your favorite time period?

SB: I am a big fan of the Triassic Period, from about 252-201 million years ago. This was the time when dinosaurs got their start. It's also the time period immediately after the devastating end-Permian extinction, the biggest mass extinction in earth history, when up to 95% of species may have gone extinct. So the Triassic was a time of recovery and rebirth. Not only did the dinosaurs originate and begin to proliferate during this time, but the oldest turtles, mammals, pterosaurs, and lizards are also found in the Triassic. So the roots of our modern world can really be found in the Triassic.

Thank you Steve!  

Coahuliceratops: Prehistoric Animal of the Week

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone!  Before you go out to the local bar for some tequila shots why not brush up on your knowledge about a dinosaur that once called Mexico home?  Then when you do go out partying you can impress all the other folks with your dinosaur knowledge and score dates and free drinks (at least that's MY plan and I'm sticking to it!).  Check out Coahuliceratops magnacuerna! 

Life reconstruction of Coahuliceratops magnacuerna by Christopher DiPiazza.

Coahuliceratops magnacuerna gets its genus name from from the state of Mexico, named Coahuila, where it was first discovered in 2003.  The species name, "magnacuerna", means "big horned face" and for a good reason!   Coahuliceratops had two HUGE horns over its eyes, largest of any dinosaur known!  Even though the remains of this dinosaur are fragmentary, it can be estimated that each one of its brow horns was between three and four feet long!  Coahuliceratops' entire body was about twenty two feet long, however, and was still overall smaller than some of its horned relatives like Triceratops.  It was alive during the Late Cretaceous Period, 72 million years ago.

Known skull fragments from Coahuliceratops.

  Coahuliceratops belongs to a family of plant-eating dinosaurs called ceratopsidae along with many other dinosaurs like Chasmosaurus and Triceratops.  Like all ceratopsid dinosaurs, the exact evolutionary reason for the horns and frill of Coahuliceratops is not known for certain.  It is likely, however, that they were used for display and communication within the species and/or for defense against potential predators.

North America 72 million years ago.  Coahuliceratops would have lived at the southern tip of the Western continent, Laramidia. 

At the time that Coahuliceratops was alive, Mexico was a very different place from what it is today.  Instead of a dry desert, it was a lush swampland moistened by a series of freshwater rivers and the warm ocean to the south, east and west (what we call Central America was still under the ocean back then and the Western and Eastern parts of what we now call North America were separated by a shallow sea).  It is only recently that dinosaurs from this place and time have started to be unearthed by paleontologists.  I can't wait to find out what other interesting fossils lie in store for us from there!

As always if you have a prehistoric creature in mind you would like to see reviewed please leave a comment below or on our facebook page!  Happy Cinco de Mayo!

References

Loewen, M.A., Sampson, S.D., Lund, E.K., Farke, A.A., Aguillón-Martínez, M.C., de Leon, C.A., Rodríguez-de la Rosa, R.A., Getty, M.A., Eberth, D.A., 2010, "Horned Dinosaurs (Ornithischia: Ceratopsidae) from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Cerro del Pueblo Formation, Coahuila, Mexico", In: Michael J. Ryan, Brenda J. Chinnery-Allgeier, and David A. Eberth (eds), New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs: The Royal Tyrrell Museum Ceratopsian Symposium, Indiana University Press, 656 pp.

"First Horned Dinosaur from Mexico: Plant-Eater Had Largest Horns of Any Dinosaur." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 May 2010. Web.

Interview with Artist: James Gurney

Today is a real treat!  I had the great pleasure of doing an interview with one of my all time heroes in the field of not just paleo-art but art in general since I was a tiny kid, James Gourney! 

James Gurney is the author and illustrator of the New York Times bestselling Dinotopia book series. He designed the World of Dinosaurs stamps for the U.S. Postal Service and has worked on over a dozen assignments for National Geographic magazine, painting reconstructions of Moche, Kushite, and Etruscan civilizations. He has won the Hugo, Chesley, Spectrum, and World Fantasy Awards. Solo exhibitions of his artwork have been presented at the Smithsonian Institution, the Norman Rockwell Museum, and the Norton Museum of Art. He has recently been named a “Grand Master” by Spectrum Fantastic Arts and a “Living Master” by the Art Renewal Center. His most recent book, Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter (2010) has been Amazon’s #1 bestselling book on painting for over 100 weeks and is based on his daily blog gurneyjourney.blogspot.com.

