Fossils have stirred the imagination globally for thousands of years, starting well before they were recognized as the remains of once-living organisms and proxies of former worlds. This volume samples the history of art about fossils and the visual conceptualization of their significance starting with biblical and mythological depictions, extending to renditions of ancient life as it flourished in long-vanished habitats, and on to a modern understanding that fossil art conveys lessons for the betterment of the human condition. The 29 papers and accompanying artwork illustrate how art about fossils has come to be a significant teaching tool not only about evolution of past life, but also about conservation of our planet for the benefit of future generations.

ABSTRACT The very first scientific paper by Eduard Suess (1831–1914) treats the graptolites of Bohemia in the present-day Czech Republic (in the Upper Proterozoic to Middle Devonian “Barrandian” extending between Prague and Plzeň). This paper is accompanied by superb drawings of his observations in which Suess took great care not to insert himself between Nature as he perceived it in the framework of the knowledge of his day and his readers. His only limitation was the one imposed by the size of his study objects. His technological means did not allow him to see what we today consider the “right” picture. Nevertheless, we can see what he saw and interpret it through a modern lens of understanding. In his drawings, Suess exercised what the great German geologist Hans Cloos later called “the art of leaving out.” This meant that in the drawings, the parts not relevant to the discussion are left only in outline, whereas parts he wished to highlight are brought to the fore by careful shading. Even the parts left only in outline are not schematic, however; instead they are careful reconstructions true to Nature as much as the material and his technological aids allowed. This characteristic of Suess’ illustrations is seen also in his later field sketches concerning stratigraphy and structural geology and in his depiction of the large tectonic features of our globe representing a window into his manner of thinking.

ABSTRACT Dinosaur tracks have been illustrated since they were first found. The earliest illustrations depicted dinosaur tracks as the work of mythical beings. With the advent of scientific inquiry into dinosaur tracks in the nineteenth century, natural explanations were sought for the fossil tracks. Illustrations of the period were relatively realistic but were influenced by then-current beliefs and were constrained by the artists’ skills and by what scientists considered salient. In the mid-nineteenth century, the first photographs were used for the scientific study of fossil tracks. Photography eliminated some limitations of artistic talent and showed complete specimens, not just aspects that were deemed salient. The ability to compare and name similar tracks from disparate authors and places became easier. Advances in photography, laser scanning, optical scanning and lidar, and the ability to manipulate images with computers, have enabled the modern synthesis of illustrating dinosaur tracks, which combines many types of images. With each advance and the adoption of newer technologies, the older methods have not been retired. Rather, we have continued to see new uses for old methods and an integration of illustrative styles. For Patrick. Your friendship and your vision will be so deeply missed.

ABSTRACT The concept of biostratigraphy was a significant step in the evolution of geoscience. Alexandre Brongniart (1770–1847) and Georges Cuvier (1769–1832) were key contributors to developing the subdiscipline as they worked to decode the stratigraphy of the Paris Basin in the first decades of the nineteenth century. Their illustrations of fossils, local geologic columns, and a regional geologic map played a decisive role in furthering an understanding of the value of paleontology in the service of illuminating Earth history.

ABSTRACT Our attraction to fossils is almost as old as humans themselves, and the way fossils are represented has changed and evolved with technology and with our knowledge of these organisms. Invertebrates were the first fossils to be represented in books and illustrated according to their original form. The first worldwide illustrations of paleoinvertebrates by recognized authors, such as Christophorus Encelius and Conrad Gessner, considered only their general shape. Over time, paleoillustrations became more accurate and showed the position of organisms when they were alive and as they had appeared when found. Encyclopedic works such as those of the Sowerbys or Joachim Barrande have left an important legacy on fossil invertebrates, summarizing the knowledge of their time. Currently, new discoveries, techniques, and comparison with extant specimens are changing the way in which the same organisms are shown in life position, with previously overlooked taxonomically important elements being displayed using modern techniques. This chapter will cover the history of illustrations, unpublished nineteenth-century author illustrations, examples showing fossil reconstructions, new techniques and their influence on taxonomical work with regard to illustration, and the evolution of paleoinvertebrate illustration.

