Source by: Claire Dearing on Quora
In 1878, a large Iguanodon burial was found in Belgium; four years later, paleontologist Louis Dollo made public a mounted skeleton. This image lasted until the 1980s:
Source by: nplus1.ru
The revolution in dinosaur research, known as the “Dinosaur Renaissance,” also affected the iguanodon. Its close relatives were discovered, and in the 1980s, paleontologist David Norman wanted to compare them to the Iguanodon… but he discovered that the Iguanodon had not been described since Dollo’s time. Norman described the dinosaur skeleton in detail. Today, the Iguanodon is depicted like this:
Source by: nplus1.ru
The “Second Renaissance” began at the turn of the 21st century. New information from archaeological digs in China and Mongolia, as well as technological advancements, have altered the dinosaurs’ appearance once more.
The Tyrannosaurus, for example. It was a fast, muscular creature in the Jurassic Park movie. It ran as fast as a jeep, with its tail never touching the ground.
Source by: nplus1.ru
In 2004, an older relative of Tyrannosaurus was described, the Dilong (Dilong paradoxus), and in 2012, the Yutyrannus (Yutyrannus huali). Both are known for having thick short filamentous feathers that resemble those of the emu ostrich. The question arose right away: What about the Tyrannosaurus itself? Is it possible that it also inherited plumage from its forefathers? That’s why, between 2012 and 2017, many images of Tyrannosaurus appeared in this vein:
Source by: Britannica
In 2017, an article was published summarizing all the data on the covers of Tyrannosaurus and its relatives. Few skin prints were ever found: just a few square centimeters from the pelvis, neck, and tail, but nothing that looked like feathers.
Paleo-artists are also involved in color reconstruction in addition to body shape reconstruction. Recent research suggests that our assumptions about dinosaur coloring may have been incorrect as well.
