The prehistoric creature dinosaur is perceived as a large and fierce beast. Because of this, foreign scientists gave it the Greek name “deinos” (terror) “lizard” (sauros), which the Chinese simplified and translated as “dinosaur (“dinosaur”).
New research shows that dinosaurs were not always fierce-looking, and some may have looked like human poultry or pets.
No one has ever seen what a living dinosaur actually looked like, and scientists can only reason from fossil data to create models. From the names given to them to the influential movie “Jurassic Park,” dinosaurs have been depicted as ferocious monsters.
Recently, Robert Nicholls, a paleontology artist at the University of Bristol, and Jakob Vinther, a paleontologist, have created a model of Psittacosaurus based on fossil analysis data, and they never thought it would look so Cute.
Pudgy
Psittacosaurus was a herbivorous dinosaur, about the size of a Labrador today. Nichols and Winter collaborated to create a model based on a fossilized Psittacosaurus skeleton unearthed in China decades ago: a bird-like beak, a flattened head, two horns on the left and right cheeks, and a pair of round eyes – they named it Pudgy.
Winter told the news network inverse that the dinosaur model is the “most accurate” one yet, “it looks so real, we were really shocked.”
Nichols said, “If the restored model looks unusual or different from what was imagined, that’s a good thing, it means we’re not building a model based on preconceived notions.”
The fossilized Psittacosaurus skeleton, numbered SMF R 4970, is well preserved and even retains some soft tissue information like skin and feathers on it. It probably sank to the bottom of a freshwater lake during the Cretaceous period (145 million years ago to 66 million years ago). The environment at the bottom of the lake preserved some of its soft tissues, such as its tail ridge that looks like a porcupine’s bristle, and especially some melanin sacs that help scientists understand the information about the dinosaur’s true color.
Nicholls is an excellent paleontological artist. Winter commented on his work, saying that unlike the stiff models commonly seen in museums or the mastodons seen inside the movie “Jurassic Park,” Nichols’ restored paleontology pieces are more lifelike. “He is able to give it a dynamic realism based on accurate scientific data.”
A journey through the forest with a clay model
Winter said the animals died more than 100 million years ago, and to restore the details of their likenesses relies heavily on the play of imagination. But the 3-D model they built this time incorporates the masterpieces of ancient artist Robert Nicholls, based on all the real data from this fossilized skeleton, and verifies it in a real natural environment.
”Instead of ‘making up a reason’ to explain why an animal looked like this, we tried and showed it (in a real environment).” Winter said.
They first built a clay billet version of the model and had a set of ideas for the markings on its body. Winter and Nichols took the gray model on a special trip to the forest. In the forest, the sunlight filtered through the dense foliage and cast dappled shadows on the model, exactly as they had envisioned the body pattern, thus confirming the speculation that the dinosaur lived in a forest environment. This finding was published as a study in 2016.
Body anti-shade color layout
This Psittacosaurus fossil fortunately retains some tiny color sacs, which Nichols explains would have been reddish-brown, judging by their oval shape. Based on this, Nichols built a reddish-brown dinosaur with some black spots on it.
After repeated discussions between the two, the image of Humpty Dumpty was finally pieced together little by little. When the entire model was completed, they found that its scale color has countershading (countershading) layout. This is a type of protective coloration for animals, which is usually darker on the upper part of the body and gradually lighter on the lower part. With such a color distribution, when living in a place like a forest, they look inconspicuous in the sunlight and play a concealing effect.
Lovely persistence
Nicholls says: “There are people who disagree about whether we should keep it so cute. But I think there are just very cute animals in the world. We shouldn’t hold on to the old idea that dinosaurs are all monsters. They are not.”
Now, there are two “Humpty Dumptys” in the world: one at the British Royal Mint and the other at Nichols’ home. Nicholls said that as research progresses, there is so much information to be extracted from the fossils that in order for Humpty Dumpty to maintain the crown of “highest accuracy”, he must continue to improve it based on the latest findings, making it ever better.
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