ABSTRACT The first illustrations of geo-objects—different crystals of salt—from Poland were included by U. Aldrovandi in his Musaeum Metallicum (1648). The first publications containing paleontological sketches of fossil remains of animals and plants appeared in the early eighteenth century. G.A. Helwing, in his Lithographia Angerburgica (1717) and Lithographiae Angerburgicae Pars II (1720), included drawings of fossils of various ages from the Peri-Baltic area. G.A. Volkmann’s Silesia Subterranea (1720) was extensively illustrated by elaborate sketches of fossils including Carboniferous plants from the Lower Silesia region. In 1764, J.-É. Guettard published an important paper on the geology of Poland that contained detailed illustrations of fossils from various parts of the country. S. Staszic, in his two seminal books published in 1805 and 1815, provided detailed illustrations of animal remains, mainly bones of large, extinct mammals. This “pioneering era” of development of paleontological art came to an end with publications by two geologists that laid the foundations of modern paleontology in Poland: Polens Paläontologie by G.G. Pusch (1836) and Paleontologia Polska (1846) by L. Zejszner. In less than 150 years, paleontological art evolved from simple illustrations of “curious objects” from the subsurface to scientific drawings that marked the birth of modern paleontology.

ABSTRACT William Smith’s Strata Identified by Organized Fossils , published between 1816 and 1819, was one of the most important books in the development of stratigraphy; it was also significant in the evolution of paleontological art and illustration. For the first time, Smith organized fossil illustrations in plates according to the order of the strata. Each stratigraphic plate showed characteristic assemblages of fossils. The publication was a joint venture between Smith and James Sowerby and it was Sowerby who elevated the work into the realm of art. Smith had been influenced by the work of previous authors, in particular Robert Plot and John Morton, who, some 150 years earlier, had published texts illustrated by fossil engravings. The difference between these engravings and those of Sowerby shows the extent to which fossil illustration had evolved. Unlike previous work where the engravings were very mechanical, Sowerby’s were extraordinarily naturalistic. By means of subtle lines, stipple, and water coloring, Sowerby was able to achieve extremely realistic and aesthetically pleasing artwork. Unusually, many of Smith’s originals fossils are still intact and when photographs of these specimens are compared to the illustrations, the quality of Sowerby’s work is striking. Smith also selected earth-colors for the paper on which the illustrations were produced, with colors reflecting the strata in which the fossils were embedded. Although this technique had some disadvantages, it aimed to bridge the gap between science and art.

ABSTRACT In late 1829 or early 1830, Henry Thomas De la Beche (1796–1855), in collaboration with William Buckland (1784–1856), published Duria antiquior [ A more ancient Dorsetshire ], the earliest known paleoecological illustration of ancient life. De la Beche’s interpretation was based largely on fossils then recently uncovered from Lower Jurassic (Lias) rocks near Lyme Regis on the south coast of England. Many of these were brought to scientific attention by local fossil collector and dealer Mary Anning (1799–1847). De la Beche published Duria antiquior as a lithograph, copies of which were sold as a fundraiser for Anning, who was then in straitened circumstances. Duria antiquior represented a new style of paleontological illustration that pioneered a new scientific genre addressing the history of nature and an innovative viewpoint where the observer glimpses lifeforms through the water. Other authors modified and adopted De la Beche’s visionary illustration, and the style became commonplace in popular geological publications in the later nineteenth century. Duria antiquior can be acknowledged as the pioneering graphic from which fossil organisms’ reconstructions and modern computer-generated paleoecosystem animations trace their origins.

ABSTRACT James Parkinson was an apothecary surgeon, political activist, and paleontologist during the latter part of the long eighteenth century. He is most famous for his 1817 work, An Essay on the Shaking Palsy , in which he was the first to describe and define the symptoms of paralysis agitans , a condition now known as Parkinson’s disease. During his lifetime, however, he was internationally renowned for his three-volume study of fossils, Organic Remains of a Former World . Sales of this work continued for 25 years after Parkinson’s death, even though much of its scientific content had become redundant. This was due to the beauty and fidelity of its illustrations, although Samuel Springsguth, the illustrator and engraver, is never explicitly acknowledged in the work. By examining several extant fossils known to have been in Parkinson’s collection and illustrated in his works, it has been possible to gain some insight into the way that Parkinson and Springsguth worked together when illustrating these volumes.

ABSTRACT In 2017–2018, two fine arts undergraduate students, Todd Rowan and Moesha Wright, conceived and created a mural for the Dunn-Seiler Museum at Mississippi State University, Mississippi, USA, under the supervision of art professor emeritus Brent Funderburk. Students researched, conceptualized, and painted Mississippi Cretaceous Panorama , which interpreted the Late Cretaceous landscape that once surrounded the university and the momentous extinction event that brought the Mesozoic Era to its close. The project necessitated creativity to address several challenges, including funding, space constraints, and a local population with Young Earth views. The completed mural engages museum visitors with a mosasaur, ceratopsian dinosaur, and a meteorite impact—illustrating the local, terminal Mesozoic geologic history in a nonthreatening venue that can improve community geoliteracy.

