What is an Artist Reconstruction?

Fossils have always been a source of wonder and mystery. The remains of ancient organisms spark both imagination and scientific questioning. When remnants of organisms are discovered, it is natural to wonder what they looked like before the fossilzation process.

An artistic reconstruction is a visual hypothesis, based on fossil evidence. They are not a "for sure" thing and often change as new evidence and new studies are made. This is why at some museums and in old movies you will see dinosaurs with tails dragging on the ground!

Reconstructions at Florissant Fossil Beds

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is a fossil site with a spectacular array of well-preserved fossils. Due to the fine-grained volcanic clays, carbon imprints of animals and plants from 34.07 million years ago provide a look into the past. These fossils are often highly-detailed—even showing the individual lens on an insect's compound eye. They are flattened and retain no original color. It is sometimes difficult to envision what that fossil organism might have looked like when it was alive.

How These Reconstructions Were Made

Below are two videos that show time-lapses of the creation of one of the Palaeovespa reconstructions. The first spans thirty seconds and condenses the process down while the second is close to fifteen minutes long. This is far shorter than the actual time it took to create, which was nearly 19 hours!

Sometimes small changes make big differences, so if you are having trouble seeing was is going on, look closer.

What you will see?

For the reconstructions of Florissant's flora and fauna, the artist began with high-quality photographs of the fossils. These images were put into a computer program and traced over to create a template similar to a coloring book outline to use as a base for the drawing. Body parts that are missing or distorted from the fossilization process were replaced by referenccing other parts of the fossil or other fossils of the same type to determine how the missing pieces looked. Then, like a coloring book, color was added along with details. Fianlly, shadows and highlights were added to give the images a 3-D appearence.