Paleoart that makes fossils come alive

Not only do they give arms and legs to prehistoric findings, paleoartists help research to reach larger audiences

Close your eyes and imagine a dinosaur. Did you think of a tall, sinewy, sharp-fanged creature? How did this image pop up in your head considering that dinosaurs lived millions of years before the first modern humans appeared? Of course, there’s Jurassic Park, but the actual credit goes to the discipline of paleoart, or paleo illustration, which helps create the most realistic depictions of long-extinct animals. In the early 19th century, artists mingled science with fantasy to recreate dinosaurs for popular imagination, usually showing them in apocalyptic forests with an erupting volcano in the background.