March 2, 2013

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Dinosaur-Mail: Postal Service, Prehistoric Pop-Art & Plagiarism

By David Bressan

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

The first postage stamp featuring a prehistoric beast was a stamp from India (1951), celebrating the centenary of the Geological Survey of India it showed the reconstruction of the fossil elephant species Stegodon ganesca. In 1958 Cuba released a stamp dedicated to the naturalist Carlos de la Torre y Huerta (1858 - 1950), showing the giant sloth Megalocnus rodens.

In the same year China issued the very first stamp showing a dinosaur - the Chinese prosauropod Lufengosaurus. Belgium followed with the more prominent Iguanodon. From there dinosaurs will appear on postage stamps from Poland and San Marino (1965), Congo (1975), Germany (1977), Mongolia and Nicaragua (1987). The U.S. will dedicate four values to Pteranodon, Tyrannosaurus, Brontosaurus and Stegosaurus in 1989.

Fig.1.The small republic of San Marino issued a series of nine values, showing a Brontosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Pteranodon, Elasmosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, Stegosaurus, Thaumatosaurus, Iguanodon and Triceratops -mostly in dull colors (all images are in public domain).

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Fig.2. An interesting series of psychedelic postage stamps from Tanzania (1991), presenting the first (very) colorful dinosaurs.

Fig.3. Many editions of stamps with dinosaurs are intended for collectors - therefore often more aesthetic appealing as scientific accurate. Sometimes the motif is even simply copied from other artists or publications, like these two specimens, copies from the Saltopus by Jane Burton and the Tyrannosaurus by Doug Henderson.

Fig.4. The first postage stamps showing tracks of dinosaurs were released in Lesotho in 1984.

Fig.5. Evolutionary ladder in a Polish edition, illustrations by artist Andrzej Heidrich (he designed also advertising posters and Polish banknotes).

Fig.6. Not only "living dinosaurs" - a German series (1990) celebrates with dinosaur-skeletons 100 years Museum for Natural History in Berlin.

Fig.7. The End...

Bibliography:

THENIUS, E. & VAVRA, N. (1996): Fossilien im Volksglauben und im Alltag - Bedeutung und Verwendung vorzeitlicher Tier- und Pflanzenreste von der Steinzeit bis heute. Senckenberg-Buch 71, Waldemar Kramer Verlag - Frankfurt am Main: 179

My name is David Bressan and I'm a freelance geologist working mainly in the Austroalpine crystalline rocks and the South Alpine Palaeozoic and Mesozoic cover-sediments in the Eastern Alps. I graduated with a project on Rock Glaciers dynamics and hydrology, this phase left a special interest for quaternary deposits and modern glacial environments. During my research on glaciers, studying old maps, photography and reports on the former extent of these features, I became interested in history, especially the development of geomorphologic and geological concepts by naturalists and geologists. Living in one of the key area for the history of geology, I combine field trips with the historic research done in these regions, accompanied by historic maps and depictions. I discuss broadly also general geological concepts, especially in glaciology, seismology, volcanology, palaeontology and the relationship of society and geology.

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