Visualizing the Mammals That Ate Dinosaurs

Artist James Gurney explains how he modeled and painted the extinct Volaticotherium featured on Scientific American’s June 2016 cover and inside the magazine. Central to his reconstruction was a model with anatomically accurate muscles built atop fossil bones. 

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James Gurney is the author and illustrator of the New York Times bestselling Dinotopia book series. He designed the World of Dinosaurs stamps for the U.S. Postal Service and Australia's Age of Dinosaurs stamps for Australia Post. Solo exhibitions of his artwork have been presented at the Smithsonian Institution, the Norman Rockwell Museum, and the Norton Museum of Art. His art instruction books Imaginative Realism and Color and Light have become textbooks in art schools. His full length video tutorials can be found on his website jamesgurney.com.

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