RIP Stephen Czerkas

[EmperorDinobot]

Stephen Czerkas, paleontologist, paleoartist, controversial auteur sadly passed away from liver cancer he had been battling through the years.



Very sad indeed. I liked his views, even if sometimes they were rejected. I also remember the whole Nat Geo thing, but this isn't the time or place. May he rest in peace with the dinosaurs he so much loved.

[Arul]

Rest in peace hope the best for him and people that he left

[Manatee]

Rest in peace.

[sauroid]

Rest In Peace

[tyrantqueen]

I loved his sculpted work. RIP.

[CityRaptor]

Rest in Peace.

[JohannesB]

Sad to hear. His book, Dinosaurs. A global view was one of the first serious 'dinosaur books' I bought.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I read this last night on FB, it's a terrible shame. Another artist that was a great influence on me.  When I first decided I had to have a lifesize dinosaur( age 13) it was his Allosaurus I decided I had to have. So I started saving..I think I reached a couple hundred..lol

I hope somewhere and some way he's finally meeting the dinosaurs he loved.

[Gwangi]

Sad to hear. His book, Dinosaurs. A global view was one of the first serious 'dinosaur books' I bought.

I was going to comment on that myself, love that book. And as others have said, his sculptures were amazing! Gone but not forgotten.

[Doug Watson]

I was hoping this was false since I couldn't find anything else about it on the internet, but unfortunately I just did. 64 is too young. I met Stephen and Silvia when they were touring with their exhibit "Dinosaurs Past & Present" in 1988. The show was at the ROM so I believe they came to Ottawa to visit the collection or we may have been added as a venue, it's too long ago for me to remember. I had the chance to compliment him on the life like appearance of his sculptures and was surprised how humble and genuinely touched he was. I was only a model & diorama artist back then but he seemed to really appreciate it. They seemed like a close loving couple never straying a few feet from each other. He was the quiet artist and she was his manager and an artist as well. I felt honoured to meet him since I had seen his work first hand in the exhibit plus I had the two volumes of papers that went with the exhibit.
When I was trying to track down this story I visited the site of his museum in Utah, http://dinosaur-museum.org/ and as a further testament to his humility I could hardly find any references to him other than his authorship of some books in their online shop.
Rest in peace Stephen, have a walk with the dinosaurs.

[DinoLord]

RIP. He was a truly talented artist, and many of his sculptures were very familiar (from books and photos etc.) to me growing up as a dinosaur enthusiast.

[laticauda]

Stephen Czerkas is a person that I have never heard of before, so I have spent some time searching for him on the internet.  Even though I have learned some interesting things, I am moved by what I have read on this thread, especially by Doug Watson.  Though I have never met him, or knew of him, a persons legacy endures through the people that they touch,  and I can tell he has influenced many people. 

[Paleogene Pals]

I remember seeing the sculptures of Stephen and Sylvia Czerkas when I was a kid. I always enjoyed seeing those. But, look at this way, Stephen continues to live on through his work and the artists that he has influenced and will influence in the future. He was one of the greats.

[triceratops83]

Love his work on Planet of Dinosaurs. A defining movie of my childhood.

[Jetoar]

One of the best paleoartists........

[suspsy]

Czerkas leaves behind a mixed academic track record. He was at the centre of the embarrassing Archaeoraptor debacle in 2001 and more recently, he worked with bird/dinosaur denialist Alan Feduccia on a highly questionable paper claiming that not only that birds aren't descended from dinosaurs, but that maniraptors like Deinonychus are birds, not dinosaurs.

On the other hand, I have fond memories of touring his travelling exhibit on feathered dinosaurs about a decade ago. His artistic skill was top notch and he was one of the first paleoartists to depict dinosaurs with feathers. His passion for prehistory was beyond question. And perhaps most admirably, he worked his butt off constantly for most of his life in order to pursue that passion.

It's a shame that he's gone.

[Gwangi]

Love his work on Planet of Dinosaurs. A defining movie of my childhood.

That's right, he did work on those dinosaurs didn't he? I loved that movie growing up, my favorite dinosaur movie until "Jurassic Park" came along. I still watch it on occasion, it's an awful movie in most regards but enjoyable for that very reason. The dinosaurs were top notch though, some of the best stop motion dinosaurs ever made.

[SBell]

Czerkas leaves behind a mixed academic track record. He was at the centre of the embarrassing Archaeoraptor debacle in 2001 and more recently, he worked with bird/dinosaur denialist Alan Feduccia on a highly questionable paper claiming that not only that birds aren't descended from dinosaurs, but that maniraptors like Deinonychus are birds, not dinosaurs.

On the other hand, I have fond memories of touring his travelling exhibit on feathered dinosaurs about a decade ago. His artistic skill was top notch and he was one of the first paleoartists to depict dinosaurs with feathers. His passion for prehistory was beyond question. And perhaps most admirably, he worked his butt off constantly for most of his life in order to pursue that passion.

It's a shame that he's gone.

It is very much a shame. I like his artwork. Didn't care much for the bird-dino work, and in an unfortunate way, that's going to follow him as his 'legacy' in science, whether fair or not.

But his love of the work and the science was admirable.

[Takama]

I never heard much about this person other then the negatives such as the Archeoraptor Scandal.

Regardless of this, I have to say im sorry for those in his family and may he RIP

[SpartanSquat]

Very sad to heard, despite the Archaeoraptor thing, for me it was a great artist that make realisitic dinosaurs, specially the carnotaurus and deinonychus. In that days I watched the Deinonychus gang as a took photo.

RIP Czerkas.
BTW: What happened to his Carnotaurus statue in LA Museum?