A History of Skeletal Drawings

March 28, 2011 2:29 PM

A History of Skeletal Drawings: Part 1 - pre-20th century, Part 2 - Bone Wars to the 1950's, Part 3 - Dino Renaissance to the present. Via Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs.
posted by brundlefly (11 comments total)

Heh. Three of the related posts are by me.
posted by brundlefly at 2:41 PM on March 28, 2011

Saved to read later. But I'm going to comment beforehand:

One of the annoying things about raising a 3yo boy on dinosaurs (mostly by pretty darn accurate PBS kids TV) is finding books in the library that aren't way out of date. Even books that are only 5 or so years old come off as all wrong.

Looking forward to reading this.
posted by toekneebullard at 3:00 PM on March 28, 2011

brundlefly: Heh. Three of the related posts are by me.

Maybe you're infected by Dino DNA?

Anyway, great post! I've heard a bit of the changes in understanding of dinosaur over the decades past, but never to this detail (and there were people involved with those shifts!) - thanks!
posted by filthy light thief at 3:03 PM on March 28, 2011

Wonderful post, thanks brundlefly. You inspired some googling.

Whale | Mammoth | stillborns | search results at Heritage images |

Death and the maiden.

Adding more to the skeletal mix: Pacman, Donald Duck, Tweetie Bird and cartoon others; on etsy and the Michael Paulus gallery.

Day of the Dead Star Wars.
posted by nickyskye at 4:02 PM on March 28, 2011 [2 favorites]

Thanks, nickyskye! Although it looks like your whale link points at the Star Wars/Day of the Dead page.
posted by brundlefly at 4:07 PM on March 28, 2011

An interesting read, thank you for this.
posted by Jehan at 4:51 PM on March 28, 2011

Very cool. When I worked in my advisor's vertebrate paleo lab during undergrad, I was responsible for a lot of fossil preparation. One of the guys I was trying to put together had a fairly distorted skull, and I was having a hard time figuring out exactly what I was looking at. Unfortunately, there hadn't been much published on this particular species, and I was lacking in good images to compare my fossil to. Fortunately, the guy who discovered it was a former student of my advisor, and had actually taken the skull with him to a tattoo parlor and had it tattooed on his back. My advisor had a picture of this guy's shoulder blade with a lovely. nearly complete fossil tattooed on his back.


Which is to say that skeletal drawings are awesome and potential useful in nearly any form.
posted by ChuraChura at 5:22 PM on March 28, 2011

Thanks for the nice post. I think you may dig this guy's drawings also:

DONTMESSWITHDINOSAURS.COM
posted by fantodstic at 5:50 PM on March 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

That's great, fantodstic! Thanks for the link.
posted by brundlefly at 9:08 PM on March 28, 2011

Sorry about the incorrect link brundlefly. Here's the whale skeleton.
posted by nickyskye at 9:45 PM on March 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

Glad to be of some good use :)
posted by fantodstic at 10:42 PM on March 29, 2011