Mark A. Klingler (photo: Mindy McNaugher)

Research Assistant Mark A. Klingler, whose work is often seen accompanying published accounts of new discoveries by CMNH curators, was recently promoted to Scientific Illustrator. Two of his illustrations have even been used as cover images by Science. Visitors to the Museum will soon get to see Klingler’s artwork in an exhibit entitled, Fur, Feathers and Fossils: The Art of Mark A. Klingler that opens on June 10 (through October 8).

The show will encompass many of Klingler’s illustrations, and show the steps involved in his reconstructions of fossil specimens, from raised line-art to the progressive fleshing out stages, to articulated skeleton, to finished model. To see some of Mark's recent work, click the New Fossil Discoveries link on the left.

The process of illustrating a long-extinct animal is often painstaking. Klingler must rely on clues which scientists deduce both from the fossils themselves and from modern relatives and plants living today, to render an image of what animals looked like millions of years ago. During his career at CMNH, Klingler has illustrated fossil mammals, dinosaurs, insects, living mammals, birds, and many other taxa for scientific and popular publications, museum exhibits, posters, and other programmatic uses.