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This painting, titled "Tasmanian
Wolf and Cubs", is the work of famed natural history illustrator Charles
R. Knight. Produced sometime between late 1902 and the end of
1903, it was inspired by a female and her young which went on exhibit at
the National Zoo in Washington, DC in September 1902.
The painting appeared in the 1903 edition of "Animals of the Past",
by Frederic A. Lucas.
In Lucas's book, Knight states of the thylacine's
anatomical characteristics:
"By some authorities,
the Tasmanian Wolf is supposed to be a semi-plantigrade animal, which would
seem a correct view if one studies simply the bones and the anatomical
character. I could distinguish very little of this formation in the
living specimen, the legs of which appeared to be almost as straight as
those of a dog. There is no doubt, nevertheless, that at one time
it may have rested on the whole foot from the heel to the toe, just as
a bear does at the present time. The pads of the foot, which in a
dog cover only the bottoms of the toes, are in this instance continued
in the fore foot to the wrist and in the hind foot to the heel, a narrow
strip of naked skin showing in each case".
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| Another
of Charles Knight's artworks that was featured in "Animals of the Past"
was the highly ornate illustration shown at right which compares the physical
characteristics of the Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana),
Tasmanian wolf (Thylacinus cynocephalus) and Timber-wolf (Canis
lupus), including drawings of their skulls.
Knight was involved
with the American Museum of Natural History for at least 50 years, and
is best known for his depictions of dinosaurs and other extinct animals.
He was among the first to portray life reconstructions of species such
as Tyrannosaurus rex. From the 1890s through the 1950s, Knight
shaped the public's perception of dinosaurs - and many other prehistoric
life forms - probably more than anyone else.
F. A. Lucas served as
director of the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, from
1911 to 1923. He wrote many papers on the anatomy of birds, on fossil
vertebrates, and on museum methods. |
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