Peter Trusler

Peter Trusler (born 1954) 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 2009 and 2013). 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 collaborated frequently with many palaeontologists, such as Tom Rich, Patricia Vickers-Rich and Guy Narbonne, having created numerous artistic reconstructions of extinct animals. Through these collaborations, he has made scientific contributions within the field of palaeontology.

In 2010 he wrote on the importance of illustration to science:

"In circumstances where I have the opportunity to compare a well presented, old lithographic drawing of a specimen with an equivalent photograph, I have found that, contrary to popular opinion, the drawing can be superior ... drawing is a complex synthesis of information, which embodies a hierarchy of decisions. It contains a system of weighted emphases that can filter out extraneous or irrelevant information. Drawings deal with surfaces, form and content and matters of understanding, for they are time intensive. Drawings are expressions that embody research and development. They are never bland, factual presentations, no matter how simple or realistic they may appear. The specimen's image has been considered, and not shot!" (The Artist and the Scientists, 2010)

Trusler obtained a PhD in Paleontology at Monash University in 2016, focusing on the skull anatomy of the extinct marsupial Palorchestes.