Re: Dinosaur illustrations

[John Schneiderman <dino@revelation.unomaha.edu>]

> Many books etc contain illustrations of dinos known from only 1 or 2 bones.
> Leaving aside the often considerable artistic talent exhibited, do these
> really contribute anything useful? What should be the minimum skeletal
> material required before an artist gets a crack at it?

It depends on which bones you have and how diagnostic or comparative they 
are to better known dinosaurs.

Illustration of the dinosaur head:
  Just a reasonably complete skull or parts that are strongly similar to 
another dinosaur

Illustration of the whole dinosaur:
  20% or more (hopefully some limbs, good portion of the vertebral 
column, and all articulated would be great)

The neat thing about a good artist is their imagination filling in all 
the gaps the bone that are missing leave.

---John Schneiderman (dino@revelation.unomaha.edu)