"Archaeoraptor" is the informal generic name for a fossil chimera from China in an article published in National Geographic magazine in 1999. The magazine claimed that the fossil was a "missing link" between birds and terrestrial theropod dinosaurs. Even before this publication, there had been severe doubts about the fossil's authenticity. A further scientific study showed it to be a forgery constructed from rearranged pieces of real fossils from different species. Zhou et al. found that the head and upper body belong to a specimen of the primitive fossil bird Yanornis. A 2002 study found that the tail belongs to a small winged dromaeosaur, Microraptor, named in 2000. The legs and feet belong to an as-yet-unknown-animal.
Gregory Scott Paul is an American freelance researcher, author and illustrator who works in paleontology. He is best known for his work and research on theropod dinosaurs and his detailed illustrations, both live and skeletal. Professionally investigating and restoring dinosaurs for three decades, Paul received an on-screen credit as dinosaur specialist on Jurassic Park and Discovery Channel's When Dinosaurs Roamed America and Dinosaur Planet. He is the author and illustrator of Predatory Dinosaurs of the World (1988), The Complete Illustrated Guide to Dinosaur Skeletons (1996), Dinosaurs of the Air (2001), The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs (2010), Gregory S. Paul's Dinosaur Coffee Table Book (2010), The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs: 2nd Edition (2016), The Princeton Field Guide to Pterosaurs (2022), The Princeton Field Guide to Mesozoic Sea Reptiles (2022) and editor of The Scientific American Book of Dinosaurs (2000).
Luis V. Rey is a Spanish-Mexican artist and illustrator. A 1977 graduate of the San Carlos Academy, part of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, he was among the contributors of the weekly Barcelona satirical magazine El Papus.
The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) is a professional organization that was founded in the United States in 1940 to advance the science of vertebrate paleontology around the world.
John Sibbick is a British freelance illustrator and palaeoartist, known for his depictions of prehistoric life and for his fantasy art.
Thomas D. Carr is a vertebrate paleontologist who received his PhD from the University of Toronto in 2005. He is now a member of the biology faculty at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Much of his work centers on tyrannosauroid dinosaurs. Carr published the first quantitative analysis of tyrannosaurid ontogeny in 1999, establishing that several previously recognized genera and species of tyrannosaurids were in fact juveniles of other recognized taxa. Carr shared the Lanzendorf Prize for scientific illustration at the 2000 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology conference for the artwork in this article. In 2005, he and two colleagues described and named Appalachiosaurus, a late-surviving basal tyrannosauroid found in Alabama. He is also scientific advisor to the Dinosaur Discovery Museum in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
John Albert Long is an Australian paleontologist who is currently Strategic Professor in Palaeontology at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. He was previously the Vice President of Research and Collections at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. He is also an author of popular science books. His main area of research is on the fossil fish of the Late Devonian Gogo Formation from northern Western Australia. It has yielded many important insights into fish evolution, such as Gogonasus and Materpiscis, the later specimen being crucial to our understanding of the origins of vertebrate reproduction.
Paleoart is any original artistic work that attempts to depict prehistoric life according to scientific evidence. Works of paleoart may be representations of fossil remains or imagined depictions of the living creatures and their ecosystems. While paleoart is typically defined as being scientifically informed, it is often the basis of depictions of prehistoric animals in popular culture, which in turn influences public perception of and fuels interest in these animals. The word paleoart is also used in an informal sense, as a name for prehistoric art, most often cave paintings.
John Gurche is an American artist known for his paintings, sculptures, and sketches of prehistoric life, especially dinosaurs and early humans. Gurche is currently an Artist in Residence at the Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, New York. Gurche studied Anthropology and Paleontology at the University of Kansas, but his study of art was limited to his days in middle school. Also while in middle school, Gurche attempted to create a "family tree for all animal life," and fashioned an evolutionary series of heads from clay while in fourth grade.
John J. Lanzendorf was an American hairstylist who amassed one of the world's largest collections of dinosaur-themed artwork. The collection is now owned by the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.
