How Do We Know What Dinosaurs Looked Like?

YOU’VE SEEN ENOUGH MUSEUM models, illustrations, and CGI predators that you’d likely recognize a Tyrannosaurus rex if you saw one.

- By Sara Chodosh

But how can you be sure? Nobody has ever clapped eyes on one in real life, and even the best skeletons are often only 90 percent complete. Specialists called paleo artists do base their re- creations on hard evidence (bones, feathers, and bits of skin) but, just as often, well- informed guesses. We may never know exactly how T. rex and other prehistoric creatures like the Microraptor gui looked, but here’s how we landed on the current incarnations of these deceased beasts.

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Tyrannosaurs’ smooth, toothy skulls are quite reptilian. But unlike crocs or gators, dinosaurs were terrestrial, so they may have needed to trap moisture inside their mouths to stay hydrated. That’s why many depictions have partial lips, more akin to lizards. Studying eye sockets tells artists how to orient the peepers. Frontward-angled holes, such as those on the Microraptor, would have pointed the eyeballs ahead.

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