How Do You Portray A Dinosaur?

We have portraits of people in our galleries. But what if you’re a natural science museum? How do you portray a dinosaur? We talk with Kirk Johnson , Sant Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, about the ways our portrayals of dinosaurs have evolved, from sluggish and lizard-like to warm-blooded, colorful and spry. Then Matthew Carrano , curator of dinosauria, explains how the museum put T. rex into a striking new pose. The trick, he says, is to convey how cool dinosaurs were, without making them seem alien. We also tie in a couple portraits from the National Portrait Gallery's collection: an image of the first person to describe an American dinosaur, and a photograph of the first person to give them the Hollywood treatment. See the portraits we discussed: Joseph Leidy, by Frederick Gutekunst Steven Spielberg, by Gregory Heisler The Nation's T. rex , the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History Also recommended: Visions of Lost Worlds: The Paleoart of Jay Matternes , by Matthew T. Carrano and Kirk R. Johnson

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How Do You Portray A Dinosaur? is an episode from PORTRAITS by Deborah Sisum.

This episode is 24:38 long.

This episode was published on Apr 15, 2025.

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