June 10, 2015

Support PaleoArt with the Jurassic World Challenge

Dinosaurs are as electrifying to the public as they have ever been, and the revival of the the Jurassic Park movies with director Colin Trevorrow's Jurassic World is a lightning rod.

People love 'em - and hopefully museums around the world will see a surge in attendence following the Jurassic World's release. But where else can you channel your excitement?

By Glendon Mellow

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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

Dinosaurs are as electrifying to the public as they have ever been, and the revival of the the Jurassic Park movies with director Colin Trevorrow's Jurassic World is a lightning rod.

People love 'em - and hopefully museums around the world will see a surge in attendence following the Jurassic World's release. But where else can you channel your excitement?

Designer and paleoartist David Orr (@anatotitan) of the blog Love in the Time of the Chasmosaurs and book Mammoth is Mopey has come up with an idea:

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Like many areas of science, palaeontology is underfunded; and for paleontological illustrators, they are often left scrambling for crumbs falling off the table from the researcher's meagre meal. Similar to medical illustration, paleontology illustration takes an immense amount of anatomical training and internalized scientific experience to be able to do accurately and well - and that assumes the illustrator has the artistic chops to make a great image. It is more than doodling RAWR-ing dinosaurs running around.

David Orr is hoping to tap into the excitement around Jurassic World and see people take up his challenge: see the movie, then spend the price of a ticket supporting real world paleontological research, or paleotological illustration. Buy some paleoart for your wall! Help fund a researcher's crowdfunding campaign!

Fantastic idea. Make sure to visit his blog, Love in the Time of the Chasmosaurs, to see some of his suggestions about people and work you can support, or leave your own suggestions here in our comments below.

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