Vintage Dinosaur Art: More Peter Zallinger

One of the earliest Vintage Dinosaur Art posts featured illustrations by Peter Zallinger, son of the great Rudolf Zallinger. Tricia Arnold has been so kind as to add more of his work to the flickr pool, coming from the 1986 Random House title Dinosaurs and other Archosaurs. It's one of the rare books that gives space to the "other archosaurs."

Tricia writes, "One of the more interesting mini-trends I have noticed in these old dinosaur books is the tendency to show two dueling theories at once, apparently just in case one of them proves false. Therefore, Zallinger gives us a furry Cynodont and a naked Cynodont."



The bizarre feet above aside, I think Zallinger's style improved between the book from the previous post and this one. They're not perfect, but for the mid-1980's, they're pretty accurate, and reflect the ideas of the dinosaur renaissance in general while staying away from radical conjectures.





Still, there's something awful scrawny about a lot of these critters. Noodly necks and limbs in desperate need of some musculature.



Let's all give Tricia a mighty high-five for sharing these. Also, if getting your mind blown is your bag, see these size comparisons she found in an old drawing instruction book. Total weirdness!