Peter Trusler

Australian artist (born 1954)

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.

Rich TH, Vickers Rich P, Trusler P, Flannery TF, Cifelli R, Constantine A, Kool L, van Klaveren N (2001) Monotreme nature of the Australian Early Cretaceous mammal Teinolophos. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica Vol 46(1) pp. 113–118
Rich TH, Flannery TF, Trusler P, Kool L (2002) Evidence that monotremes and ausktribosphenids are not sister groups. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology Vol 22(2) pp. 466–469

Trusler, P., Stilwell, J., and Vickers Rich, P. (2007) Comment: future research directions for further analysis of Kimberella. In: P. VickersRich, and P. Komarower (eds. ), Rise and Fall of the Ediacaran Biota, 181 185. Narbonne, G. M., Laflamme, M., Greentree, C., and Trusler, P. (2009) Reconstructing a lost world: Ediacaran rangeomorphs from Spaniard's Bay, Newfoundland. Journal of Paleontology Vol 83(4): 503 523. Elliott, D. A., Vickers Rich, P., Trusler, P., and Hall, M. (2011) New evidence on the taphonomic context of the Ediacaran Pteridinium. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica Vol 56(3): 641 650. Vickers Rich, P., Ivantsov, A. Y., Trusler, P., Narbonne, G. M., Hall, M., Wilson, S. A., Greentree, C., Fedonkin, M. A., Elliott, D. A., Hoffmann, K. H., and Schneider, G. I. C. (2013) Reconstructing Rangea: New discoveries from the Ediacaran of Southern Namibia. Journal of Paleontology Vol 87(1): 1 15.

Trusler's work can be found in three different series of stamps celebrating prehistoric faunas and issued by Australia Post. The best known of these was in 1993, depicting several Australian dinosaurs and pterosaurs. More recently, in 2007, he illustrated the "Creatures of the slime" stamp series documenting the Neoproterozoic Ediacaran fauna first discovered in Australia, and the "Australian Megafauna" series released in October 2008, which portrays a variety of giant extinct marsupials and reptiles.

A Eureka Prize was awarded in 1993 to authors Tom Rich and Patricia Vickers Rich for the book "Wildlife of Gondwana", illustrated by Trusler.