ABSTRACT Inspired by his late father’s thin section micropaleontology, artist Giles Ford created the Fossilarium, a series of large-scale paintings that investigates the nature of time and space through investigation of the miniature. Ford reflects on the influences of his work and how he developed a visual language inspired by repeating patterns of his father’s microfossil thin sections. The Fossilarium presents abstract landscapes of interwoven time explored through layered images that intertwine the geological, industrial, societal, and personal spectrums. The Fossilarium thereby seeks to create timeless patterns that probe different subject areas from pure aesthetics through the Anthropocene and climate change provocations to more intimate multigenerational explorations of the thread of family history, loss, and the future. Through his paintings, Ford seeks to bring the micropaleontological view to a wider audience by posing questions about the role of industry, fossil fuels, the artist, and climate change.

ABSTRACT William Maclure, Father of North American Geology, partnered with Robert Owen in 1825 to establish an experimental socialistic community focusing on equitable reform in New Harmony, Indiana, USA. Artists, educators, and natural scientists recruited from Philadelphia arrived on a keel boat named Philanthropist in January 1826. Upon their arrival, Maclure established the New Harmony schools using a modified Pestalozzian educational approach under the guidance of Madame Fretageot. The New Harmony schools focused on practical education through direct observation of nature as well as a curriculum involving drawing, music, science, writing, and trade skills such as carpentry, engraving, and printing. Furthermore, the integration of arts and sciences with hands-on experiences led to a productive community of natural scientists who published significant works on the conchology, geology, ichthyology, and paleontology of North America. In the mid-nineteenth century, hand-drawn illustrations were reproduced through engravings, etchings, or lithography prior to the invention of the daguerreotype process in 1839, collodion wet plate process in 1851, and flexible celluloid film in 1888. In particular, the published works of David Dale Owen demonstrate the increasing importance of evolving reproduction techniques to paleontological illustration as well as the significance of hand-drawn artistic renderings. Interestingly, the modified Pestalozzian educational approach introduced by Maclure in New Harmony has several implications for the modern classroom. For instance, recent studies suggest that drawing improves spatial reasoning skills and increases comprehension of complex scientific principles. Likewise, engaging students in the drawing of fossils delivers a meaningful learning experience in the paleontology classroom.

ABSTRACT Artwork in The Geology of Russia (1845) documents the extent and fossil content of several Paleozoic systems in Europe and large tracts of Russia. That artwork conveys a sense of landscape, portrays the distribution of strata both at and below the surface, and documents the fossil evidence for identifying several Paleozoic geologic systems. The artwork includes wood engravings, lithographs, zincographs, and copper plate engravings. The choice of technique was governed by the content and desired character of the images and the logistics of printing. Roderick Murchison was a master of organization who commissioned, assembled, and oversaw the production of artwork that was crucial to presenting the evidence for the Paleozoic systems documented in The Geology of Russia (1845).

ABSTRACT Professor of paleontology at the University of Basel, Switzerland, Manfred Reichel was as much an accomplished scientist as a talented artist. Skilled in mental 3-D-visualization, aided by a sharp memory, and with a fine hand for illustration, he introduced comparative anatomy to the study of foraminifera, which is masterly illustrated in his analysis of Alveolinids, and used his knowledge of locomotion in modern birds as an actualistic method for portraying flying reptiles. Teaching was his motivation, and to aid his classes, beyond multiple drawings, he created a large number of scaled structural models of foraminifera and a life-size wooden replica of the Pteranodon with mobile articulations. Manfred Reichel was a perfectionist who left a large part of his studies and drawings unpublished.

