I bet doctor who knows what the dinosaurs looked like

 

Then: 1850-1950 (ish)

Well kats and kitn’s lets have a talk about those oh so fabulous creatures we have come to know as dinosaurs, or as I like to think those things I am ever so grateful that were not inhabiting the earth at the same time as early man.

One has to try and think what the best way to tell this story would be as where this starts is a fantastic time of discovery especially when it comes to scientific advances. You see not only were we digging up Egypt and claiming all the little countries that “weren’t as advanced” (or as Eddie Izzard likes to say through a cunning use of flags) but also dinosaur bones had been discovered.

What to make of these giant….. things? There was nothing really new about them as bones had been being discovered for centuries but now we were starting to put them together (if scattered) and getting a picture of what was. As we look at the pictures of the representations offered at the crystal palace expo in 1854 we can see the transition away from dragons and into a possible reptile of some kind I mean the term dinosaur was less than 20 years old in terms of use to describe these things. So when it comes to making a visual representation of something that no one understands what do you do?

You make art.

And that’s pretty much the case of what Richard Owen did for the expo, he created an idea based on the bare minimum that was presented to him. But isn’t that how most artistic ideas begin a spark of creativity and free reign to just go with it. I mean its like the cysteine chapel or any religious rendition of biblical figures…. Basically we re-create what we know to be fact. So these creatures came to resemble those that remained in a seriously larger form (dogs, pigs, lizards, snakes, birds). Let’s not forget that that in this time period things advanced and realizations were made (like the originals were a little off) but it wasn’t until the later half of the 20^th century that we began to realize that the dinosaurs we had come to recognize as correct were also still off.

So knowing this why do we still continue to be awed by these things? because they are the originals that started it all.

 

Now: 1951-Present

Even looking at the paintings of Charles Knight we can see how the idea of what these things looked like was changing comparing his earlier portraits to those later in his life. From skin to height to color we were gaining new understandings as more and more information (fossils) were being discovered. The problem however was that sometimes these bones just happen to sorta kinda belong to the wrong creature. And so my fine feathered friends its pretty safe to say that what we grew up with (well more likely myself our instructor and anyone else born before 1985) was also more than likely inaccurate.

Thanks to technology as well as discoveries of fossils in lava or amber we are given a much more realistic glimpse as to what these creatures may have actually looked like. Some may have actually been feathered or covered in a short fur, others may have been smooth skinned. Dinosaurs are like the prize at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box (if they even still do that) you just never know what it is.

We have come to have a love affair with these creatures even to the point of forcing our children to love them by making them toys, cartoons, and insisting that they go on the annual field trip to the museums. We have turned them from something that we know could easily kill us into something that could be a pet and sing us lullabies when we go to sleep. For me personally I have never really been a fan of them, sure they are great and historical but they are dead and while its great to rediscover them its not so great to try and bring them back to life. I don’t know about you but I really don’t want to be dinner or step in the mess one would make in the front yard.