#Daurlong

[may-fajman]

I had tons of fun drawing Daurlong the last time, so now I drew two of 'em! Just enjoying the sun and the cuddles. You all seemed to have liked the last more stylized thing I posted, and I'm happy to oblige and give you more since that is my preferred way of painting anyway, hehe.

Detailed shots of the heads under-cut (even though Tumblr is being pretty good about compression, ff)

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Daurlong vs Natovenator

Factfiles:

Daurlong wangi

Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @i-draws-dinosaurs

Meaning: Wang’s Daur dragon (named for the Daur people of Northeast China)

Time: 121 million years ago (Aptian stage of the Early Cretaceous)

Location: Longjiang Formation, Inner Mongolia, China

Daurlong was described in 2022, from a stunningly beautiful fossil that includes the entire body, crushed flat by pressure, and a whole lot of soft tissues like feathers along the back of the neck and even the shape of the intestines! Any part of the digestive system is extremely rare to find in fossils, so Daurlong provides an important glimpse into how the digestive systems of birdlike dinosaurs compare to living dinosaurs today!

Turns out, despite being closely related to the ancestors of modern birds Daurlong’s guts were pretty similar to other, much more distant theropods like Scipionyx instead. That helps fill in a pretty big gap in our knowledge of how the bird digestive system evolved, making this a very scientifically valuable fossil!

That, and it’s just adorable. Look at that lil smiley face!

Natovenator polydontus

Artwork by Yusik Choi, written by @zygodactylus

Name Meaning: Many toothed swimming hunter 

Time: 71 million years ago (Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous) 

Location: Hermiin Tsav, Barun Goyot Formation, Ömnögovi, Mongolia 

Back in my day, we famously said dinosaurs weren’t aquatic or volant, apart from birds that fit the bill. Fortunately, my childhood is over, and we have both flighted and aquatic nonavians - Natovenator being the next iteration in this strange new reality. Like its cousin Halszkaraptor, Natovenator was a semiaquatic raptor, adapted for moving through the water, potentially with wing flippers to do so. It had a long snout with many teeth adapted for grabbing aquatic life, and it had a long neck similar to modern day diving birds to help it catch prey. It had a streamlined body, allowing it to dive and move through the water efficiently. The long snout was not spatulate, but did curve upward a bit, giving it a vaguely-duck like appearance. The small pointed teeth would have been excellent for grabbing on to struggling fish. Living in the Barun Goyot, a desert ecosystem, Natovenator probably congregated around steady sources of water, such as periodic lakes and oases like those found in modern deserts today. Many mammals are known from the ecosystem, but the real standout stars are dinosaurs: Natoveantor shared its habitat with Ceratonykus, Saichania, Tarchia, Zaraapelta, Gobipipus, Gobipteryx, Hollanda, Bagaceratops, other dromaeosaurs, Conchoraptor, Heyuannia, and unnamed sauropods known only from eggs. Appearing after the Djadokhta and preceding the Nemegt, this environment was a transitional one from the Campanian of Asia to the Maastrichtian, as the environment became more diverse and filled with truly insane numbers of dinosaurs as the period reached its end.

DMM Round One Masterpost

[jeranodon]

Daurlong, another new dino!

[thekingoflimbo]

[si-nequal-is]

Daurlong the smiley raptor

[i-draws-dinosaurs]

Would any dromaeosaurs have likely had bald heads like turkey vultures?

It's certainly possible, and I'd go so far as to say quite likely!

We do have some fossil evidence for dromaeosaurs with feathered heads:

Image sources: Tianyuraptor, Sinornithosaurus, Daurlong, Microraptor.

As for the rest though, we don't have a clear fossil of a bald-headed dromaeosaur! To be certain, we'd probably need to find specific impressions of naked skin around the head, which to my knowledge has not been found yet.

The feathered fossils above belong to either small (right side) or medium-sized (left side) dromaeosaurs, so it indicates that any dromaeosaurs up to a Velociraptor-type size certainly could have had feathered heads.

That being said, the level of head feathering is very variable in modern birds even within the same group. Some vultures have bald heads which may help with cleaning their faces and heat regulation, but there's much wider variation than you might expect! Even just within the clade Aegypiinae, we've got:

Image sources: hooded, griffon, red-headed, lappet-faced, white-headed, cinereous.

There's a whole range from nearly full plumage to fully naked skin folds to Justin Timberlake Ramen Hair, and I'd say there's no reason to think that dromaeosaurs and other feathered dinosaurs couldn't have had the same level of variation between species!

