Paleo-artist Jason Poole’s rendering of Laccognathus embryi in its subtropical habitat during the Devonian period.
Researchers discovered a new species of ancient fish, Laccognathus embryi, in the Canadian Arctic where the climate was subtropical 400 million years ago in the Devonian period. The remains of Laccognathus consist of only the creature’s fossilized skull, which was large enough to imply the fish grew to about 5 or 6 feet long. The fish had a wide head with very small eyes and robust jaws lined with large piercing teeth (Laccognathus = pitted jaw).
So what is an artist to do when asked to reconstruct something from only a head? Jason Poole, an accomplished paleo-artist and colleague of the discovery team found a solution for the illustration that accompanied the press release. His drawing focuses on the head and essentially hides the rest of the body. All too often artists and the scientists they work with make huge speculative leaps regarding the appearance of a creature for which there is little fossil evidence. Take, for example, this illustration by paleo-artist Jim Robbins of Grallator, an animal known only from fossilized tracks.
–Chris Sloan with Justine Benanty
Paleo-artist Jim Robbin's interpretation of Grallator using only fossilized trackways
