Gregory S. Paul
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Gregory S. Paul (born 1954) is a freelance paleontologist, author and illustrator. He is best known for his work and research on theropod dinosaurs, and his detailed illustrations, both live and skeletal.
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[edit] Illustrations
Paul pioneered the "new look" of dinosaurs. He was the first professional to depict them as active, warm-blooded 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 is also a professional paleontologist makes people 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, crayon or pencil. Even one of his scientific enemies, Storrs L. Olson, described him in a review in the Scientific American as "a superior artist".
[edit] Writing
Aside from many scientific articles, Paul has written two books on paleontology, both lavishly illustrated by the author himself:
- Predatory Dinosaurs of the World (1988, ISBN 0-671-61946-2): Aimed at a popular audience, this book acquired something of a cult following around 1990.
- Dinosaurs of the Air (2002, ISBN 0-8018-6763-0): Quite scholarly, the book expostulates the theory that some theropods, especially maniraptors like the Velociraptor, were descended from flying dinosaurs who later lost the ability to fly.
Additionally, Gregory S. Paul has authored a paper, *Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies: A First Look. Paul says 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." This paper has been criticized on several statistical grounds, such as its seemingly arbitrary sampling of 18 countries out of over 193 for examination, its indirect measure of "religiosity" (the author's term) and its "chi-by-eye" interpretation of scatterplots rather than quantified measures. Gary F. Jensen of Vanderbilt University, is one of the scientists criticising the methods of Paul, in reaching conclusions on the negative correlation of religion with morality, but essentially reaches similar conclusions in paper [[1]] [[2]] in Journal of Religion & Society 1 (2006). See the article on morality. The difference is that Jensen sees a correlation not with religion in western domocracies in general, but with dualistic christian beliefs. Jensen defines dualistic christianity as the strong belief in all of the following : God, heaven, the devil and hell.
[edit] Named dinosaurs
Paul has named the dinosaurs:
- Acrocanthosaurus altispinax
- Albertosaurus megagracilis
- Aublysodon molnari
- Avisaurus archibaldi (with Brett-Surman; a bird)
- Giraffatitan brancai
- Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis
- Potamornis skutchi (with Elzanowski & Stidham; a bird)
The theropod Cryptovolans pauli is named after him in recognition of his (presumed correct) predictions about feathered and flying dinosaurs.
[edit] References
- Paul, G.S. (2002). Dinosaurs of the Air: The Evolution and Loss of Flight in Dinosaurs and Birds. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
