
Tarbosaurus and armored dinosaur by Konstantin Konstantinovich Flyorov (c.1955) —
Flyorov, a Russian scientist and museum director, reveled in color above all else. His paintings are among the most dazzling and unusual in the paleoart canon.

Mammoth by Zdenek Burian (1941) —
Distinctive silhouettes of the distant mammoths recall those painted on cave walls thousands of years ago. Perhaps Burian, who spent so much time imagining the prehistoric world, felt a certain kinship with the Paleolithic artists who first depicted these animals.

Inostrancevia, devouring a Pareiasaurus by Alexei Petrovich Bystrow (1933) —
These two species cropped up regularly in Soviet--era paleoart. Konstantin Konstantinovich Flyorov, who painted the same beasts early in his career, despised Bystrow's interpretation, snidely calling the rival artist "color blind."

The Primitive World by Adolphe François Pannemaker (1857) —
For the earliest paleoartists, fossil bones were blank slates upon which they could project their own imaginative elaborations. Pannemaker's image served as the frontispiece for W. F. A. Zimmerman's "Le monde avant la création de l'homme (1857)."

Tyrannosaurus and Edmontosaurus by Ely Kish (c. 1976) —
One of the rare women working in the field, Canadian artist Ely Kish's subjects endure extreme weather conditions in scenes that may reflect the growing awareness of global climate change during her lifetime.

Laelaps by Charles R. Knight (1897) —
Charles R. Knight was one of the foremost American paleoartists. These predators likely represent paleontologists Othniel C. Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope, whose savage competition defined early American paleontology.

The Ichthyosaur and the Plesiosaur by Edouard Riou; engraved by Laurent Hotelin and Alexandre Hurel (1863) —
From the very beginning, artists and scientists portrayed ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs as dire enemies. The reptiles, warring above the waves, became the single most prevalent motif in nineteenth-century paleoart.

Model-Room at the Crystal Palace by Philip Henry Delamotte (1853) —
Concrete monsters materialized within a workshop on the grounds of the Crystal Palace, a revolutionary glass and cast-iron structure used to house the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Paleoart Visions of the Prehistoric Past —
Taschen's new book "Dinosaurs Are Forever: Visions of the Prehistoric Past" explores the art of paleontology throughout history.