Gregory Scott Paul (born December 24, 1954) is an American freelance researcher, author and illustrator who works in
paleontology
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
, and more recently has examined sociology and theology. He is best known for his work and research on
theropod
Theropoda (; ), whose members are known as theropods, is a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally c ...
dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
s and his detailed illustrations, both live and skeletal.
[Paleoartistry: 1970s](_blank)
/ref> Professionally investigating and restoring dinosaurs for three decades, Paul received an on-screen credit as dinosaur specialist on ''Jurassic Park
''Jurassic Park'', later also referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton and centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of cloned dinosaurs. It began in 1990 when ...
'' and Discovery Channel's '' When Dinosaurs Roamed America'' and '' Dinosaur Planet''. He is the author and illustrator of ''Predatory Dinosaurs of the World'' (1988), ''The Complete Illustrated Guide to Dinosaur Skeletons'' (1996), ''Dinosaurs of the Air'' (2001), ''The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs
''The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs'' is a reference work on dinosaurs written by the paleontologist and paleoartist Gregory S. Paul. It was first published by Princeton University Press in 2010. In the United Kingdom it was published by A & C ...
'' (2010), ''Gregory S. Paul's Dinosaur Coffee Table Book'' (2010), ''The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs: 2nd Edition'' (2016), ''The Princeton Field Guide to Pterosaurs'' (2022), ''The Princeton Field Guide to Mesozoic Sea Reptiles'' (2022) and editor of ''The Scientific American Book of Dinosaurs'' (2000).
Paul's recent research on the interactions of religion and society has received international press and media coverage.
Paleontology
Illustrations
Paul helped pioneer the "new look" of dinosaurs in the 1970s.[Gregory S. Paul: The Full Autobiography Part 3](_blank)
/ref> Through a series of dynamic ink drawings and oil paintings he was among the first professional artists to depict them as active, warm-blooded
Warm-blooded is an informal term referring to animal species which can maintain a body temperature higher than their environment. In particular, homeothermic species maintain a stable body temperature by regulating metabolic processes. The onl ...
and – in the case of the small ones – feathered. Many later dinosaur illustrations are a reflection of his anatomical insights or even a direct imitation of his style. The fact that he worked closely with paleontologists, did his own independent paleontological research and created a series of skeletal restorations of all sufficiently known dinosaurs, lead many to regard his images as a sort of scientific standard to be followed. This tendency is stimulated by his habit of constantly redrawing older work to let it reflect the latest finds and theories. Much of it is in black-and-white, in ink or colored pencil. Sculptors have used these anatomical templates as a resource for decades, and still do today many unauthorized and uncredited Even one of his scientific critics, Storrs L. Olson
Storrs Lovejoy Olson (April 3, 1944 – January 20, 2021) was an American biologist and ornithologist who spent his career at the Smithsonian Institution, retiring in 2008. One of the world's foremost avian paleontologists, he was best known ...
, described him in a review in the ''Scientific American
''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...
'' as "a superior artist". He was inspired by classic paleoartists such as Charles R. Knight
Charles Robert Knight (October 21, 1874 – April 15, 1953) was an American wildlife and paleoartist best known for his detailed paintings of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. His works have been reproduced in many books and are currently ...
, and has a fondness for the dinosaur restorations of the little-known artist Bill Berry.
Paul's line art and paintings have been published in over 100 popular books and shown in more documentaries than other modern paleoartists including several television programs such as ''The Nature of Things
''The Nature of Things'' (also, ''The Nature of Things with David Suzuki'') is a Canadian television series of documentary programs. It debuted on CBC Television on 6 November 1960. Many of the programs document nature and the effect that hum ...
'', ''NOVA
A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...
'', ''Horizon'', and ''PaleoWorld''.
Research
From 1977 to 1984, Paul was an informal research associate and illustrator for Robert Bakker
Robert Thomas Bakker (born March 24, 1945) is an American paleontologist who helped reshape modern theories about dinosaurs, particularly by adding support to the theory that some dinosaurs were endothermic (warm-blooded). Along with his mentor J ...
in the Earth and Planetary Sciences department at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
in Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
.[ Paul lacks a formal degree in paleontology, but has participated in numerous field expeditions and has authored or co-authored over 30 scientific papers and over 40 popular science articles.][ Paul proposed that some of the bird-like feathered theropods were winged fliers, and that others were secondarily flightless, an idea supported by some fossils from China. Paul proposed the controversial ]thermoregulatory
Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature ...
concept of "terramegathermy", which argues that only animals with high basal metabolic rates can exceed one tonne on land.[Paul, G.S., Leahy, G.D. 1994. "Terramegathermy in the Time of the Titans: Restoring the Metabolics of Colossal Dinosaurs." in: Rosenberg, G.D., Wolberg, D.L. (eds). DinoFest. The Paleontological Society Special Publication 7. U. Tenn. Press. Knoxville pp:177–198.] Paul has named the following dinosaurs, alone or with co-authors:
* ''Acrocanthosaurus
''Acrocanthosaurus'' ( ; ) is a genus of carcharodontosaurid dinosaur that existed in what is now North America during the Aptian and early Albian stages of the Early Cretaceous, from 113 to 110 million years ago. Like most dinosaur genera, ' ...
altispinax'' (species, later renamed ''Becklespinax altispinax
''Altispinax'' (; "with high spines") is a genus of large predatory theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous period (Valanginian, 140 to 133 million years ago) of what is now the Wadhurst Clay Formation of East Sussex, England.