Question 1: At what age did you become interested in dinosaurs?  Were they always a subject of your art?

JG: When I was about eight years old my parents took me to a science museum where I was a life-size skeleton of an Allosaurus. I was bowled over to see such a fantastic and scary-looking creature and to be told it was real. But dinosaurs were just one of my interests as a kid. I also was keenly interested in sailboats and ships. When I wasn’t actually sailing, I built working scale models that I sent on voyages across a duck pond in Palo Alto, California where I grew up. Since I was the son of a mechanical engineer, most of my drawings were in the form of plans for working models of boats, airplanes, and kites that I built from scratch.

Giganotosaurus illustrated by James Gurney for National Geographic.

Question 2: What medium do you most prefer to use for your art?  Any particular reason why?

JG: I work mostly in pencil, watercolor, and oil. All the Dinotopia pictures are painted in oil, except for the lettering and the maps, which are done all by hand with a dip pen. Oil is my favorite because it’s the most versatile and forgiving. I often use oil in transparent washes over a line drawing that has been sealed with acrylic matte medium. I like working traditionally not only because I prefer the results that I get that way but also because I like having a physical result that I can exhibit in a museum or eventually sell to a collector. 
My method is based on the nineteenth century academic approach: thumbnail sketches in black and white and color, studies or photos from costumed models, plein air sketches, and lots of reference photos filed away in a set of filing cabinets. I explain this process in detail in my book Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn’t Exist. 

Question 3: Is there any particular artist who inspired you growing up?  How about today?

JG: I was bitten by the dinosaur art bug as a kid, thanks to the Zdenek Burian illustrations in the Time/Life book on evolution.Those pictures looked as real as photos to me, in fact I thought they were photos somehow, and it really made me want to learn how to make paintings look real. I also fell in love with Golden Age illustration at an early age, as a result of reading the old adventure classics by Robert Louis Stevenson and Jules Verne, especially Treasure Island and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. I would look forward to each of the glorious illustrations by N.C. Wyeth. I was also completely floored by seeing original paintings by Norman Rockwell and lithos by M.C. Escher as a 12 year old.
It’s hard to pick one artist who inspires me now. Should I choose from the world of landscape painting, figure work, natural history illustration, caricature, animation, comics, or concept art? There are so many great artists that spring to mind. Most of the time I’m looking at artists from a hundred years ago or so. If you read my blog GurneyJourney, you can get a pretty good idea of the artists I admire, both living and not living.

Patagonian Dinosaurs illustration by James Gurney from National Geographic.

 Question 4: When did you decide to pursue a career in illustration?  

JG: I always wanted to be an artist, and started freelancing as an illustrator in high school, but I took time first to go to college to sample from all the other subjects that interested me: paleontology, astronomy, history, and geology. At UC Berkeley I majored in archaeology, a subject I that always fascinated me. I then went to school for a couple of semesters at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, where I learned some very helpful material about perspective. But I got hired out of art school to work as a background painter in the animated film Fire and Ice with Frank Frazetta and Ralph Bakshi. Most of what I have learned about art has come from sketching from life and from studying art instruction books that were 50 or 100 years old.

Tyrannosaurus by James Gurney.

Question 5: Have you ever received any negative feedback on any of your work?  How do you respond to that?

JG: I have received all sorts of feedback and I try to learn from it all. Obviously some of it is more informed or constructive than others, but I’m interested in everyone’s view, and people are experts in different things. I once was working on a picture of the inside of an attic and showed the preliminary sketches to my contractor, who pointed out how I got the window framing wrong. Luckily I caught that one before I went to the final painting.

One of the many beautiful worlds created by James Gurney for Dinotopia.

 Question 6: Art and illustration is such a diverse field.  It has also changed dramatically within the past decade or so.  What advice would you have to give an aspiring artist today?

