If you imagine a dinosaur , you perhaps figure aTyrannosaurus rexmuch like the one inJurassic Park , armed with a yaw jaw , disproportionately large head , and pathetically weedy arm .
Since we have no animation subject to go by , any limning are largely based on fossilised skeleton in the closet . But are only fossilize clappers a true foundation to imagine out beasts ?
C. M. Kosemen , an Istanbul - based illustrator and paleoartist , has created a serial publication of instance re - conceive of our planet ’s present - day animals as if they were depicted by artists who hadno living inspirationto go by .
As you could see , they are way off the mark – and often downright terrifying .
Take his reimagining of an elephant ( above left ) . If you were confronted with an elephant skull , you would have no approximation that it actually possessed a 6 - foot tube - like prehensile olfactory organ , nor would you expect it to be quite so thick and wrinkly .
A large part of the problem come from being force to judge the amount of soft tissue that would be roll around the bone . It ’s perhaps easier to err on the side of caveat and go easy on the flaccid tissue paper . Unfortunately , this often results in depictions of beast looking extremely skinny , as you may see in Koseman ’s reimagining of a baboon ( below ) .
It ’s easy to see how these paleoart tropes can distort the mode we depict extinct animate being . We can see this in the way velociraptors have been reconstruct by researchers over the yr . For decades , these Cretaceous - epoch creatures were assumed to look like quick and angry unsloped lizards , à laJurassic Park . However , paleontologistsnow believethey were actually like a farming - inhabit dame of quarry with feathering and colorful plumage .
The most hilarious example of getting an animal stunningly incorrect came about when the frame of a woolly rhino was unearthed in the mountain town of Quedlinburg , present - day Germany , in the mid-1600s . Since this was the 17th century , people had no knowledge of this extinct large - horned Ice Age creature , however , they did believe in unicorns . So , when the skeleton caught the attention ofPrussian scientist Otto von Geuricke , he saw the skeleton ’s large single horn and assumed it was a unicorn . alas , since the skeleton was missing most of its bones , his half - bake reconstruction of the unicorn - like animate being looked , well , completely and dead ridiculous .
For more of C. M. Kosemen ’s reimaginings of modern - day creatures check outhis website .