ABSTRACT The nineteenth century was the dawn of scientific and systematic paleontology. The foundation of Natural History Museums—built as microcosmic “Books of Nature”—not only contributed to the establishment of this new discipline but also to its visual dissemination. This paper will take the metaphor of the “book” as a starting point for an examination of the paleontological exhibition at the Natural History Museum in Vienna. In keeping with “Natural Theology,” the earliest natural science museums in Britain were designed as expressions of the medieval idea of the “Holy Book of Nature.” Contrary to this, the Natural History Museum Vienna, opened in 1889, wanted to be a nonreligious museum of evolution. Nevertheless, the idea of the “book” was also influential for its design. According to the architects and the first director, it should be a modern “walk-in textbook” instructive for everyone. The most prominent exhibition hall in the museum is dedicated to paleontology. The hall’s decorative scheme forms a unique “Paleo-Gesamtkunstwerk” (Gesamtkunstwerk: total piece of art). The use of grotesque and mythological elements is a particularly striking feature of the hall’s decoration and raises the question of how this relates to the museum’s claim to be a hard-core science institution. As it was paleontology’s task to demystify the monsters and riddles of Earth history systematically, it seems odd that the decorative program connected explicitly to this world. This chapter sheds light on the cultural traditions that led to the creation of this ambiguous program that oscillates between science and imagination. Looking at the results of the research on the nature of the earth, one looks into a book that contains the oldest history we humans know. With amazement, we see the wonders of the first epochs of the earth arising before our mind’s eyes, and what until recently have been incomprehensible hieroglyphs is now almost completely clear to us. How many fables may have been created by the sudden appearance of prehistoric structures in the form of animals and plants? No fairy tales, no fantasies, tangible reality now stands before us and yet no less wonderful, even more wonderful, and this miracle has been achieved by science, the restless seeker. —J. Hoffmann (undated, ca. 1885, p. 1; translation from German)

ABSTRACT Under the direction of Henry Fairfield Osborn, Charles Knight helped shape popular images of the prehistoric past in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although he was the most famous, Charles Knight was not the only paleoartist working at the American Museum of Natural History at this time. Behind the scenes, there were several women paleoartists who made significant contributions to museum displays and publications illustrating the prehistoric world. Often overlooked, this chapter highlights the contributions of Elisabeth Rungius Fulda, Helen Ziska, Lindsey Morris Sterling, and Margret Joy Flinsch Buba.

ABSTRACT Women have contributed to “paleoart” working in collaboration with scientists, using vertebrate fossils to reconstruct vanished worlds, and directly shaping the way humans imagine the distant past. “Backboned” animals of former times have been portrayed singly or in groups and were often set in landscape scenes. Women paleoartists in America and Europe began working in the nineteenth century often through family association, such as pioneers Orra White Hitchcock, Graceanna Lewis, and Mary Morland Buckland. Mainly using traditional two-dimensional styles, they portrayed ancient vertebrate fossils in graphite and ink drawings. Paleoartist Alice Bolingbroke Woodward introduced vibrant pen and watercolor reconstructions. Although female paleoartists were initially largely unrecognized, in the twentieth century they gained notice by illustrating important books on prehistoric vertebrate life. Paid employment and college and university training increased by the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, with larger institutions providing stable jobs. The “Dinosaur Renaissance” of the late 1960s gave a boost to new paleo-artistry. Women paleoartists became more prominent in the later twentieth to twenty-first centuries with the development of new art techniques, computer-based art, and use of the internet. Increasingly, there is encouragement and support for women paleoartists through the Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) movement.

ABSTRACT The National Museum of Ireland’s natural history collections include a range of large format artworks, many of paleontological subjects, which were painted by George Victor Du Noyer, the celebrated nineteenth-century geologist, antiquarian, and artist who worked for both the Ordnance Survey of Ireland and the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI). Letterbook references in the archives of GSI indicate that most, if not all of these, were commissioned by Joseph Beete Jukes, director of the GSI, for different public lecture series. The artistic qualities of the work suggest they were done at speed. However, they also are designed to be seen from a distance within a lecture hall, so an apparently crude technique is appropriate to the purpose. In effect, the watercolor paintings in this series are the PowerPoint presentation of the 1850s.

ABSTRACT Some fossil examples are rare, but the educational value of such samples is undeniable. One way around this dilemma, and one that was popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s, was to have students study 3-D models; this solution was used by many universities, among them Cornell University. One of the main, but not the only, suppliers of such models was Ward’s Natural Science Establishment of Rochester, New York, USA, which was founded in 1862 by Henry Augustus Ward (1834–1906). Even today the use of virtual, computer-generated 3-D models in classroom laboratories indicates how important 3-D visualization continues to be. But a computer image cannot be held in one’s hands, so the use of 3-D printer technology allows students to create their own physical models. However, none of these technologies can totally replace seeing and working with actual specimens or life-sized reproductions. Thus, museum displays are still an important aspect of educational activity for both students and the general public. This chapter explores how Cornell University made use of the models purchased from Ward’s in the late 1800s and the fate of some of these replicas.