Julius Thomas Csotonyi is a Hungarion-born Canadian paleoartist and natural history illustrator living in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He specialises in photo-realistic restorations of dinosaurs, paleo-environments and extinct animals. His techniques encompass both traditional and digital media. His art is included in museum displays in many countries. Csotonyi also created the design of the reverse side of the commemorative 25 dollar silver Royal Canadian Mint coin called 50th Anniversary of the Canadian Flag.
Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner is a Brazilian geologist and paleontologist who is a leading expert in the field of studying pterosaurs. His research has focused mainly on fossil reptiles from the Cretaceous Period, including extinct dinosaurs and crocodylomorphs.
Mauricio Antón Ortuzar is a paleoartist and illustrator specializing in the scientific reconstruction of extinct life, well known for his influential paintings of hominids, extinct carnivores and other vertebrate fossil groups. His works illustrate a great number of books, scientific papers, private collections and museums in many parts of the world. He currently works in association with the Natural Science Museum in Madrid.
Brian Cooley is a Canadian sculptor, specializing in dinosaurs.
Christopher P. Sloan is an artist, science communicator, art director, author, and avocational paleontologist. He describes himself as a conceptual realist and is an advocate for Art for Our Sake, a term he uses to distinguish art with a purpose from art for art's sake. He teaches modern approaches to science art, animal anatomy, and information visualization online for the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Sloan is a four-time award-winning author of children's books written for the National Geographic Society. Sloan started a science media and exhibitions company, Science Visualization, in 2010. He closed the company in 2021 to pursue his art interests. He served as executive director of the Allegany Arts Council in Cumberland, Maryland from 2014 to 2018. He was appointed to the Maryland State Arts Council by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan in 2021.
Mark Hallett is an American artist best known for his illustrations of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. Having originally coined the term "paleoart" to refer to science-based paleontological illustration, Hallett remains one of the most influential masters of modern dinosaur imagery. He currently lives in Dallas, Oregon.
Michael Trcic is an American sculptor best known for his paleontological models of dinosaurs. He worked for many years as a special effects artist for films and television programs, and was one of the lead animators and puppeteers for the famous Tyrannosaurus rex model featured in Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Jurassic Park. He has also worked in television animation, including for Discovery Channel's 2002 documentary film When Dinosaurs Roamed America. For models and other artwork outside of special effects, Trcic commonly consults with paleontologists in order to achieve a high standard of accuracy for his work. His sculpture has been compared to that of Brian Cooley, but with a "somewhat more traditional" style. He has provided dinosaur sculpture work for a variety of media and institutions, including IMAX, The University of Chicago, The National Geographic Society, Disney, and the Arizona Museum of Natural History, where his life-sized bronze Dilophosaurus sculpture is featured. His statue of the sauropod dinosaur Jobaria can be viewed at the Navy Pier of Chicago, Illinois. Trcic's work has also been published in a variety of written media, including Random House's book Hunting Dinosaurs and the magazines Earth Magazine and Prehistoric Times.
Michael W. Skrepnick is a Canadian palaeoartist best known for his illustrations of prehistoric animals. He has produced illustrations featured in natural history museums, scientific journals, books and magazines. He lives and works in Alberta, Canada. Skrepnick is noted for his acrylic paintings of dinosaurs, such as his rendition of the 2016 discovery of the ceratopsian dinosaur Spiclypeus shipporum.
Sergey Krasovskiy is a Ukrainian freelance paleoartist best known for his artistic reconstructions of dinosaurs. He was awarded the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology's John J. Lanzendorf PaleoArt Prize in 2017.
Andrey Atuchin is a Russian paleoartist, illustrator and biologist who focuses on artistic reconstructions of extinct animals. He is known for his clean, detailed style reminiscent of classic National Geographic illustrations. Atuchin has collaborated with paleontologists all over the world in illustrating new species for papers and press releases, such as the 2014 feathered dinosaur Kulindadromeus zabaikalicus, as well as more recent discoveries including the pliosaur Luskhan itilensis, described in 2017, and the 2018 ankylosaur dinosaur Akainacephalus johnsoni.
