A Window to the Past: An Artistic Reconstruction of Miocene Tennessee

Abstract

Paleoart is the reconstruction of landscapes and organisms from Earth’s prehistoric past. It is an essential part of educating the public of paleontological discoveries, and can serve to raise awareness and cultivate interest in the geological sciences. In this project, the environment and species of plants and animals present in Tennessee during the Miocene, a period of time spanning from 23 to 5 million years ago, were studied. Fossil remains and observations of extant species were combined to recreate the plants and animals of the time. These recreations were then used to create a scene of a riparian forest, which was painted digitally utilizing Adobe Photoshop Elements and printed on canvas.