The first life-like sketch of an amniote shows a critter chasing a dragonfly. Sir William Dawson's diorama from "Air Breathers of the Coal Period" (1863), is based largely on the fossil record at Joggins, Nova Scotia, and is one of the earliest reconstructions of the Coal Age wetlands.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Sir-William-Dawsons-dior...

Our knowledge of that time period has expanded so much since 1863. In my book, I asked the illustrator to give a nod to Dawson's drawing by having an amniote chase a dragonfly:

https://impacts.to/downloads/lowres/impacts.pdf#page=18

I had to click and read to satisfy my curiosity of what "life restoration" was in this context.

I was expecting Jurassic Park action but found the old illustrations to be surprisingly delightful.

Apparently "life restoration" is a standard term for depictions of extinct life. I never knew.

So where are the depictions of dragons and cyclopses rendered by earlier historians looking at found bones? Or is there some arbitrary line whereafter still horribly incorrect drawings somehow qualify as scientific? We laugh at taildraggers today. Future people will laugh at the naked and lipless renderings we have created.

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