Exhibition: Palaeoart - Reconstructing the Past

Palaeoart is the term used to describe artwork that attempts to reconstruct prehistoric animals and their habitats using fossil material and the latest scientific knowledge.

This display brings together a wide range of palaeoart, from nearly 200 years ago to the present day.

Artists and scientists depicted long-lost creatures together for the first time in the early nineteenth century – around the same time as scientists began seriously studying prehistoric life. As our knowledge and understanding has grown, artists have been able to make increasingly realistic depictions of the fascinating creatures that once existed.

Today, palaeoartists often work with digital media, though they still collaborate with scientists to create accurate depictions. Using new evidence and ideas, they continue to help us understand how extinct creatures once lived, moved and behaved.