How Dinosaur Drawings Have Evolved

Many people visit the fossil hall at Chicago's Field Museum for the dinosaurs; but a certain kind of art lover goes for the murals. Originally painted by the famed wildlife artist Charles R. Knight in the late 1920s, each of the hall's 28 murals presents an elegantly composed moment in time: armored squid tossed onto a desolate Ordovician beach, a duel between Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops, saber-toothed cats snarling at flocks of giant vulture-like Teratornis. There's a dreamy quality to the images, impressionistic landscapes blending with vibrant animal figures. It doesn't quite matter that the renderings are now scientifically out of date; they're convincingly alive.