Dinosaur Reconstruction Over the Years | Reilly Claflin

DINOSAUR RECONSTRUCTION O V E R

T H E

Y E A R S*

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d e t a r t s n o m e as d y old toys with goof R E I L L Y

C L A F L I N

FORWARd...

FORWARD...

Ever since mankind can remember, the large bones he found in the ground have fascinated him. It wasn’t until 1841 that the word “Dinosauria,” or “terrible lizard,” came about, which in itself really sums up of what we thought of these animals at the time; giant counterparts of today’s animals.

The first time a dinosaur bone was ever found and recorded was in 1676 where Robert Plot, a muesuem curator, described and drew the broken thigh bone that he believed once belonged to a large elephant, or perhaps even a Biblical giant. He called the discovery “Scrotum humanum”. Hardy har har. Over a hundred years later in 1822, Mary Ann Mantell and her husband, Gideon, discovered giant teeth and thought they were the remains of a huge and extinct iguana.

Once again, we were comparing extinct animals to ones we knew, usually grouping the two together as basically the same. Because of this, when it came to reconstructing dinosaurs in those early times, we often just copied animals that we saw in our modern world and added an “aggressive” flair. Iguanodon? Let’s just make it a giant iguana! T. rex? More like lizard with sharp teeth that we’ll stand up on its back legs! This

sort of thinking was very common in earlier stages of reconstruction, and a lot of those old images of dinosaurs have been burned into our memories and are still around today.

Using old toys, many (but not all) made in the era they represent, we will look at how drastically dinosaur design as evolved over the years and talk about what still needs improvement because there is always room for that, and most likely there always will be. Until we can bring a dinosaur back from the dead we will never know for sure everything about their appearance or how they lived.

I want to express here and now that nowhere on the following pages to I mean to “make fun” of the paleontologists, paleoartists, or creators of the figurines. Their discoveries were ground breaking, and without looking at the work that came before us, we wouldn’t be where we are today. Nothing but mad respect for all of those guys.

With that said, it doesn’t hurt to laugh a little at these reconstructions, because in time, the future will be doing the same as they look back at the work we’ve done, and I think that’s pretty darn funny in itself.

_ Reilly Claflin

iguan Iguan

The first dinosaur to ever be discovered was Megalosaurus. As much as I’d love to talk about that OG, he is a theropod, a suborder which we will discuss later on. For this reason, I’m going to cover the changes the second dinosaur ever known to mankind went through — Iguanodon. Besides, when compared to the changes she’s gone through during the last 200 years, she’s 65 million times more interesting.

nodon

where to even begin with this guy... tail shoul not drag d

t u o d e n r u t n r o nose h a thumb spike to be

a t s u j y l l a c i s d r ba a z i l t n gia

IGUANODON iguanodon 1800s

Being one of the first dinosaurs ever to be discovered back in 1834, Iguanodon’s reconstruction has evolved drastically over time, more than any other dinosaur.

Today when a new extinct species is discovered, paleontologists can branch gaps and look for missing pieces in other species of known dinosaurs and make educated guesses when there are missing pieces or unclear aspects.

However, when you’re the second dinosaur to ever be found, there’s just very little to go on.

Nobody had ever even heard of such a thing as a

dinosaur, so paleontologists had to piece together old reconstructions using modern day animals and in Iguanodon’s specific case, iguanas. In fact, Iguanodon’s thumb spur was mistaken for a rhinolike horn placed on top its snout.

The first dino reconstructions are quite laughable in today’s day and age, as they appear to be simply giant bulky lizards.

tail still dragging n o k l a w t ’ didn s 24/7 g e l o tw

iguanodon IGUANODON LATE

1800s - 1970s

As more complete skeletons were discovered later in the 19th century, we began to get a better idea of how Iguanodon looked, though this dinoasur still had much evolving that lay ahead yet it in the design world.

First and foremost, the thumb spike was recognized for what it was and removed from the snout of the animal.

The basic body was fairly correct by today’s standards, but for whatever reason, as many reconstructionists did to dinoaurs back in the early days of paleontology, Iguanodon was imagined in this impossible, tripod position, much like a kangaroo.

To be fair, they noticed most of its preserved footprints were only of its back legs, leading many to believe that Iguanodon didn’t use its front feet. No longer was it seen as a quadruped, rhino-like creature but an animal that stood upright on two legs. We know now that at times it probably reared up to reach leaves and the like, but didn’t lumber around 24/7 in this fashion.

This mainly bipedal Iguanodon persisted for over one hundred years and sometimes is still confused with the actual modern reconstruction today.

she’s beautiful!

iguanodon IGUANODON

1980s - 2000s

Although it most likely was able to rise up onto its two back legs, it was settled that Iguanodon was likely a facultative biped (like a bear) and spent most of its time on four legs, just like the original reconstruction back in the 1800s.

Other than that, however, Iguanodon has come an incredibly long way.