History
Probab ...
'')[G.S. Paul, 1988, ''Predatory Dinosaurs of the World''. Simon & Schuster, New York pp. 1–464]
* ''Albertosaurus
''Albertosaurus'' (; meaning "Alberta lizard") is a genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaurs that lived in western North America during the Late Cretaceous Period, about 71 million years ago. The type species, ''A. sarcophagus'', was app ...
megagracilis'' (species, later renamed ''Dinotyrannus megagracilis'', now considered a juvenile ''Tyrannosaurus rex
''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosaurus'' live ...
'')[
* '']Aublysodon
''Aublysodon'' (“backwards-flowing tooth") is a genus of carnivorous dinosaurs known only from the Judith River Formation in Montana, which has been dated to the late Campanian age of the late Cretaceous period (about 75 million years ago). The ...
molnari'' (species, later renamed ''Stygivenator molnari'', now considered a juvenile ''Tyrannosaurus rex'')[
* '']Avisaurus
''Avisaurus'' (meaning "bird lizard") is a genus of enantiornithine bird from the Late Cretaceous of North America.
Discovery
''Avisaurus archibaldi'' was discovered in the Late Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation of North America (Maastrichtian, fr ...
archibaldi'' (genus and species, with Brett-Surman; a bird)
* ''Giraffatitan
''Giraffatitan'' (name meaning "titanic giraffe") is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the late Jurassic Period (geology), Period (Kimmeridgian–Tithonian stages) in what is now Lindi Region, Tanzania. It was originally named as an ...
brancai'' (genus)
* ''Mantellisaurus
''Mantellisaurus'' is a genus of iguanodontian dinosaur that lived in the Barremian and early Aptian ages of the Early Cretaceous Period of Europe. Its remains are known from Belgium (Bernissart), England, Spain and Germany. The type and only sp ...
atherfieldensis'' (genus)[
* '']Potamornis
''Potamornis'' is a prehistoric bird genus that dated back to the late Maastrichtian age of the late Cretaceous period. Its scrappy remains were found in the Lance Formation at Buck Creek, USA, and additional possible remains were found in the u ...
skutchi'' (genus and species, with Elzanowski & Stidham; a bird)
* ''Dollodon
''Mantellisaurus'' is a genus of iguanodontian dinosaur that lived in the Barremian and early Aptian ages of the Early Cretaceous Period of Europe. Its remains are known from Belgium (Bernissart), England, Spain and Germany. The type and only ...
bampingi'' (genus and species)
Writing
Aside from many scientific articles, Paul has written many books on paleontology, all illustrated by the author:
* ''Predatory Dinosaurs of the World'' (1988): Aimed at a popular audience; informed part of the ''Jurassic Park
''Jurassic Park'', later also referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton and centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of cloned dinosaurs. It began in 1990 when ...
'' novel, as evidenced by acknowledgement from author Michael Crichton
John Michael Crichton (; October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008) was an American author and filmmaker. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films. His literary works heavily feature tech ...
. It also influenced dinosaur designs for the film.
* ''The Complete Illustrated Guide to Dinosaur Skeletons'' (1996): Only available in Japan for a short time, this reference book reproduced Paul's skeletal reconstructions.
* ''Dinosaurs of the Air'' (2002): Quite scholarly, the book puts forth the hypothesis that some theropods, especially maniraptor
Maniraptora is a clade of coelurosaurian dinosaurs which includes the birds and the non-avian dinosaurs that were more closely related to them than to ''Ornithomimus velox''. It contains the major subgroups Avialae, Deinonychosauria, Oviraptoro ...
s like ''Velociraptor
''Velociraptor'' (; ) is a genus of small dromaeosaurid dinosaur that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous epoch, about 75 million to 71 million years ago. Two species are currently recognized, although others have been assigned in the pa ...
'', were descended from flying dinosaurs who later lost the ability to fly.
* ''The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs
''The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs'' is a reference work on dinosaurs written by the paleontologist and paleoartist Gregory S. Paul. It was first published by Princeton University Press in 2010. In the United Kingdom it was published by A & C ...
'' (2010): The work is 320 pages covering 735 species with over six hundred of Paul's illustrations. A second edition was published in 2016.
* ''Gregory S. Paul's Dinosaur Coffee Table Book'' (2010): A large-format hardbound collection of colour works, with commentary on each. Many pieces are revised works in progress to reflect new evidence, and are pictured next to the original works.
* ''The Princeton Field Guide to Pterosaurs'' (2022): This work features descriptions of 115 pterosaur
Pterosaurs (; from Greek ''pteron'' and ''sauros'', meaning "wing lizard") is an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order, Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 to ...
species and over 24 of Paul's illustrations.
