• Title:    PTERYGOTUS AND EURYPTERUS
• Artist:  Zdenek Burian.
• Print Type:  Sepia Color Offset Lithograph, Book Plate.
• Beautiful Display piece whether matted and framed or just displayed under clear glass.
• Special Characteristics:  Signed in the plate.
• Text Description Included.
• Size: Inches:   printed area, approximately  8.25 by 12.    full sheet size, approximately 9 by 13.   Size Cm:  printed area,  21 by 30.5.  full sheet, 23 by 32.5.
• There is some white border around the print, at least 1/4 to 1/2 inch. 
• Printer/Publisher:  ARTIA:  Czechoslovakia.  
• Date Printed:  1963
• Condition:  Very Fine, Clean Book Plate Print.
• Print Scene Location:  America, Europe, South America and Australia.
• Printing On Verso: Yes.  The printing on the back does not show through due to the thickness of the paper. 
• Shipping:  USA:  $2.75, USPS, First Class with tracking.
• Shipping:  International:  $23.75, USPS International First Class Service, tracking only where available.
• Shipped in a cardboard mailing tube.

About the artist:

denek Michael František Burian (February 11, 1905, Koprivnice, Moravia - July 1, 1981 Prague) was a Czech painter and book illustrator whose work played a central role in the development of palaeontological reconstructions during a remarkable career spanning five decades. Originally recognized only in his native Czechoslovakia, Burian's fame later spread to an international audience, and a number of artists later attempted to emulate his style.   He is regarded by many as the most influential palaeo-artist of the modern era.

Burian was an extremely prolific artist whose works are estimated to number between 15,000 and 20,000 paintings and drawings (pen and pencil). He illustrated over 500 books (including natural history subjects and numerous classic novels such as Robinson Crusoe, Tarzan, Plutonia) and some 600 book covers, but it is within the fields of palaeontology and palaeoanthropology that Burian's influence has been most notable. Since the late 1950s and early 1960s when Burian's work became known in the west through a series of large-format books released by the Artia publishing house, numerous scholarly and popular books on prehistoric life have featured his work, either as originals or as art based closely on them.

Burian worked in initial cooperation with university palaeontologist Josef Augusta from 1938/39 (during World War II all universities in Czechoslovakia were closed due to the German occupation) and subsequently (following Augusta's death in 1968) with Zdenek špinar, painting accurate and magnificent reconstructions representing all forms of prehistoric life from many parts of the globe, from the earliest invertebrates to a vast array of fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds, as well as panoramic vistas of the landscapes in which they lived. Close to 500 prehistoric images were painted by him between the early 1930s and the late 1970s.

Whilst some of Burian's earliest palaeo works depicting North American species were inspired by the pioneering American palaeo-artist Charles R. Knight (see for example, his first renditions of Stegosaurus and Brontotherium), partly because Burian lacked access to skeletal material for such reconstructions, Burian's work was less stylised and more convincing with respect to both the subjects and their landscapes, and soon became highly regarded amongst palaeontologists, especially in Europe. Previous palaeo-artists had often produced speculative works reflecting 19th century views of large dinosaurs as lethargic reptiles akin to giant lizards with sprawling limbs, but Burian convincingly painted them as active animals with parasagittal (mammal or bird-like) limb-movement and musculature.

Burian depicted the American sauropods Apatosaurus [1940], Diplodocus [1952 & 1965?], and Barosaurus walking on land in elephantine fashion, and his 1941 reconstruction of the East African sauropod Brachiosaurus (the only image showing the main subject in water) became one of the most reproduced dinosaur images in history. Although it is now considered unlikely that Brachiosaurus could have inhaled in deep water (unless it had a strengthened pleural cavity as do some whales), the reconstruction is remarkably realistic and was still being reproduced 60 years after it was painted.

As with many of his works, Burian's sauropod reconstructions reached iconic status, with the celebrated palaeontologist William Elgin Swinton (1900–1994) noting: "The ideas as well as the pictorially beautiful restorations of Zdenek Burian, done under the direction of the late Joseph Augusta (1962), create a lasting impression that appears to be decisive. The Czechoslovakian experts have placed us all in their debt and the life-restorations of Brontosaurus, Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus provide debating points as well as aesthetic satisfaction" (The Dinosaurs, 1970: 189).

Another famous Burian painting (dated 1938) shows the dynamism of his work with a Tyrannosaurus Rex rushing to attack one of a pair of startled duck-billed Trachodon as fleet-footed ornithomimids bound off in the distance. Following subsequent palaeontological evidence, the predator was later modified by adding skull protuberances and a stiffer tail. This painting is one of his few works that show dinosaurs in direct conflict.

Many of Burian's early paintings appeared in a series of large format books.  The influence of Burian's work is clearly discernible in many later films depicting dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, right up to the Jurassic Park series.

Many Burian paintings have become celebrated images of palaeontology and palaeoanthropology, especially the frequently reproduced images of Mesozoic reptiles (pterosaurs, dinosaurs, mosasaurs and plesiosaurs) whilst his evocative depictions of proboscideans, Ice Age mammals, and a remarkable series of paintings of early hominids through to modern man are without equal. He also painted extant native peoples of the world, including those of Africa, South America and the South Pacific. Original Burian paintings are on exhibit at Dvur Králové Zoo (especially his large oil canvas), at the National Museum (Prague) and at the Anthropos Museum in Brno (particularly his anthropological reconstructions).

Initially released by Czech publishers followed by western publishers Paul Hamlyn and Thames & Hudson with translated texts, Burian's work was later widely reproduced (often as teaching material) by European and American authors (including Edwin Colbert). Images based on his paintings have featured on postage stamps issued by many countries, and the pioneering director/animator Karel Zeman used Burian paintings to produce models and 2-D animated images for his 1955 landmark feature film Cesta do Praveku (Journey to the Beginning of Time).

Burian's work has probably inspired more imitators in the field of palae-reconstruction than any other artist, and his prehistoric paintings have frequently been copied, and not always with acknowledgement. A notable case is A New Look at the Dinosaurs, by Alan J. Charig (1979), British Museum Natural History, which featured thinly-disguised ink copies of Burian paintings that were inversed as mirror images. Another example is the many Adèle Blanc-sec comic strips which depict dinosaurs closely resembling Burian's work (e.g. the Tarbosaurus [tome 2] and the pterodactyl of 'Adèle and the Beast').

The 1992 video game Ecco the Dolphin features in-game artwork inspired by Burian and recreated in pixels by Zsolt Balogh.