By David E. Shaw
The Shaw family is happy to be a sponsor of the Illustrasaurus dinosaur art show presented in the Portland Maine Public Library by our friends at the Illustration Institute.
The exhibition brings together historical illustrations, contemporary paleoart, and familiar favorites from children’s books. I’m especially drawn to the collaboration between artists and paleontologists. A fossil bone can give an artist clues about an animal’s shape. A series of footprints can suggest how it moved. Bringing those clues together into a picture of a living animal takes both careful research and imagination. Explore the Illustrasaurus exhibition.
In a short 2017 feature, PBS NewsHour profiled paleo artist Julius Csotonyi and showed how he uses fossil evidence to bring dinosaurs to life in his illustrations. Watch This Artist Brings Dinosaurs Back to Life.
I gained a deeper appreciation for dinosaur paleontology during the National Park Service’s centennial in 2016, when I served as a trustee of the National Park Foundation. I had the opportunity to help draw attention to some of the remarkable treasures protected in our parks. Dinosaur bones and tracks have been documented in more than 20 places across the National Park System. These range from the fossil-rich quarry at Dinosaur National Monument, to the Triassic rocks of Petrified Forest National Park.
Visiting fossil sites and talking with National Park Service paleontologists gave me a firsthand look at how much can be learned from what survives in the rock.
Sharing a short video I created of relevant experiences at two national parks, a site in Colorado with Curiosity Stream, and the Illustrasaurus exhibit.