It's the kinda situation where in the absence of direct evidence, I'd consider varying levels of head baldness in dromaeosaurs as pretty reasonable speculation! So here's a Deinonychus decked out with a variety of different styles that are within the realms of possibility:

And that's not even taking into account that in a lot of bald-headed birds that skin space is prime real estate for all sorts of flippy flappy dangly bits and colours and lumps and bumps.

So basically, it's not like we can point at any particular dromaeosaurs and be like "that one probably had a bald head", but unless there's contrary evidence I feel it's very likely there was a lot of variation in how feathery the head was!

[goldenchocobo]

2023 Art Dump

Not as much as last year, which would be a feat. A lot of Kingdom Hearts art, still, as well as OC things.

In the Keep Reading below, you can learn about each thing, if it interests you;

From Left-to-Right, Up-to-Down:

-Baldr and Bragi's battle stances (specifically from when they were fighting Cerberus in the Underworld). wanted to draw them like this, but never found a reason to post it as-is. I was going to include it in another compilation that sat in my Drafts for half a year (with other art on this dump).

-Character art for a friend's KH D&D character- a 'Nort replica with no memory of who he is, only that he's running from Vexen.

-Art in that compelation. It's from the first time you speak to Demyx. I like how it's the first thing he ever asks Roxas; I was going to do more, but... didn't.

-Interpretation of the Keyblade from Missing Link's promo image. I needed it for my KH D&D, as I was going to give the players a keyblade based on the stats they chose in their DttH. The keyblade didn't end up being used.

-Silly Bragi/Luxu doodle. I think he'd have to try hard not to ace any history exams, or at least know more than what he's currently being taught.

-Aerith and Cid shop 'interface' I drew for my KH D&D. I wanted a visual for my players instead of just vague descriptions, so I drew these, the portraits are the characters currently in the session.

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-Young Xehanort headshots. I was going to do more each time I wanted to draw, but didn't know what- but these two were the only two that I did.

-Working out the design for a Minotaur Heartless that appeared in my fic, Working Together, for Ventus and Vanitas to fight.

-His Dark Materials AU Sora with his Daemon Amica. I was going to draw some battle poses with them, but I honestly never felt like it, and didn't want to force myself.

-figuring out a design for Vanitas's glider for my fic.

-Ventus holding an escapee-flood from a WiP fic, (continuation of Working Together) Trial by Light.

-New Unversed Vanitas makes when he and Ventus are on 'kind of okay' terms, that Ventus calls a Mawkeepit from my fic. I wanted to nail out a design for them, so I could describe them better.

-New Unversed Vanitas makes when he felt betrayed. They're currently unnamed- as I'm having trouble coming up with a portmantu or word-association for 'Backstab, Weasel or snake' for the WiP fic. These aren't going to feature as heavily as the Mawkeepit, but I wanted to draw them so readers could get a better idea of how they looked.

-Art of the Mawkeepit crowding an Unconscious Ventus while being surrounded by Heartless for my fic.

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-Chocopuffs. Art from a Nyancave stream of Final Fantasy XVI, where the Northern British actors pronounce the 'cho' in chocobo the same way as the 'cho' in 'chocolate'- the result was chocopuffs, a cereal.

-Diabloceratops getting its toe bitten by a territorial turtle. didn't finish the WiP.

-Bi frog I drew for my Bi friend who likes frogs.

-Absolute monster of an art dump for my OCs, Lupin an Iberis. I wanted to give them a more modern take, so I drew them in modern clothing, with only one being of an older time period (bottom right) based on a photo of two men sitting together like that. I have refsheets for them and may post them if I routinely draw and post more are of these two.

-Neovinator in a pond/river based on a photo of a Grebe, and Daurlong sitting based on a photo of an emu.

-depiction of a woman I dreamt of. The dream was very real, and I'm certain I met death, and that is what she looked like. If you're interested in it, let me know and I post the rest, because it's long.

-Warrior cat OCs (and my friends) all from different clans going to a fourth to ask to speak to their medicine cat. the ginger one is mine and his name is Flipleaf.

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-Nyancave Sonic OC. I think they were playing Sonic 06 or Shadow the Headgehog when I drew it, I can't remember.

-Drawn when there was a Subathon and the Nyancave were playing Final Fantasy XII. The memberships were a steal!

-Painting of their cats (now older) Dante and Nia, looking at Christmas lights.

