© 2017 Phillip Krzeminski
I was invited by the British Society of Cell Biology to write a short guide on how researches can improve their graphical abstracts and science communication using basic design principles. The article can be found on page 17.
https://bscb.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/BSCB-Magazine-2023e-1.pdf
Click through to read about the research on Nature!
The exhibit features hundreds of specimens on loan from the Cornell University Insect Collection (CUIC), and aims to educate visitors of all ages about the diversity of insects and the value they provide for life on Earth.
My personal contribution was over 40 spot illustrations that were incorporated into the exhibit panels by exhibits director, Helaina Blume, to highlight human impacts on global insect populations, the history of insect evolution, and examples of individual insect lifecycles.
New animation for MBARI on the history of their technological innovations!
Allow me to present Asteriornis maastrichtensis! A new species from the Maastrichtian of Belgium (~66.8 million years ago), this little guy occupies a position close to the last common ancestor of Galloanserae - the superorder that includes galliformes (including extant land fowl, like chickens) and Anseriformes (waterfowl, like ducks).
The fossil itself included a mostly complete skull and a few post-cranial elements. What is remarkable, is that this is currently the oldest example we have of a modern (or crown) bird, and is a strange mash up of land and water fowl features. Additionally, it is associated with a previously described Ichthyornis-like bird from the same locality, so it provides direct evidence for the co-occurrence of crown and stem birds in the late Cretaceous.
I cannot express what a joy and a privilege working on this sort of project is for me, it is the culmination of a lifetime of looking for a purpose. Special thanks, as always, to Daniel Field for bringing me in to collaborate!
Link to National Geographic article.
Link to original research in Nature.
One of the large-format panels I designed for this ambitious exhibit!
Just added my work for the Paleontological Research Institution’s Museum of the Earth. Last year’s skull exhibit as well as this year’s exhibit of bee diversity and conservation.
Just a quick update adding all my recent published illustrations and exhibits. You can take a look here.
Our latest paper, just published online, suggests that the global devastation of forests following the end-Cretaceous asteroid strike also eliminated all tree-dwelling birds. Thus, all modern birds that live in trees are descended from non-arboreal extinction survivors! Check it out here: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)30534-7
This was a really fun project to be a part of, and it was a privilege to work with Antoine Bercovici, Regan Dunn, Jacob Berv, Tyler Ranse Lyson, Vivi Vajda, David Fastovsky, and Jacques Gauthier.
Phillip Krzeminski from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology created this amazing and evocative scene, illustrating a hypothetical avian survivor (small, ground-dwelling, and capable of flight) fleeing wildfires set off in the immediate aftermath of the asteroid strike.
Please let me know if you’d like a copy of the PDF! And check out some of the accompanying press:
Due to publishing/installation timelines, I've been keeping a lot of my work off the web. I just got permission to upload some of my work from last summer - keep an eye open for new updates as I am able to advertise them!
Paleoart
New art created for the Raymond M. Alf Museum
Exhibits
Updated Bird Sculptures
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute posted an article that features some of the animation work I have been doing for them earlier this week. Looking forward to further work with them and other oceanographic institutes!
http://www.mbari.org/students-animations-show-inner-workings-research-vehicles/
When people think of poisonous animals, most don't think of birds at all. It's true that no known bird produces or injects venom, there are several that sequester toxins from their food into their skin and feathers making them toxic to eat or touch.
Recently finished up my graduate program classes and should be uploading a lot of new work in the next few weeks once it's all cleaned up. In the mean time, I posted a new animated technical illustration for Nancy Barr at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute on their Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs).
Lots of controversy surrounding the recently published work on the Cerutti Mastodon Site in Southern California, which places some form of genus Homo in the Americas 130,000 years ago! If it is further substantiated, it would topple old ideas about hominid migration! Figured I'd try my hand at a splashy editorial spread that would reconstruct the locality as the researchers see it.
Putting what I learned in grad school to work with a new animation about one of the many diving adaptations found in sperm whales. Each element of the animation was painted traditionally with watercolor with the exception of the skeletal diagram, which was done with a combination of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.