You Won't Be Able To Recognize These Modern Animals Drawn Like Dinosaurs

They didn't forget about humans either, because we're animals too.

By
Natasha Umer
by Natasha Umer

BuzzFeed Staff

This is what Hollywood thinks dinosaurs looked like:

Universal / Via giphy.com

This is a scary monster that will EAT YOU.

But this is what scientists think dinosaurs might have looked like:

Discovery / Via youtube.com

Isn't this little guy just so colorful and fabulous?

Why the hell do we imagine dinosaurs in such a terrifying way in the first place?

Basically, Hollywood dinosaurs just look like fossils with skin draped over it. That's because those artists tend to base their drawings on the fossils alone, while ignoring what the animal might have looked like with layers of fat and other things.

Paleoartists John Conway and C.M. Kosemen drew animals like the way Hollywood draws dinosaurs to show us why dinosaur art can sometimes be so flawed. And you can barely recognize the animals. Check it out:

This is what a baboon would look like. Isn't it horrifying?

http://C.M. Koseman / Via amazon.com

The baboon probably looks so scary because of its accentuated teeth. Intimidating teeth are a common dinosaur trope.

"In the real world, even lizards have a sort of gummy tissue covering their mouths. The teeth, even in really large-toothed animals, are seldom visible," C.M. Kosemen told BuzzFeed over email.

And this creature is actually a zebra.

http://C.M. Kosemen / Via amazon.com

"The most common error is taking the skeleton and putting in muscle, and then shrink-wrapping the skin onto that shape. This ignores fat deposits, flaps of skin and other soft tissue that living animals have," John Conway told BuzzFeed over email.

This is what a cow would look.

John Conway / Via amazon.com

Notice how the tail is catlike, like the velociraptors' tails in Jurassic World. In reality, velociraptors didn't have flexible tails.

This is what your cute little cat would look like.

John Conway / Via amazon.com

Fluffy? Is that you?

"The most likely color for any given animal is grayish brown, but we’d argue that always painting dinosaurs grayish brown is actually misleading! Sometimes they would be brightly colored," said Conway.

And these are what swans would look like.

http://C.M. Kosemen / Via amazon.com

Notice how the wings are replaced with these alien-like, dinosaur arms? Kosemen says the "bunny hands" drawn in carnivorous dinosaurs are wrong.

This python looks like it's about to attack someone.

John Conway / Via amazon.com

Kosemen says that dinosaurs are drawn "screaming and killing each other."

"We can't deny that nature is a violent place, but predators spend most of their time resting, in calm and restrained composures," he said.

This strange creature is actually an elephant.

http://C.M. Koseman / Via amazon.com

"Paleontological art had in many cases been ignoring interesting possibilities when it comes to body covering, behavior, and other things, and stuck itself in a rut," said Conway.

And this adorable furry thing is actually a cold-blooded iguana.

John Conway / Via amazon.com

Sometimes, paleoartists incorrectly draw dinosaurs' skin texture. We all know iguanas, for example, are not actually furry. Similarly, lots of dinosaurs were not scaly, many of them even had feathers.

This parasitic-looking thing is a hummingbird.

John Conway / Via amazon.com

Thankfully, they don't actually suck mammalian blood.

Finally, this is what we, HUMANS, would look like.

http://C.M. Koseman / Via amazon.com

OMG!

If you'd like to see more illustrations, check out the book: All Yesterdays: Unique and Speculative Views of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals.

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