Award Winning Paleoartist Franco Tempesta
I Know Dino: The Big Dinosaur Podcast
I KNOW DINO, LLC
4.7 • 653 Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2025
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We have loved Franco's art longer than we knew the term "paleoart". He joins to explain his process of illustrating for books–including ours. Plus a new sauropodomorph with a big head named Lishulong wangi.
For links to every news story, all of the details we shared about Chilantaisaurus, and our fun fact check out https://iknowdino.com/Chilantaisaurus-Episode-539/
Dinosaur of the day Chilantaisaurus, an very large theropod with impressive claws.
In dinosaur news this week:
- There’s a new sauropodomorph dinosaur, Lishulong wangi, and it had a large skull
Over two decades, Franco has illustrated more than 50 books on dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals for major publishers worldwide. His piece “T. rex couple vs. Dakotaraptor pack” won the 2016 John J. Lanzendorf-National Geographic PaleoArt Prize. He compares the scene to lions defending a kill from hyenas, highlighting the possible social dynamics between top predators and opportunistic rivals. Check out his illustrations and the text of the interview here: iknowdino.com/franco-tempesta-on-bringing-dinosaurs-to-life-through-art/
Our new book I Know Dino!: Amazing Breakthroughs, Mega Mistakes, and Unsolved Mysteries in Dinosaur Science is available now! Get the most up-to-date facts and paleoart of many of the most striking dinosaurs at bit.ly/iknowdinobook or sign up at the Tyrannosaurus level or above by May 31, 2025 at patreon.com/iknowdino to get an autographed copy from us!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We have a new Patreon tier. Join our Silasaurus tier by the end of August and get our |
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| 0:11.5 | at patreon.com slash I know-dino. This episode is brought to you by K-12 powered schools, |
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| 0:40.9 | Hello and welcome to I Know Dino. |
| 0:43.9 | Keep up with the latest dinosaur discoveries and science with us. |
| 0:44.9 | I'm Garrett. |
| 0:45.9 | And I'm Sabrina. |
| 0:54.6 | And today in our 539th episode, we've got an interview with paleo artist Franco Tempesta. |
| 0:57.2 | It's not our usual kind of interview. |
| 0:58.0 | You'll see what we mean. |
| 1:02.6 | Yes, we're going to answer the questions because it was a written interview. |
| 1:08.1 | And we'll post the written interview on our website, too, with some beautiful art that he shared with us. |
| 1:08.6 | Oh, yeah. |
| 1:09.4 | He is amazing. |
| 1:11.4 | We also have a bunch of news, |
| 1:19.7 | including a new sauropodomorph dinosaur with a large skull, plus dinosaurs on trial verdicts from last week when we had our debates. We also have Dinosaur of the Day, Geontysaurus, |
| 1:26.4 | which is a large theropod. |
| 1:28.1 | And we have a fun fact, which is that many birds have feathers that weigh more than |
| 1:33.1 | their skeleton. |
| 1:34.6 | Weird. |
... |
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