Page 22 - Introduction to Paleobiology and The Fossil Record

PALEONTOLOGY AS A SCIENCE 9

monplace to see color paintings of scenes
from ancient times, rendered by skilful artists STEPS TO UNDERSTANDING
and supervised by reputable paleontologists.
Moving dinosaurs, of course, have had a long Earliest fossil fi nds
history in Hollywood movies through the Fossils are very common in certain kinds of
20th century, but paleontologists waited until rocks, and they are often attractive and beau-
the technology allowed more realistic com- tiful objects. It is probable that people picked
puter-generated renditions in the 1990s, fi rst up fossils long ago, and perhaps even won-
in Jurassic Park (1993), and then in Walking dered why shells of sea creatures are now
with Dinosaurs (1999), and now in hundreds found high in the mountains, or how a per-

of films and documentaries each year (Box fectly preserved fish specimen came to lie
1.2). Despite the complaints from some pale- buried deep within layers of rock. Prehistoric
ontologists about the mixing of fact and spec- peoples picked up fossils and used them as

ulation in films and TV documentaries, their ornaments, presumably with little understand-
own museums often use the same technolo- ing of their meaning.
gies in their displays! Some early speculations about fossils by
The slow evolution of reconstructions the classical authors seem now very sensible
of ancient life over the centuries refl ects to modern observers. Early Greeks such as
the growth of paleontology as a discipline. Xenophanes (576–480 bce) and Herodotus
How did the fi rst scientists understand (484–426 bce) recognized that some fossils
fossils? were marine organisms, and that these

Box 1.2 Bringing the sabertooths to life

Everyone’s image of dinosaurs and ancient life changed in 1993. Steven Spielberg’s fi lm Jurassic Park
was the first to use the new techniques of computer-generated imagery (CGI) to produce realistic

animations. Older dinosaur films had used clay models or lizards with cardboard crests stuck on
their backs. These looked pretty terrible and could never be taken seriously by paleontologists. Up
to 1993, dinosaurs had been reconstructed seriously only as two-dimensional paintings and three-
dimensional museum models. CGI made those superlative color images move.
Following the huge success of Jurassic Park, Tim Haines at the BBC in London decided to try to
use the new CGI techniques to produce a documentary series about dinosaurs. Year by year, desktop
computers were becoming more powerful, and the CGI software was becoming more sophisticated.
What had once cost millions of dollars now cost only thousands. This resulted in the series Walking

with Dinosaurs, first shown in 1999 and 2000.
Following the success of that series, Haines and the team moved into production of the follow-up,
Walking with Beasts, shown first in 2001. There were six programs, each with six or seven key

beasts. Each of these animals was studied in depth by consultant paleontologists and artists, and a
carefully measured clay model (maquette) was made. This was the basis for the animation. The
maquette was laser scanned, and turned into a virtual “stick model” that could be moved in the
computer to simulate running, walking, jumping and other actions.

While the models were being developed, BBC film crews went round the world to fi lm the back-
ground scenery. Places were chosen that had the right topography, climatic feel and plants. Where
ancient mammals splashed through water, or grabbed a branch, the action (splashing, movement of
the branch) had to be filmed. Then the animated beasts were married with the scenery in the studios

of Framestore, the CGI company. This is hard to do, because shadowing and reflections had to be
added, so the animals interacted with the backgrounds. If they run through a forest, they have to
disappear behind trees and bushes, and their muscles have to move beneath their skin (Fig. 1.5); all
this can be semiautomated through the CGI software.

Continued