[madamegemknight]

Except dinosaurs having feathers and Pluto being a planet or not are two wildly different categories that shouldn't be compared.

Dinosaurs having feathers is irrefutable - while there's still debate over whether all dinosaurs had feathers, paleontologists have found numerous dinosaur fossils with evidence of feathers or feather-like structures, such as Caihong in 2018, Dilong paradoxus in 2004, and most recently Daurlong wangi in 2022 (the linked article is mainly about the excellently preserved intestinal region of the specimen found but it does mention the feathers about halfway through). People that refuse to accept that dinosaurs had feathers are an excellent example of folk who's feelings get hurt when incorporating new findings into research; they are actively ignoring scientific fact in favor of inaccurate portrayals and outdated beliefs solely because they think the facts 'ruin' dinosaurs instead of giving us a deeper understanding of evolution and behavior.

On the other hand, the "is Pluto a planet or not" debate is one still actively being discussed by the astronomic community and is wildly controversial, to the point where the official Wikipedia page for "Definition of planet" has a section devoted exclusively to ongoing controversies regarding the IAU's decision. These controversies range from arguments over semantics to the fact that the decision was made by only 424 astronomers (less than 5% of world astronomers in 2006, according to New Horizons PI Alan Stern) to the existence and discovery of numerous stellar objects that complicate discussion of the definition of a planet even further, such as extrasolar planets, brown dwarfs, and planetary-mass stellar objects, one of which was found as recently as 2019. While there are certainly people who refuse to accept the IAU's decision because they're simply angry, there are just as many who refuse to accept it because of the vague wording of the decision, or the difficulty in properly defining solar objects, or the fact that depending on how you define "clearing the neighborhood" (one of the three criteria to be considered a planet), Earth might not count as a planet.

To act as if those who still consider Pluto a planet are on the same level as people who willingly ignore scientific evidence for the sake of dinosaurs 'looking cool' is to ignore a great deal of debate in the astronomical community, as well as the near-impossibility of creating a one size fits all definition for something as complicated as space. Again, there are definitely people who are willfully ignorant when it comes to the Pluto situation, but a large majority are not, and in the grand scheme of things a definition is by no means comparable to a fact, even if that definition is not debated upon.

Also, this is a Tumblr poll where both options are in full caps with 5+ exclamation points. It clearly wasn't meant to be taken as anything but lighthearted fun and insulting people over something that isn't even true for most of them (check the notes for a chorus of people explaining how they love feathered dinosaurs but are nostalgic for Pluto/have issues with the classification for the reasons listed above or more I didn't mention/consider Pluto a planet in their heart only) is just mean-spirited.

[adamworks]

Hi there!

First drawing of the year, Daurlong wangi,  the newly described dromaeosaurid dinosaur of China from the Early Cretaceous

[new-dinosaurs]

Daurlong wangi Wang et al., 2022 (new genus and species)

(Type specimen of Daurlong wangi [b: close-up of skull; c: close-up of eye socket; d: close-up of preserved feathers; e: frog skeleton preserved nearby; scale bars = 20 mm for b and 10 mm for c], from Wang et al., 2022)

Meaning of name: Daurlong = Daur dragon [in Chinese]; wangi = for Wang Junyou [director of the Inner Mongolia Museum of Natural History]

Age: Early Cretaceous (Aptian), about 121 million years ago

Where found: Longjiang Formation, Inner Mongolia, China

How much is known: Nearly complete skeleton of one individual with preserved feathers.

Notes: Daurlong was a dromaeosaurid theropod, making it a fairly close relative to Velociraptor and Deinonychus. It was especially similar to Tianyuraptor and Zhenyuanlong of the Jehol Biota (also from the Early Cretaceous of China). Like Tianyuraptor and Zhenyuanlong, it had relatively short forelimbs for its size, and was larger than most other Early Cretaceous dromaeosaurids that have been found in China, being about 1.5 m long in total length.

The type specimen of Daurlong not only preserves an exceptionally complete skeleton with feather remains, but also a dark mass in its abdominal cavity. In terms of shape and anatomical position, this mass resembles the preserved intestines of Scipionyx, a theropod known from a well-preserved juvenile specimen from the Early Cretaceous of Italy, and may therefore also represent preserved intestinal remnants in Daurlong.

Reference: Wang, X., A. Cau, B. Guo, F. Ma, G. Qing, and Y. Liu. 2022. Intestinal preservation in a birdlike dinosaur supports conservatism in digestive canal evolution among theropods. Scientific Reports 12: 19965. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-24602-x

[may-fajman]

Daurlong!

