Vintage Dinosaur Art: Dinosaurs (Home Reference Library)

In my further quest to avoid the DK Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Life from 2001 (which I do now own, at least), here’s another book from around that time – Dinosaurs, published in 2002 by Fog City Press. It’s a rather generic affair all told, but I’m sure there’s someone out there for whom this is an important childhood memory. Besides which, it features illustrations by Steve Kirk and Luis Rey (among others), not to mention an interesting mix of retro reconstructions that could have come straight from the early ’90s (and probably did) alongside up-to-the-minute pieces that even, very occasionally, feature feathers. Gasp! In other words, it’s typical of the time, reflecting a slow paradigm shift much like the transition from swampy tail-draggers to Bakkerian Renaissance-o-saurs that occurred a few decades prior.

Admittedly, the cover doesn’t reflect this all that much – there isn’t anything to reflect that we’re in a post-Sinosauropteryx world, especially with that scaly dromaeosaur in the lower left, which would have been at home in the pages of Dinosaurs! magazine. The Tyrannosaurus in the middle (by Kirk) is obviously based on the AMNH mount (and I’m quite sure I’ve got that right this time), hence the slightly awkward look, although being a Steve Kirk piece it does still manage to look suitably muscular and hefty and sport some natty cat-like spots.

And speaking of Steve Kirk dinosaurs with beautiful patterns going on, check out this Eoraptor. It’s quite spectacular, and apart from the highly attractive mix of eyespots and banding on the skin, I really like the glowing red-and-yellow eye, which seems to imbue the animal with so much life and personality. Not bad, given that it isn’t doing anything more dramatic than taking a step in a DK-like white void. While the forelimb posture in particular wouldn’t pass muster today, this piece has still aged very well and remains an exceptionally well-observed reconstruction of an animal that a lesser artist would have rendered as a little green pipsqueak.

Kirk also turns in a strikingly patterned Suchomimus, an animal that was still relatively new to science at the time. It too is very well observed, from the shape of its skull and tall neural spines to the way it’s placing one foot in front of the other as it walks in suitably theropodal fashion. See, books from 2002 have better spinosaurs than movies that are being produced nowadays.

While Steve Kirk’s illustrations here are very up-to-date for 2002, leave it to Luis Rey to introduce feathers. Admittedly, Mononykus was one of the very few non-avian dinosaurs that seemed to be regarded as ‘acceptable’ to stick feathers on in the ’90s (along with Avimimus), but its fluffy appearance here is still very striking among a parade of scaly maniraptorans. You’ll note that the text is still very cautious about referring to feathers directly, instead mentioning “thin fibers that may have been primitive feathers”. I don’t think Luis had any such doubts. I’m particularly fond of the black ruff, the striking blue on the head, and startled, birdlike expression. It’s also commendable that we get an illustration of that weirdo forelimb alongside.

To illustrate my point regarding the scaly dromaeosaurs, here’s an, er, illustration of Deinonychus attacking Tenontosaurus by Cecilia Fitzsimmons in which the brown bastards look like they’re straight out of the late ’80s. It can be easy to forget that universally feathered dromaeosaurs are a recent phenomenon in pop culture; long were the tedious discussions on internet forums in the late 2000s and early 2010s with the scaly-raptor bores who refused to accept the evidence staring them in their faces. But I digress. Perhaps more notable is that the above spread is about Tenontosaurus and actually features said animal by itself, standing around, not doing much as the central illustration (a rather good one by Kirk). Hooray, progress! Except it’s still described as “easy prey”. Oh dear.

Because I now feel bad for mistreated ornithiscians, and slightly guilty about always favouring theropods in my posts, here’s Luis Rey’s take on Saurolophus. Luis has always loved his unusual perspectives, and this is an excellent front-on perspective of a hadrosaur, particularly for the time. You’ll note the attractive, yet naturalistic stripy skin, the uneven edge of the keratinous beak, and fleshy pink nasal sacs that are a bit of a Rey trope. And speaking of which…

…Here’s Muttaburrasaurus, an animal mostly known for being from Australia and having a big nose. It was also regarded as being a bit of an ‘Australian Iguanodon‘ back in the day, although I understand that its phylogenetic position has shifted a bit. Still, the big nose, and consequent portrayal as having expansive nasal sacs with which to make a big old fuss, have remained consistent. This plays very well to Luis’ strength of giving animals very large, fleshy, inflatable, pinkish noses. I like this illustration an awful lot, and wish that we could see a bit more of this dinosaur in reconstructions nowadays, especially in model form. My Invicta toy is feeling a bit lonely.

At least I’d heard of Muttaburrasaurus before acquiring this book, unlike Qantassaurus, which is surely worth including because of its obscurity alone – and the fact that it gets a Luis Rey illustration, of course. As you might have guessed, it’s named after a certain Australian airline. Called Qantas. It’s also only known from jaw fragments, although that was enough to have it confidently placed in Hypsolophodontidae back in the (hypsolophodontid-)day. As you might have guessed (again), there’s been a lot of taxonomic hoo-hah since then, but the animal was at least a small ornithopod of some sort. Luis’ reconstruction follows in his tradition of making small ornithopods look oddly sinister; it’s their fault that they had those eagle-like bony bars over their eyes, but it’s Luis’ fault for making the eyes red and glowering. The stripes are nice, but I’m especially fond of the elongated spines (or filaments?) on the tail here.

And finally…it’s Segnosaurus! Much as in books from the early ’90s (like the Lambert-authored Ultimate Dinosaur Book), there’s much confusion here as to exactly what therizinosaurs were, and so Segnosaurus (as illustrated by Mark Iley) ends up stuck between the theropods and sauropodomorphs. This might be a last gasp for the Normanpedia-like fisher segnosaur, although you’ll note that this animal doesn’t have webbed toes, nor is it fishing. Still, its body plan is in that vein. As an historical curiosity and contribution to the therizinosaur reconstruction canon, I certainly think it’s one of the most interesting illustrations here – moreso than all the scaly dromaeosaurs.