David Thomas

[Farlow@IPFW.EDU (Farlow,James)]

     With great sorrow I report the sudden death of Dave Thomas on the 17th 
     of last month.  Dave died almost instantly at home, probably of a 
     massive heart attack.
     
     Dave had few equals as a sculptor of convincing models of dinosaurs 
     and other prehistoric animals.  His _Ceratosaurus_ is one of my 
     favorite pieces, and I'm sure many of you have seen the life-sized 
     _Pentaceratops_ and _Albertosaurus) Dave did for the New Mexico 
     Museum.  Dave blended an artist's sensitivity with a naturalist's 
     attention to detail.
     
     Dave and I worked together on Early Cretaceous dinosaur footprints in 
     the bed of the Paluxy River at Dinosaur Valley State Park, Glen Rose, 
     Texas.  Some of you have undoubtedly seen the short article we did on 
     R.T. Bird's interpretation of the Paluxy's theropod-sauropod "chase" 
     sequence of trackways for Scientific American a couple years ago.  
     Last year Dave and I worked on location at Dinosaur Valley and his 
     studio on a film about the chase sequence ("Dinosaur Attack") that is 
     scheduled to be aired on the Discovery Channel on September 6th.  We 
     had a great time making this film, agreeing and disagreeing in an 
     animated fashion over the details of interpreting what the two 
     dinosaurs were doing.
     
     I know Dave had a ball working on this film.  When you see it, I hope 
     you will think of him, and be as wowed by the life-sized 
     _Acrocanthosaurus_ model he sculpted for it as I was.  Paleoart has 
     truly lost one of its giants.
     
     Jim Farlow