I really like this little man, quite a cute critter, and you gotta love that head on the little guy I'm still waiting for a day when I can easily draw theropod heads :”0

close-ups under cut

[head-empty404]

I shall assign Sektor with Daurlong wangi !

paleoart by Adam Rufino on Behance

reblog this with a pic and of your f/o(s) [no more than 2 please!] and I'll assign them a prehistoric reptile!

here's an example!

I'm assigning Anton with Ankylosaurus magniventris !!

(paleoart by AdamWorks4 on Twitter)

please do note that it'll mostly be dinosaurs BUT not all of them will be!

you may also give a brief description of your f/o if you'd like! it'd help give me more of an idea for them!

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Round Two: Daurlong vs Ambopteryx

Daurlong wangi

Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @i-draws-dinosaurs

Meaning: Wang’s Daur dragon (named for the Daur people of Northeast China)

Time: 121 million years ago (Aptian stage of the Early Cretaceous)

Location: Longjiang Formation, Inner Mongolia, China

Daurlong was described in 2022, from a stunningly beautiful fossil that includes the entire body, crushed flat by pressure, and a whole lot of soft tissues like feathers along the back of the neck and even the shape of the intestines! Any part of the digestive system is extremely rare to find in fossils, so Daurlong provides an important glimpse into how the digestive systems of birdlike dinosaurs compare to living dinosaurs today!

Turns out, despite being closely related to the ancestors of modern birds Daurlong’s guts were pretty similar to other, much more distant theropods like Scipionyx instead. That helps fill in a pretty big gap in our knowledge of how the bird digestive system evolved, making this a very scientifically valuable fossil!

That, and it’s just adorable. Look at that lil smiley face!

Ambopteryx longibrachium

Artwork by Gabriel Ugueto, written by @i-draws-dinosaurs

Name meaning: Both wings with long arms

Time: 163 million years ago (Callovian stage of the Middle Jurassic)

Location: Haifanggou Formation, China

Look, evolution has done a lot of weird stuff to dinosaurs. It put penguins underwater, and did whatever the hall mamenchisaurid necks are, and game lambeosaurs a built-in face trumpet. But I would argue there is one group that represents dinosaur evolution at its most unhinged, and that is scansoropterygidae.

Scansoriopterygids were generally considered “weird little tree dinosaurs” in the 2000s, with long fingers to pick grubs out of bark or something. Then Yi qi swept along in 2015 and revealed that those long fingers were actually supporting membranous bat wings. With an extra bony rod (the “styliform element”) sticking out of the wrist to help support it, because well if you’re a dinosaur evolving bat wings why bother being normal about it after that? Although really, the dinosaurs did it first so bats actually have dinosaur wings.

Yi was sensational, but it was also extremely weird and completely unique. Even other scansoriopterygids didn’t have wing membranes, so the whole bat thing was a bit up in the air. Or not up in the air, as the case may be. But then along comes Ambopteryx, published in 2019, packing another set of skin wings, and the vindication of Yi is complete! 

Ambopteryx preserves a styliform element and wing membrane, as well as a thick coat of feathers, and honestly out of a whole selection of dinosaurs I think these might be some of the most huggable in the lot. Obviously this whole wing membrane thing didn’t end up working out for them long term, but Ambopteryx is part of an incredible lineage that challenged what we thought was possible for dinosaurs!

[esmaniottoart]

Sketch_Dangerous Daurlong.

Digital, 2022.

[paleonativeart]

A quick sketch and coloring with crayons for lately new feathered dromeosaurid Daurlong wangi. And happily thanksgiving to everyone. #paleoart #daurlong #dromaeosauridae #paraves #pennaraptora #maniraptora #theropoda #dinosauria #feathereddinosaur #myart #crayons #crayola #crayonart https://www.instagram.com/p/ClXSJUoroo9/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[giornalepop]

DAURLONG, TROVATO L'INTESTINO DI UN DINOSAURO

DAURLONG, TROVATO L’INTESTINO DI UN DINOSAURO

L’eccezionale preservazione di Daurlong e, a sinistra, la regione intestinale Da più di 25 anni, l’Eldorado mondiale dei dinosauri ha un nome: Biota Jehol. Questo termine indica una serie di località fossilifere, risalenti al Cretacico Inferiore (in particolare, l’intervallo Barremiano-Aptiano, ovvero circa 125-115 milioni di anni fa), localizzate nel nord-est della Cina, in particolare nella…