Palaeoart is a somewhat strange discipline. It combines both art and science, creativity and academic rigour. Put simply, Palaeoart is the depiction of extinct animals, in the form of drawing, painting and sculpture, and is informed by the best available scientific evidence. That available evidence is, of course, always changing and improving, meaning that our depictions of these animals can never be definitive. Indeed the field of palaeontology sometimes moves so quickly that a piece of palaeoart can be outdated before the paint has even dried!
With a very few exceptions, our understanding of extinct species is fragmentary. Complete skeletons are rare, and evidence of soft tissue, skin and feathers is even rarer. For all that we know about these animals, there will always be a whole lot more that we do not, and probably cannot ever know. Given that degree of uncertainty, how does a palaeoartist like me approach a new reconstruction? In the first instance, it always begins with the bones. Just a few years ago this would have meant gaining access to a museum’s fossil collection. Today, however, there is a wealth of data available online, including detailed photographs and descriptions of the bones and, increasingly, 3D scans. These enable the artist to study their subject from any angle, and in greater detail than ever before. The bones can tell us a lot about the life-appearance and behaviour of an animal – for example the forward-facing eye sockets, sharp teeth and pronounced muscle-attachment points that are identifying characteristics of a powerful predator. But there is also much that they can’t tell us. In most instances the fossil gives no indication of colour, skin texture, or whether the animal had a coat of feathers, for example. By looking at other closely-related ancestors and descendants, we can begin to develop some informed ideas of how the animal may have looked (a technique called phylogenetic bracketing). Similarly, we can look at modern day animals that inhabit similar environments and ecological niches and take some cues from their appearance and behaviour.