Peter Trusler
Encyclopedia
Peter Trusler is an Australian wildlife artist who illustrates native Australian birds and represents biologically rigorous reconstructions of prehistoric fauna.
Trusler was born in Yallourn, Victoria
. He studied oil painting
with artist Jessie Merritt and graduated with a science degree from Monash University
. He was a foundation member of the Wildlife Art Society of Australia. His work appears in numerous books and scientific publications, as well as several pieces held in the National Library of Australia
. His paintings occasionally appear in scientific exhibitions, such as the "Wildlife of Gondwana" exhibition at the Monash Science Centre in Melbourne, Australia.
Trusler's work can also be found in three different series of stamps celebrating prehistoric faunas and issued by Australia Post
. The best-known of these was in 1993, depicting several Australian dinosaurs and pterosaurs. More recently, in 2007, he illustrated the "Creatures of the slime" stamp series documenting the Neoproterozoic
Ediacaran
fauna first discovered in Australia, and the "Australian Megafauna" series released in October 2008, which portrays a variety of giant extinct marsupials and reptiles.
His work has also graced the cover of Time Magazine
in 1993. He is the namesake for the extinct monotreme Teinolophos trusleri discovered on the Victorian coast in December 2000, a significant find for which he illustrated the holotype specimen.
His artwork has also appeared on the cover of the following books:
Trusler has also illustrated guidebooks of Australian birds,
Trusler was born in Yallourn, Victoria
Yallourn, Victoria
Yallourn, Victoria was a company town in Victoria, Australia built between the 1920s and 1950s to house employees of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, who operated the nearby Yallourn Power Station complex. However, expansion of the adjacent open-cut brown coal mine led to the closure...
. He studied oil painting
Oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...
with artist Jessie Merritt and graduated with a science degree from Monash University
Monash University
Monash University is a public university based in Melbourne, Victoria. It was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. Monash is a member of Australia's Group of Eight and the ASAIHL....
. He was a foundation member of the Wildlife Art Society of Australia. His work appears in numerous books and scientific publications, as well as several pieces held in the National Library of Australia
National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia is the largest reference library of Australia, responsible under the terms of the National Library Act for "maintaining and developing a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Australia and the...
. His paintings occasionally appear in scientific exhibitions, such as the "Wildlife of Gondwana" exhibition at the Monash Science Centre in Melbourne, Australia.
Trusler's work can also be found in three different series of stamps celebrating prehistoric faunas and issued by Australia Post
Australia Post
Australia Post is the trading name of the Australian Government-owned Australian Postal Corporation .-History:...
. The best-known of these was in 1993, depicting several Australian dinosaurs and pterosaurs. More recently, in 2007, he illustrated the "Creatures of the slime" stamp series documenting the Neoproterozoic
Neoproterozoic
The Neoproterozoic Era is the unit of geologic time from 1,000 to 542.0 ± 1.0 million years ago. The terminal Era of the formal Proterozoic Eon , it is further subdivided into the Tonian, Cryogenian, and Ediacaran Periods...
Ediacaran
Ediacaran
The Ediacaran Period , named after the Ediacara Hills of South Australia, is the last geological period of the Neoproterozoic Era and of the Proterozoic Eon, immediately preceding the Cambrian Period, the first period of the Paleozoic Era and of the Phanerozoic Eon...
fauna first discovered in Australia, and the "Australian Megafauna" series released in October 2008, which portrays a variety of giant extinct marsupials and reptiles.
His work has also graced the cover of Time Magazine
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
in 1993. He is the namesake for the extinct monotreme Teinolophos trusleri discovered on the Victorian coast in December 2000, a significant find for which he illustrated the holotype specimen.
Books
He has a longstanding collaboration with palaeontologists such as Tom Rich and Patricia Vickers-Rich, having created numerous original artistic reconstructions of extinct animals that have appeared in the following books:- The Fossil Book (1997) Doubleday
- Wildlife of Gondwana: Dinosaurs and Other Vertebrates from the Ancient Supercontinent (1999) Indiana University Press
- The Dinosaurs of Darkness: Life of the Past (2000) Allen & Unwin
- Magnificent Mihirungs: The Colossal Flightless Birds of the Australian Dreamtime (2003) Indiana University Press
- The Rise of Animals: Evolution and diversification of the Kingdom Animalia (2007) Johns Hopkins
His artwork has also appeared on the cover of the following books:
- Australia's Lost World. A history of Australia's backboned animals (1996) Kangaroo Press
- The Rise and Fall of the Ediacaran Biota (2007) The Geological Society of London
Trusler has also illustrated guidebooks of Australian birds,
- Birds of Australian Gardens (1980) Rigby Publishers Ltd
- Birds of Australia (1999) Princeton University Press
Scientific Publications
Due to his work in illustrating fossil specimens, Peter Trusler has contributed to scientific papers and original research within the field of paleontology:- Rich TH, Vickers-Rich P, Trusler P, Flannery TF, Cifelli R, Constantine A, Kool L, van Klaveren N (2001) Monotreme nature of the Australian Early Cretaceous mammal Teinolophos. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica Vol 46(1) pp. 113-118
- Rich TH, Flannery TF, Trusler P, Kool L (2002) Evidence that monotremes and ausktribosphenids are not sistergroups. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology Vol 22(2) pp. 466-469