JG: Yes, it has changed, especially now in the way content is distributed and monetized. Fortunately in the long run those changes are going to be in the creator’s favor. For advice, I would suggest to forget about style and concentrate on the fundamentals of perspective, anatomy, light and color theory, and all that. There’s always a demand for people who can paint realistic images of imaginary scenes. The field of illustration is competitive but not cutthroat. Nearly everyone I’ve met in the paleoart field, both among scientists and artists, has been congenial and welcoming to new talent. Of course there is always a surplus of young (and older) artists who want to be working in the field, but there is always room for a new voice. I believe that desire and hard work are worth more than talent. Genius, as Thomas Carlyle once said, is the infinite capacity for taking pains.

Question 7: In addition to your dinosaur illustrations, you are also well versed in many other subjects when it comes to painting such as portraits of people and modern landscapes for example. What do you use for reference when painting extinct dinosaurs since there is nothing alive today like them? 

JG: My specialty is painting realistic scenes that can’t be photographed, either for paleoart, historical illustration, or fantasy/science fiction. Regarding dinosaur illustrations, every artist has to do a lot of analogous or lateral thinking. So I sketch live hatchlings in a robin’s nest to get ideas for what dinosaur hatchlings might look and act like. And I paint from observation in swamps and conifer forests to get a sense of how a paleo environment might look and sound and smell like.  In my sketching life, I draw EVERYTHING. In one week of a recent sketchbook I’ve drawn a goat, a jet airliner, a Renaissance doublet, a lady’s braids, and a salt shaker in a diner. I also paint everything: portraits, landscapes, and animals. One of my greatest heroes as a draftsman is Adolf Menzel, who also drew everything around him. I recently wrote a book about him that will be coming out from Dover this fall.

Question 8: Blending the themes of scientifically accurate dinosaurs with human civilization in a fantasy setting is something you have seemed to have mastered through your work with the Dinotopia franchise.  Was this difficult to achieve visually at first? If so how did you ultimately get it to flow so well?

JG: Thanks. I worked for many years as an illustrator for National Geographic. I was exposed to those magazines when I was a kid. I would tiptoe out in the hall at night to read about great explorers like Hiram Bingham discovering Machu Picchu. My ambition in third grade was to find a dinosaur or a lost city. I started excavations in my backyard and had my friends helping me until their mothers told them they couldn’t come over anymore because they always came home with their pockets full of dirt.
 One of my first assignments when I became a professional illustrator came from National Geographic. they sent me on assignment to reconstruct the world Etruscans, so I got to poke around some recently discovered tombs in Tarquinia and use some of my archaeological training. They also sent me to Rome, Athens, and Jerusalem, and I worked with a lot of archaeologists and paleontologists. I spent time with Rick Bronson, an archaeologist who was just like Indiana Jones. He led me through overgrown jungles to find little known Etruscan ruins, and we descended down ladders into newly-discovered tombs. Sitting around the campfire at night, Dr. Bronson and I would talk about dreams of discovering a lost city like Machu Picchu or Troy. I realized that I could always make a painting of such a lost city, and that led to Dinosaur Parade and Waterfall City. After that, I drew a map of an unknown island and came up with the idea of a Victorian explorer who discovers this island and reports about it in his journal. Those initial steps into fantasy were with the same kinds of images I was doing for Nat Geo, so it came naturally.
For the full story of the making of Dinotopia, please check out my 13 minute video on YouTube: "Dinotopia: Art, Science, and Imagination."  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrZ9GA-hiPI

Question 9: The Dinotopia series has many unique and creative concepts in it with regards to humans and dinosaurs working together in a civilized setting.  What normally fuels your ideas for these concepts?  Did you draw inspiration from real civilizations and cultures?

JG: When I’m brainstorming new ideas, I dive into piles of books and images, I go to zoos, I sketch in museums, I gather costumes, I sculpt maquettes, and I read a lot. Basically everything and anything feeds into Dinotopia.

Question 10: What did you think about how your ideas translated into a TV series back in the early 2000s?  Did they do your renderings of dinosaurs justice?  Was there anything you would have changed?

