A new book radically re-imagines how dinosaurs may have looked based on contemporary scientific speculation.
Our traditional conception of dinosaurs as sleek, leathery animals is based on images created by palaeoartists, who specialise in imagining extinct creatures by studying their skeletons.
The problem is that these sparse remains cannot tell us the whole story, offering little information about layers of body fat, skin type, colouring or poise.
Cute: A Tyrannosaurus rex is pictured how it might have looked while asleep. A new book called All Yesterdays offers radically different perspectives on how dinosaurs might have looked
With an introduction by renowned palaeontologist Darren Naish, the book first corrects from misconceptions from famous dinosaur art, before speculating over the 'unknown unknowns' of the genre.
Naish writes: 'Palaeontologists and palaeoartists talk about these sorts of ideas all the time-about the possibility that extinct animals were insanely flamboyant, that they had super-sized genitalia, or that they were insulated from the cool or even cold environments they sometimes inhabited by fat, thick skin, or fuzzy coats-but this is the first time ideas of this sort have been extensively discussed in print.'
En flagrante delicto: Here the artists who have put together the book imagine a stegosaurus in the midst of an intimate moment with another dinosaur
New perspectives: Left is Majungasaurus crenatissimus shown from the front, as opposed to side on as it is usually presented. Right shows Leaellynasaura amicagraphica in an experiment to see what they would have looked like if they were fat with giant tufted tails, rather than sleek and slim as dinosaurs are usually imagined
Fierce beasts like Tyrannosaurus rex are typically shown in the middle of bloodily savaging their next meal, but modern day predators spend most of their days sleeping and digesting.
So Kosemen and Conway present the beast sleeping, curled up like a cat, making it look almost lovable.
Climbing to safety: Goats are able to climb trees, although their skeletons look as though they are not adapted to it, so the artists imagined proceratops exhibiting the same kind of behaviour
Lying in wait: This picture shows a plesiosaur, which are typically imagined in dynamic pose as they pounce on prey. Instead it's hiding in muck and algae near the shore, waiting for a meal to drift by
A third image shows proceratops - a small species related to Triceratops - standing in the branches of a tree, following the behaviour of modern goats, which can climb trees even though their skeletons don't suggest they can.
Fierce: The artists show the speculative nature of dinosaur with this striking image, which shows how a baboon skeleton may have been imagined by a palaeoartist
Sleek: Here is their representation of how a common cow might be drawn, based on its skeleton
Curiosity: A house cat, drawn as a palaeoartist might imagine it
A baboon becomes a fierce long-limbed, bloodthirsty predator, by assuming its body was the exact shape of its skeleton, while a house cat peers over its shoulder with a reptilian face.
The All Yesterdays launch event will be held in London on the 7th of December at Conway Hall.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2243526/The-book-change-way-dinosaurs-We-think-sleek-fierce-fat-furry.html#ixzz2EYaEONw2
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