#Daurlong

[jeranodon]

Daurlong, another new dino!

[thekingoflimbo]

[si-nequal-is]

Daurlong the smiley raptor

[lightnersdream-archive]

[may-fajman]

Daurlong wangi

just a little fella. I drew one a while back, but i've improved a lot since then.

[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!

[makairodonx]

Breaking News: Largest Microraptorian Ever?

An exciting new dinosaur discovery has made headlines this year in a paper from a team of Chinese and American paleontologists that was just published a few days ago in Nature. Shulong xuxingi is known from a complete fossil skeleton unearthed in the Jiufotang Formation of China’s Liaonling Province, and may represent the largest Microraptorian ever known, possibly exceeding its closest relatives Daurlong and Zhenyuanlong in size, with a head-to-tail length of 2.8 meters and a weight of 9-10 kg. The genus name means “Tree Dragon” in Mandarin, owning to the animal’s possibly arboreal lifestyle given its long, powerful limbs and tail, and “xuxingi” refers to Xu Xing, the Chinese paleontologist who has played an important role in research on Microraptor and other Microraptorians. And as a highly arboreal, opportunistic hunter with large, powerful jaws that were lined with dozens of long, serrated teeth, Shulong xuxingi may have preyed upon a wide range of small vertebrate animals ranging from gliding lizards, enantiornithines and small mammals to fish from the nearby lakes and small ornithischians such as Jeholosaurids and Psittacosaurus.

Here’s a link to the video on the discovery of this giant, tree-dwelling dromaeosaur by Ben G. Thomas and his colleagues in the latest episode of their “7 Days of Science” series: https://youtu.be/P0BP3eodLmM?si=OFRUnxQUtG1JErA6

[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.

[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!

[adamworks]

Hi there!

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

[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

[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

[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=

[lightnersdream-archive]

hmm i will draw scipionyx. and daurlong

[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