JG: I wasn’t involved with the production, but I think they did a good job in many respects. The rights rolled over from Columbia pictures, which was developing it for a movie, to Hallmark Entertainment, which created the TV version. I did get a chance to visit the set on a day of the filming.
Considering everything, they did a pretty good job. The show won an Emmy for special effects. Framestore (Walking with Dinosaurs) did a very good job with the CGI. At first I was surprised that the producers departed so much from the books by setting it in the modern day. But in a way I’m kind of glad they did, because now I don’t have to think about the faces of any particular actors when I imagine my main characters.
There has been a lot of interest recently in film versions of Dinotopia’s origin story, the period covered in the book Dinotopia: First Flight, which has a lot of drama and conflict and moral choices that would render well into the film medium. But the story and the execution has to be just right.

Jack Horner and James Gurney discussing Maiasaura.

Question 11: You also do a lot of scientific paleo-illustration.  What kind of research do you do in order to make sure your subjects are as accurate as possible?  Do you work closely with any paleontologists?

JG: Yes, I’ve been grateful to work with people like Jack Horner, Scott Sampson, and Paul Sereno on illustrations for articles in Scientific American, Discover, The US Postal Service, and National Wildlife Federation. When I painted the World of Dinosaurs stamps for the postal service, I had the help of several paleonotologists. And I just recently completed a set of dinosaur stamps for a foreign government (can’t say which yet) and had the privilege of traveling to work with the paleontologist in that country.
Michael Brett-Surman of the Smithsonian was a great help with Dinotopia since the very beginning. I was honored when he curated a one-man show of Dinotopia at the Smithsonian back in 2002, and after that we had a museum show of original art called “Dinotopia: Art, Science, and Imagination” at the Norman Rockwell Museum and at several natural history museums. If there are any natural history museums interested in hosting a future exhibit, please contact me.

Question 12: Jurassic Park and Land Before Time (opposite ends of the spectrum I know) were the movies I remember as a kid that fueled my passion for dinosaurs. What was your most memorable movie?

JG: I always loved Fantasia, not just for the dinosaurs but also for several of the other segments. Jurassic Park came out right after Dinotopia, and was sort of the polar opposite view of dinosaurs--more as scary monsters rather than possible allies. It was very well executed, and I had a chance to visit the set and see the animatronic T. rexes with the sculptor Mike Trcic during principle photography.

Question 13: Dinosaurs and the animals that lived at the same time as them were amazing creatures. Why do you feel dinosaurs continue to fascinate us?

JG: Prehistoric animals live at that magical intersection between fact and fantasy. We can only know so much from the fossils and footprints, and after that we have to leap off the cliff of imagination. And new forms are constantly being discovered. Who needs to dream up fantasy creatures when you have Therizinosaurus and Microraptor? The recent material coming out of the Liaoning province in China has really inspired me, and Journey to Chandara includes many of the new small feathered theropods. For research I sketched a lot of birds, not just for ideas on how to draw feathers, but also to understand the display and preening behaviors that avian dinosaurs have developed. I have a pet parakeet who sits on a perch beside me when I’m painting, and he’s become kind of a key advisor on such matters.

Question 14: What is your favorite time period?

JG: If you mean geological time period, I’d love to go back to anytime in the Mesozoic. I could be safely
disguised as a bush or something, I’d want to see what happens alongside a watering hole in a dry region in the Jurassic. I’ve always wondered how sauropods drink water, and I’d love to see them wade and splash around and maybe catch a crocodile sneak attack. I’d also love to be in Liaoning, China during the courtship season just to see how the feathered dinosaurs looked in full display. I’d give one eyeball away if the other one could see the coloration and the movements of those creatures.

Question 15: Do you have any other hobbies or interests besides art?
 JG: I don’t have too many non-art hobbies lately, but when I get some free time I have enjoyed building and flying radio controlled gliders, making rustic furniture, splitting firewood, constructing stone walls, and kayaking. 

I ride a unicycle, own a parakeet and make videos. Check out “unicycle painter” and “parakeet artist” on YouTube.