* ''The Princeton Field Guide to Mesozoic Sea Reptiles'' (2022): This work features descriptions of 435 Mesozoic sea reptiles.
Paul was also editor of ''The Scientific American Book of Dinosaurs'' (2000).
Religion
Because creationists
Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 'th ...
claim that popular acceptance of evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
harms societies, and because the sociology of religion's cultural impact is under-researched, Paul began to investigate what he labels the "moral-creator socioeconomic hypothesis." Paul authored a paper in 2005 wherein, he states in the introduction that the paper is "not an attempt to present a definitive study that establishes cause versus effect between religiosity, secularism and societal health". He concludes that less religious first world societies generally have low social dysfunction. However, many important and unresolved problems were noted by other researchers on his methodology such as lack of clarity in his definitions and concepts of "religion" and "secular", too much reliance on scatter plots instead of multivariate and multiple regression analysis which single out variables from complex phenomena to better source the probable causes of any correlations, and not indicating the limits of his sources of data in such as the diverse linguistical understanding of "religion" in all cultures in the data used.
In a follow-up paper in 2009 he notes "high religiosity is not universal to human populations, and it is actually inversely related to a wide range of socio-economic indicators representing the health of modern democracies." Paul holds that, "once a nation's population becomes prosperous and secure, for example through economic security and universal health care, much of the population loses interest in seeking the aid and protection of supernatural entities. This effect appears to be so consistent that it may prevent nations from being highly religious while enjoying good internal socioeconomic conditions."
These conclusions are in line with other sociological research such as Pippa Norris
Pippa Norris (born 10 July 1953) is a political scientist specializing in comparative politics. She is the McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and she has served as the Australian La ...
and Ronald Ingelhart's ''Sacred and Secular'' (2004) and Phil Zuckerman
Philip Joseph Zuckerman (born June 26, 1969) is a professor of sociology and secular studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, California. He specializes in the sociology of substantial secularity. He is the author of several books, including ''Livi ...
's ''Society Without God'' (2009). His research is not in line with works from John Micklethwait
Richard John Micklethwait (born 11 August 1962) is editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, a position he has held since February 2015. A British journalist, he was previously the editor-in-chief of '' The Economist'' from 2006 to 2015.
Life and ...
and Adrian Woodbridge, or research from Peter L. Berger
Peter Ludwig Berger (17 March 1929 – 27 June 2017) was an Austrian-born American sociologist and Protestant theologian. Berger became known for his work in the sociology of knowledge, the sociology of religion, study of modernization, and theor ...
(2009) and Philip Jenkins
Philip Jenkins (born April 3, 1952) is a professor of history at Baylor University in the United States, and co-director for Baylor's Program on Historical Studies of Religion in the Institute for Studies of Religion. He is also the Edwin Erle Sp ...
.
Paul's paper goes on to conclude that religion is not universal, that there is no well developed God gene
The God gene hypothesis proposes that human spirituality is influenced by heredity and that a specific gene, called vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2), predisposes humans towards spiritual or mystic experiences. The idea has been propose ...
, and that humans are much more adapted to be materialists than spiritual. The study was covered by the senior science editor at ''Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'' who observed that the "brain may indeed be predisposed to supernatural beliefs. But that predisposition may need environmental input to be fully realized." An article in ''USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
'' presents contrasting views on Paul's conclusions.
In '' Philosophy and Theology'' Paul published a paper that cites the large scale deaths of children as evidence against the existence of a good God. The paper concludes that the widely held free will and best of all possible worlds
The phrase "the best of all possible worlds" (french: Le meilleur des mondes possibles; german: Die beste aller möglichen Welten) was coined by the German polymath and Enlightenment philosopher Gottfried Leibniz in his 1710 work '' Essais de T ...
theological hypotheses are not correct. The absence of a moral creator is cited in the ''Evolutionary Psychology
Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in psychology that examines cognition and behavior from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify human psychological adaptations with regards to the ancestral problems they evolv ...
'' paper as one reason why religiosity would not lead to superior societal conditions.
In a discussion in ''Science'', Paul observes that "Prosperous modernity is proving to be the nemesis of religion". The same piece also claims that the lack of religion in some hunter-gatherers refutes the God gene hypothesis, in which a propensity to religion is genetically hard wired into the human brain.
See also
* Dinosaur renaissance
* Feathered dinosaurs
A feathered dinosaur is any species of dinosaur possessing feathers. While this includes all species of birds, there is a hypothesis that many, if not all non-avian dinosaur species also possessed feathers in some shape or form.
It has been s ...
* Paleoart
Paleoart (also spelled palaeoart, paleo-art, or paleo art) is any original artistic work that attempts to depict prehistoric life according to scientific evidence. Works of paleoart may be representations of fossil remains or imagined depiction ...
Footnotes
References
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External links
Official website
The Science of Non-Religion by Gregory S. Paul
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Paul, Gregory S.
American illustrators
American paleontologists
1954 births
Living people
Scientific illustrators
Paleoartists
American atheists
Critics of religions
People from Washington, D.C.