More than a pile of bones (Part 2)

ALTHOUGH arriving almost two weeks late due to a personal situation, here we are, returning to the story of how the new discoveries and theories have molded the view of our long-admired dinosaurs. Last week we talked about the first dinosaur artists who based on the science of their time, depicted them more or less accurately than how we view these animals now. Taking back Charles Knight and his *Leaping Laelaps*, we have to mention that some of those reconstructions presaged what came after, a completely revolutionary view in dinosaur science... and art.

Late in the 20th century, towards the 1960s, palaeontologist John Ostrom undertook an expedition to Montana. During this expedition remains of a small carnivorous animal were unearthed, very similar to some fragments that Barnum Brown (known for discovering the first remains of Tyrannosaurus rex) had informally named years ago. Ostrom and his assistant, G. E. Meyer, noted that this animal had certain characteristics that suggested a different idea from that of dinosaurs, among them, a huge sickle claw that, as he suggested, required the animal to be fast and agile. In July 1969, Ostrom published an extensive analysis of the remains found in Montana, where he gave the dinosaur an official name: Deinonychus antirrhopus.

Deinonychus fully changed the perception of dinosaurs everyone was used to in the scientific, cultural, and, of course, artistic realm. This animal´s structure showed enormous indications of an active and intelligent way of life, something completely unlike the common notions of dinosaurs at that time. These primordial characteristics were one of the triggers for what would later become known as the "Dinosaur Renaissance." Many experts realized that dinosaurs had been viewed from the wrong point of view.

So in 1986, one of the most influential figures of the Renaissance went one step further. Robert T. Bakker would publish The Dinosaur Heresies, the starting point for much of the current understanding about dinosaur biology, including the perennial debate about "warm-blooded" dinosaurs. The book featured illustrations made by Bakker himself, which showed the dinosaurs from a different perspective, much more in line with their anatomy. One of the most prominent examples was the correction in the position of the tail, Deinonychus showed that, instead of dragging it, the tail was used as a counterweight to the rest of the body, and therefore adjusted the position of the animals in life. This new image of dinosaurs sowed even the popular vision of these, which has remained to this day.

The last decades of the 20th century ushered in a new era for these creatures and the view that the public and science had of them. During the following years, a new chapter began to reveal itself from the remains in the rocks, especially the findings in China, which in turn would be closely related to one of the most important principles that renaissance palaeontologists had proposed: the feathered dinosaurs.

For a long time, some scientists had proposed an anatomical relationship between the first birds and theropod dinosaurs, one of these scientists being the British palaeontologist Thomas Henry Huxley, as well as John Ostrom himself. However, a fossil discovered by a farmer in Liaoning's Yixian Formation would confirm that many dinosaurs shared one of the most distinctive characteristics of birds. The specimen was christened Sinosauropteryx prima and would become the first dinosaur fossil with direct evidence of feathers. But little Sinosauropteryx would be far from the end.

25 years after the discovery of Sinosauropteryx, many other fossil remains have been found around the world, expanding the general picture of dinosaurs much more, and allowing us to have a more accurate view of how these animals could look in life. Traces of filamentous structures (such as feathers, down, among other integuments) are now known from many other groups, apart from just small theropods. Nothing would ever be the same for palaeoart since then, but this doesn't have to be bad.

What a story, isn´t it? From scaly elephants and gigantic kangaroos to fast, dynamic, and even feathered animals. The passage of dinosaurs through art and the way in which they have been imagined over time is a rather rugged story indeed. However, after more than a century of research, the remains found around the world have contributed dozens of specimens to science, allowing palaeontologists to get much closer than a century ago to the amazing prehistoric worlds of our world, and of the magnificent creatures that inhabited them.

Likewise, new graphic techniques have allowed artists of the new century to represent dinosaurs in a more simple but detailed way, not only as huge and ferocious creatures but as real animals. Today's palaeoartists even go beyond fossils and, although through much speculation, imagine dinosaurs with a large amount of soft tissue like many birds, with somewhat strange habits like some mammals, and even with very similar colorations. living creatures today.

Classic techniques will never go out of style, at least for me, and remembering the fathers of palaeoart will help us to appreciate much more the advancement that has taken place in palaeontology, as well as the enormous scientific and artistic work that an image represents. Something tells me that after this story, they will have a lot more to think about every time they look at an illustration of dinosaurs. In my opinion, we are living in one of the best episodes in their history, dinosaurs have been reborn, not only in science, but also in art, and, if we want to have a broader idea of them as they were, maybe not It takes more than observing the lions of Africa, the moose of Canada, the tigers of Asia, and even, perhaps we should just peek into our own backyard.