Re: Indian Fossil Legends and paleo-artists

[Adrienne Mayor <afmayor@aol.com>]

On Jul 10, 2005, at 10:28 AM, Patti wrote:

>For those of us who can't make the talk, at least check out this 
review of Adrienne's book.  It's a bit short on paleontological focus, 
but  is a decent overview of the archeological aspects.  (When you get 
the book, check out my snazzy fossil illustrations!) - Patti

Patti's drawings for "Fossil Legends" are indeed superb: Fig 15 
compares the skulls of Arctodus simus and a living grizzly bear; Fig 18 
shows a Hadrosaurus femur with a Delaware (Lenape) clay pipe for scale, 
to illustrate an old Delaware story about smoking powdered dinosaur 
fossils from New Jersey!

Several other paleontologists and artists contributed illustrations to 
the book.

Pete Von Sholly's fantastic "Spirit Battle" appears on the cover and in 
fig 66; Von Sholly's Turok-style paintings also appear in figs 54 
(vision quest with plesiosaurs) and fig 63 (Indian battling an 
Allosaurus).

Ed Heck illustrated an Iroquois tale of a boy racing the Monster Bear 
(fig 13). Heck also drew the Aztecs showing the Spanish conquistadors a 
giant fossil (fig 20), and an Indian travois loaded with big fossil 
bones (fig 52).

Rick Spears drew a scene comparing the sizes of a Pleistocene teratorn, 
California condor, and an eagle (fig 29). Spears also drew fig 34, a 
phytosaur skull and teeth, with an arrowhead for scale; and a nifty 
group of armored dinosaurs whose scutes figured in Navajo legend, 
Stegosaurus, Scutellosaurus, Desmatosuchus, Eryops, and Ankylosaurus 
appear in fig 35.

Peter Faris, rock art specialist in Colorado, drew a Horned Water 
Monster threatening an Indian war canoe (fig 3) and the Pawnee carvings 
on a giant fossil "medicine" bone (fig 50).

Doug Wolfe's photo of the recently discovered Zuniceratops appears in 
fig 32.

Mike Everhart's photo of a beautiful flint point with fossil fusulinid 
inclusions from the Flint Hills, Kansas, is fig 51.

The Spanish conquistador contemplating a Pentaceratops skull weathering 
out of the desert was drawn by Michele Angel (fig 30).

Gary Williams of "Dinosaur World" magazine gave permission to use an 
old engraving he owns from 1898, the Great Spirit zapping a carnivorous 
4-tusked mastodon with lightning.

David Parris found a rare old photo of a Lakota fossil guide who worked 
for Princeton paleontologists Glenn Jepson and William Sinclair and the 
South Dakota School of Mines excavations in the Badlands (fig 79)

Fig 67 is a nostalgic painting for paleontologists who recall an 
out-of-print children's book from the 1950s, discussed a year or so ago 
on the list. Sioux warriors discovering a Pteranodon fossil after a 
lightning storm was painted by Russell Peterson in Darlene Geis's 1959 
"Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals."