Year: 2013
One of the best things to happen to paleontology, especially in this part of the world, in recent years is the addition of paleoart to Ketchikan-based artist Ray Troll's repertoire. This is far from the last of Troll's art that will make an appearance on this list, but I'd be remiss if I didn't include one of his many reconstructions of the whorl-toothed "shark" (actually more closely related to ratfish) Helicoprion. Despite being first described in Australia and brought to the attention of the wider scientific community by Russian scientists, Idaho has the most and the best fossils of this bizarre and enigmatic animal. It was at Idaho State University that the long-standing mystery of how exactly the spiral tooth row fit into the skull was solved, a study that also shed light on the relationships of this and other early shark relatives. In a testament to why collaborations between artists and scientists are so important, Troll himself played a major role in this process; it's a great story, but I'll save myself a lot of writing and refer you to Susan Ewing's Resurrecting the Shark which explores the Helicoprion saga from its inception to the present day.
Want to see more? The mural shown above is part of a traveling exhibit on Idaho's "buzzsaw" sharks that, last I heard of it, was on display at the Idaho Museum of Natural History. You can always view Ray Troll's work at his fantastic website if you can't make it to Pocatello (or wherever the exhibit it headed next).
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