David Peters (paleoartist)

David Peters (born 1954)^[1] is an American artist and paleoartist notable for his fringe views regarding prehistoric animals, particularly pterosaurs, and phylogeny which he promotes via his blog The Pterosaur Heresies and website ReptileEvolution.com.

Activities in paleontology

David Peters' restoration of Longisquama

David Peters's restoration of Jeholopterus.

Peters has no formal qualifications in paleontology. During the 1990s and early 2000s Peters was a regular figure at conferences and well-known in the field.^[2] In 2003, Peters presented an abstract at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual meeting, during which he claimed that the pterosaur Jeholopterus was hematophagic.^[3] By the mid-2000s, conflicts between Peters and academic paleontologists meant that his appearances at conferences were less frequent and publication in scientific journals more difficult.^[2] Peters started The Pterosaur Heresies WordPress blog in 2011.^[4] Peters does not usually personally examine fossils as do most paleontologists, but instead uses Photoshop on images of fossils. Peters contends that by using image manipulation, specifically a process he refers to as "Digital Graphic Segregation", he can see meaningful details in the fossils that paleontologists do not.^[2]

David Peters' restoration of Sharovipteryx

Response by paleontologists

Reception to Peters' ideas by academic paleontologists has been universally negative. Dr. S. Christopher Bennett, Professor of Biological Sciences and Associate Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at Fort Hays State University, described Peters' reconstructions of pterosaurs as "outrageously bizarre like Dr. Seuss's imaginary animals" and described his methodology as flawed and non-reproducible due to its being based on low-resolution photographs, noting in one instance that Peters had interpreted the presence of a baby pterosaur entirely based on marks made during fossil preparation and irregularities in the rock surface, and another in which Peters had interpreted a frill based on a rock surface that had been smoothed and painted.^[5] Brian Andres, a geologist at the University of South Florida who specializes in "Pterosaur Systematics," recalled that Peters had interpreted marks made when he had prepared a fossil as being of biological significance.^[2] Darren Naish wrote extensive rebuttals to Peters' work in 2012^[6][7] and 2020.^[8] Concern has been raised about Peters' work misleading non-experts.^[7]

In popular culture

Director Sid Bennett stated in an interview that the flying creatures in The Dinosaur Project, a 2012 science fiction adventure film, were inspired by Peters' interpretations of Jeholopterus.^[9]

Bibliography

As author and artist:

• Giants of Land, Sea & Air, Past & Present (1986)^[6]
• A Gallery of Dinosaurs & Other Early Reptiles (1989)^[6]
• From the Beginning: the Story of Human Evolution (1991)^[6]
• Strange Creatures (1992)^[6]

As artist:

• Don Lessem's Raptors! The Nastiest Dinosaurs (1996)^[6]
• Don Lessem's Supergiants! The Biggest Dinosaurs (1997)^[6]

See also

• Chonosuke Okamura