Though the 1980s was a very good time for modernizing dinosaurs (so much so it’s said it kick-started the “Golden Age” of dinosaur

discovery), paleontologists unfortunately usually ended up “shrink wrapping” the skin so tightly around the creature’s body, leaving out major muscles. Iguanodon did fall victim to this trend as well.

Luckily, by the time 2010’s rolled around, the necessity of muscles was realized and with that, no more “shrink wrapping” for Iggy!

SAURO

The next group of dinosaurs we will observe the changes from over the years are the sauropods, or as Don Bluth’s The Land Before Time popularized them as: “long-necks”. Though I don’t mean to imply anywhere that all of these dinosaurs were the same, for the majority of the time they’ve been around, pop culture (and sometimes even paleontology) have depicted the different species within the order as nearly identical, including applying the same errors to most members within the group. For my purposes in studying merely the general reconstruction of dinosaurs, focusing on the broad order of sauropoda will make things easier on all of us. Nobody here cares about the specifics of Chinshakiangosaurus, and if you do, this isn’t the right book for you.

OPODS

look so dopey p u s ’ t wha e teeth? s o h t h wit

NOT aquatic

SAUROPODS

1960s - mid 1980s

After acquiring an Apatosaurus skeleton in 1877, famous fossil collector O. C. Marsh, after noticing how large the bones were, hypothesized that the creature must have lived predominantly in swamps during its lifetime. Without the extra support from the water displacing some of its weight, he reasoned, how was the animal supposed to move its gargantuan body?

Up until the mid-to-late 1980s, it was widely believed that sauropods spent their lives much as amphibians do: half on land, half in water. During this time period, all dinosaurs (including sauropods) were seen as stupid animals that dragged their tails upon the ground as they lumbered along. They were thought to be clumsy and slow, thus further requiring the safety of deep water to submerge in. Most people agreed that these giants would come onto land to land their eggs, but preferred to spend the majority of their days deep in swampy water, avoiding predators and eating the marsh plants at the bottom of the lake only their great necks could reach.

On top of that (literally), were the nostril openings on the skulls of sauropods Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus, and Camarasaurus.

These holes weren’t positioned at the end of a snout as one might think, but instead at the top of their heads. For almost one hundred years, paleontologists believed that the high placement of these holes acted as a sort of snorkel for the animals, and thus proved their theory that these giants were predominantly water-bound.

However, the one thing that everybody failed to take into account was the most iconic feature of these guys: sauropods had extremely long necks. And just to put this into perspective, for a sauropod like Diplodocus with a neck nearly eight meters (26 feet for us Americans) long, there was no way it would have been able to survive in such deep water. The water pressure eight meters into a lake would’ve squeeze its body so hard it wouldn’t have been able to breath, nostrils above the surface or not.

too skinny neck position should be raised

SAUROPODS 1980s - 2000s

Much like the Holocene elephants of today, we now know that sauropods like Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus, and Camarasaurus were completely capable of walking on land and most definitely spent most of their lives on shore.

However, many modern animals, such as the aforementioned elephant and even monkeys and lions, will swim short distances when necessary, and nothing says that sauropods didn’t at times too, especially to avoid confrontations with predators or to simply get where they needed to go.

Though researchers were definitely on the right track, a few new inaccuracies sprang up from this era. A paleontologist by the name of Kent Steven raised the hypothesis that sauropods couldn’t rise their necks above 20°. If this was case,

their tails would have had to be raised as high as possible to maintain balance. With this concept in place, the posture of sauropod essentially became the suspension bridge model.

In the early 2000s, a misinterpretation of skin impressions lead to the widely distributed image of Diplodocus having a row of spines along its back as well, which is now known to be incorrect.

The “shrink-wrapping” era set in as well, which is, once again, when extinct animals are reconstructed in such a way that ignores muscles and simply wraps their bones in skin. This process made sauropod dinosaurs even lankier than they probably ever were.

how majestic!

SAUROPODS 2010s

You know how they say everything eventually comes back into style (except wooden wall paneling from the 1970s—sorry Grandma!)?

Well, the same can even be said of paleoart at rare times. Sometimes we do have to revert to our initial thoughts because we got it wrong. As technology evolves, so do our dinosaur designs.

By by 2009, it was recognized that sauropods indeed were able to raise their necks into the air, like we originally thought all of those years ago.

“Shrink-wrapping” is finally beginng to disappear and a natural amount of muscling and fat is being distributed onto sauropod bodies.

THERO

For this last suborder of dinosaurs I will cover, we will stick to mainly using Tyrannosaurus rex as an example. T. rex is the most famous of all dinosaurs, and therefore has been depicted in media more than any other. I’m guessing it’s the first thing that came to mind when you heard the word dinosaur, amiright? With that in mind, it’s easy for more people to visualize Rexy than, let’s say, Carcharodontosaurus. Yeah, betcha never heard of that guy. However, keep in mind this information and its misconceptions were more than not also assigned to its cousins, not just Tyrannosaurus rex.

