Joseph Smit (1836-1929) 
1. Laelaps (Left) and 2. Hadrosaurus (Right). 
Original Illustration in pen, ink and grey wash, heightened in white. 
c. 1905-1912. 
7 1/4 x 10 5/8 in. sheet 

Original artwork for Henry R. Knipe’s Nebula to Man. Illustrated on page 93: “Reptiles of the Cretaceous Period / Laelaps and Hadrosaurus”.

1. Laelaps aquilunguis (Cope, 1866) is synonomous with Dryptosaurus, which is a genus of tyrannosauroid that lived approximately 67 million years ago during the latter part of the Cretaceous period in what is now New Jersey. Dryptosaurus was a large, bipedal, ground-dwelling carnivore, that could grow up to 7.5 m (25 ft) long. Although largely unknown now outside of academic circles, a famous painting of the genus by Charles R. Knight made it one
of the more widely known dinosaurs of its time, in spite of its poor fossil record. First described by Edward Drinker Cope in 1866 and later renamed by Othniel C. Marsh in 1877, Dryptosaurus is among the first theropod dinosaurs known to science.

The genus name Dryptosaurus, means “tearing lizard”, and is derived from the Greek words “dryptī”, meaning “I tear” and “sauros” meaning “lizard”. The specific name aquilunguis, is derived from the Latin for “having claws like an eagle’s”, a reference to the claws on its three-fingered hand. E. D. Cope (1866) published a paper on the specimen within a week of its discovery, and named it Laelaps aquilunguis at a meeting of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. “Laelaps”, which is derived from the Greek for “hurricane” or “storm wind”, was also the name of a dog in Greek mythology that never failed to catch what it was hunting. Laelaps gained popularity as both a poetic and evocative name and became one of the first dinosaurs described from North America, following Hadrosaurus and Trachodon. Later it was discovered that the name Laelaps had already been given to a genus of mite, and Cope’s lifelong rival O.C. Marsh changed the name in 1877 to Dryptosaurus. The type species is Dryptosaurus aquilunguis.

Laelaps trihedrodon was coined by Cope in 1877 for a partial dentary (now missing) from the Morrison Formation of Colorado. Five damaged partial tooth crowns (AMNH 5780) mistakenly thought to have belonged to the L. trihedrodon holotype share many features in common with Allosaurus and probably belong to that genus. However some of the Allosaurus-like characters of the teeth are primitive to theropods as a whole and may have been present in other large-bodied Morrison Formation theropod species.

The 1897 watercolor painting (right) by Charles R. Knight titled Leaping Laelaps may represent the earliest depiction of theropods as highly active and dynamic. Knight’s hand was guided by E. D. Cope, and reflects their progressive opinion about theropod agility despite their large size, as well as the opinion of Henry Fairfield Osborn, the curator of vertebrate paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History at the time of the painting’s commission. The original painting is now preserved in the AMNH collections. By contrast, the typical illustrations of large carnivorous dinosaurs like Megalosaurus, in the late 1800s, depicted the animals as large, tail-dragging behemoths.

2. Hadrosaurus (meaning “bulky lizard”) is a genus of hadrosaurid ornithopod dinosaurs that lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous Period in what is now the Woodbury Formation about 80 million to 78 million years ago. The holotype specimen was found in fluvial marine sedimentation, meaning that the corpse of the animal was transported by a river and washed out to sea.

They were large animals ranging from 7 to 8 m (23 to 26 ft) and 2 to 4 t (2,000 to 4,000 kg). Most of the preserved elements are very robust, unusual traits in hadrosaurs. Hadrosaurus were ponderously-built animals equipped with keratinous beaks for cropping foliage and a specialized and complex dentition for food processing.

Hadrosaurus foulkii, the only species in this genus, is known from a single specimen consisting of much of the skeleton and parts of the skull. The specimen was collected in 1858 from the Woodbury Formation in New Jersey, US, representing the first dinosaur species known from more than isolated teeth to be identified in North America. Using radiometric dating of bivalve shells from the same formation, the sedimentary rocks where the Hadrosaurus fossil was found have been dated at some time between 80.5 and 78.5 million years ago. In 1858 the only known specimen became the first ever mounted dinosaur skeleton and since 1991 the species H. foulkii has become the official state dinosaur of New Jersey.

JOSEPH SMIT (1836-1929)

Josef Smit’s dinosaur drawings are a high point in his fine draughtsmanship and unique in his vision to construct an image based on a written description rather than a physical specimen. Knipe’s preface indicates that Smit also learned much from Charles Knight’s drawings at the Museum of Natural History, New York.

Josef Smit was born and raised in Lisse, in southern Holland. Later, in Leiden, his scientific fidelity came to the Natural History Museum of Leiden director Hermann Schlegel’s attention. He presented the artist with his first commission to paint a series of birds from the Dutch East Indies. Smit’s work for Schlegel earned him a significant commission to prepare hundreds of plates for Philip Sclater’s Exotic Ornithology. Once in London, the artist met other like-minded artist-naturalists and developed a reputation for preparing very realistic drawings. Because of his ability to delineate every detail of a specific bird, he was employed by several scientists to illustrate their reports and publications. His work stood apart from his contemporaries in his addition of thorough backgrounds of leaves, vines, and tree branches. Smit eventually became a key contributor to some of the most important natural history publications of the 19th and early-20th centuries. His work graced the tomes by John Gould, Edward Lear, Archibald Thorburn, Henry Constantine Richter, and J.G. Keulemans. His son, Pierre-Jacques Smit was also a skilled watercolorist.

ORIGINAL WATERCOLORS PREPARED FOR HENRY KNIPE’S
NEBULA TO MAN (1905) & EVOLUTION IN THE PAST (1911-1912)

An exceedingly rare collection of original watercolors prepared for Henry Knipe’s Nebula to Man (1905) and Evolution in the Past (1911-1912) by naturalist-artists Alice Woodward, Josef Smit, and Charles Whymper.

Drawings prepared for Knipe’s Nebula to Man (1905) contributed to one of the most important publications on dinosaurs on the heels of the Great Dinosaur Rush or Bone Wars. The Bone Wars occurred between 1877 and 1892 between Edward Drinker Cope, the Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia, and Othniel Charles Marsh, the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale. These early paleontologists fought ruthlessly to pursue dinosaur fossils, a quest that resulted in an extraordinary period of discovery and the eventual financial ruin of both scientists. Their findings resulted in unearthing 136 new dinosaur species, ushering in a new paleontological research era.

According to Henry Knipe’s obituary, he worked for the British Museum. It was there that he likely met the artists tapped for this project. Knipe chose each illustrator for their reputation for scientific authenticity—namely, those skilled as bird artists, given the many similarities between bird species and dinosaurs.