The Art of the Dinosaur

Dinosaur bones may not exactly fall into the category of art, but you wouldn't be the first artist to be intrigued by dinosaur bones.

In 1801, a mastodon specimen was discovered near Newburgh, N.Y., and the portrait painter Charles Willson Peale was called in to assist. Peale, the polymathic "artist of the American Revolution," brought along his son, Rembrandt, to assist, and together they excavated an almost complete skeleton.

You won't find Peale's mastodon in Pittsburgh, but you will find a mastadon along with a mamoth and other prehistoric creatures. They all seem to be roaming around a new landscape.

I'm thinking of the book "Why Cats Paint" and wondering what the result would be if one of these creatures had tried their paw, claw or hoof at art. Anyway, I'd hate to clean that litter box.

The exhibit reopened this weekend at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. take your scetch pad. MORE PHOTOS