And of course, he is after all, king of the dinosaurs, so he is our star.

OPODS

just look at this goo f y bastard! e l b i r r te o posture o r a g n ka

tail shoul d not drag are those cowboy bo o spurs? t

THEROPODS 1920s - 1960s

Way back in the early 1900s, scientists merely thought that dinosaurs were giant versions of modern day lizards. Giant, walking lizards that stood on two feet. Other than that, simply lizards.

During this time, Tyrannosaurus rex, Allosaurus, Spinosaurus, and their cousins were reconstructed as sort of upright, aggressive iguanas, depicted with their tails dragging behind them on the ground. They had very short skulls, large scutes (or ridges) running down their backsides, and T. rex sometimes even three fingers on each hand (which is wrong because that creature’s got only two).

Paleoartist Charles R. Knight’s second illustration of the Tyrannosaurus popularized this idea, seeing as this design is still well-known today.

This version of Tyrannosaurus rex and other large theropods were also presented in a rather uncanny, human-like way with giant, muscular legs and a straight posture. This incarnation of Tyrannosaurus stood almost vertical, very much like a human (think Godzilla and early monster movies).

inaccurate tripod position s g e l y wack

why is th e still on t tail h ground? e

THEROPODS 1960s - 1980s

I hesitated including this stage, as it is such a small time frame in history. Not to mention theropod dinosaur art and merchandise from this era is very diverse with some remaining oldschool, others more bird-like and modern, and everything inbetween. It was very hard for people to let the kangaroo-stance dinosaur position go, for whatever reason. However, I think it’s an interesting transitioning period nontheless, and it’s always fascinating to view intermediate stages.

Theropods during this brief period were being drawn more and more accurately, but still more often than not were depicted in that goofy,

bipedal humanesque posture. However, their skull shape and muscle placement was getting more and more accurate.

Even today, if you ask anyone to draw you a Tyrannosaurus rex, more often than not they’re going to create something that looks like this version. To this day, pop culture sometimes still depicts Tyrannosaurus in this tripod position, despite how inaccurate we know it to be today.

Later in this period, Tyrannosaurus rex was updated with only two-fingers as it should have.

However, the tail still dragged behind upon the ground and the scutes remained.

, d o o g y t t e r p f ’ f n u i l k o f o l e l t t i l a d e e n just

(needs more fat too)

THEROPODS 1980 - 2000 LATE

With the idea that dinosaurs were more bird than lizard finally starting to come into fruition (a little promotion from 1993’s Jurassic Park goes a long way), theropods were now being seen as agile animals.

No longer did they retain their humanoid postures, but instead migrated to a more horizontal way of walking, with their heads low and tails lifted off the ground, just like a bird (who, may I add, are also part of the suborder theropod).

Gone as well were the reptilian scutes that used to line their backs.

However, though more accurate than ever before, the body of Tyrannosaurus became very skinny or “shrink-wrapped” for some time, with sharp lines between the muscles and several bone structures poking out of the skin that

s

s

most likely would not have visible been in life.

Edges of the scapula and pelvis, or the cranial fenestrae, would have been covered by layers of muscle, fat, and skin. Some muscles were left out of the reconstructions entirely, including the M. pterygoideus ventralis or the caudofemoralis.

In the mid 2000s Tyrannosaurus’ nostril placement was re-examined again, and found to be at front of the nasal opening as opposed to the roof of the snout.

In the 2010’s, more muscles were given to our good buddy Rex, and one more teensie weensie little thing...feathers! It has been proven that other theropods had feathers so it is most likely the case that Tyrannosaurus had them too at least somewhere and in some form, probably on its back.

Citations!

Craig, M. Jean., and George Solonevich. Dinosaurs and More Dinosaurs. Four Winds Press, 1985.

Elting, Mary., and John Hamberger. The Macmillan Book of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Creatures. The Macmillan Publishing Company, 1984.

My Super Book of Dinosaurs. Educational Reading Service, 1970.

Watson, Jane Werner., and Rudolph F. Zallinger. The Giant Golden Book of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Reptiles. Golden Press, 1980.

The beauty of science is that it is ever-changing.

Nothing is set in stone, and we’re always looking to improve ourselves and our vision of the world and its (past, present and future) inhabitants.

Because of this, our ideas of extinct animals will always evolve and change, even if we may not like the look of these “new”, redesigned creatures.

However, science is not a Hollywood movie, and we can not be upset if our favorite dinosaur gets an update. We can still love the old reconstructions as much as we did in their prime, just as we can still enjou a particular era of pop cluture. If today’s paleontologists weren’t inspired by the old tripod rex of yesteryear, we wouldn’t have the feathered giant we know today. This does not mean that what came before was useless or shouldn’t be celebrated, because nearly everything will be laughable later in history, even the content you’re reading right now. Isn’t it beautiful?