Peter Trusler is an Australian artist known for his work on wildlife art, as well as for his scientifically rigorous reconstructions of prehistoric fauna. Trusler's artwork is featured in numerous books and scientific publications, and several of Trusler's pieces are held in the National Library of Australia. His reconstructions have been featured on the cover of two issues of the Journal of Palaeontology. In 1993 his work appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, and he has produced three Australia Post stamp series. His paintings have also appeared in scientific exhibitions, including displays at the Melbourne Museum and the "Wildlife of Gondwana" exhibition at the Monash Science Centre in Melbourne, Australia. Trusler has contributed to much original research within the field of palaeontology, both due to his work in illustrating fossil specimens and through reconstructions of extinct organisms. 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.
Biography
Trusler was born in Yallourn, Victoria. He studied oil painting with the Ballarat artist Jessie Merritt and graduated with a science degree from Monash University. He was a foundation member of the Wildlife Art Society of Australia. He has a longstanding collaboration with palaeontologists such as Tom Rich and Patricia Vickers-Rich, and more recently Guy Narbonne, having created numerous original artistic reconstructions of extinct animals. Through this collaboration, he has made scientific contributions to much recent research within the field of palaeontology. In 2010 he wrote on the importance of illustration to science: He is currently pursuing his PhD through Monash University.
Rich TH, Vickers-Rich P, Trusler P, Flannery TF, Cifelli R, Constantine A, Kool L, van Klaveren N Monotreme nature of the Australian Early Cretaceous mammal Teinolophos. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica Vol 46 pp. 113–118
Rich TH, Flannery TF, Trusler P, Kool L Evidence that monotremes and ausktribosphenids are not sister-groups. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology Vol 22 pp. 466–469
Trusler, P., Stilwell, J., and Vickers-Rich, P. Comment: future research directions for further analysis of Kimberella. In: P. VickersRich, and P. Komarower, Rise and Fall of the Ediacaran Biota, 181-185.
Narbonne, G.M., Laflamme, M., Greentree, C., and Trusler, P. Reconstructing a lost world: Ediacaran rangeomorphs from Spaniard's Bay, Newfoundland. Journal of Paleontology Vol 83: 503-523.
Elliott, D.A., Vickers-Rich, P., Trusler, P., and Hall, M. New evidence on the taphonomic context of the Ediacaran Pteridinium. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica Vol 56: 641-650.
Vickers-Rich, P., Ivantsov, A.Y., Trusler, P., Narbonne, G.M., Hall, M., Wilson, S.A., Greentree, C., Fedonkin, M.A., Elliott, D.A., Hoffmann, K.H., and Schneider, G.I.C. Reconstructing Rangea: New discoveries from the Ediacaran of Southern Namibia. Journal of Paleontology Vol 87: 1-15.
Trusler's work can 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.
Awards
A Eureka Prize was awarded in 1993 to authors Tom Rich and Patricia Vickers-Rich for the book "Wildlife of Gondwana", illustrated by Trusler.
