#Paleo

[thecoffeeisblack]

Dromaeosaurus albertensis enjoying a meal. Work in progress underpainting, based on an old sketchbook drawing.

[yulecatt]

tribute to anomalocaris

[the-briny-bulletin]

[theantiazdarcho]

The Takin is such a whimsical herbivore, like God commissioned Dr. Seuss for this one.

[adigitalsky]

merry christmas to this specific microraptor who’s eating some unexpected snowflakes. he doesn’t know what december is

inprnt shop

[bunjywunjy]

Hi! Love your blog! Wondering if you have any cool facts about quetzalcóatlus? I love prehistoric babies!

if you're a 90's kid like I was, probably your first exposure to the idea of the giant pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus was through the Dinotopia books! though the author/artist, James Gurney, did nickname them "Skybaxes" for the ease of young readers.

this gave us a beautiful picture of an amazing animal that we would later discover was, EXTREMELY misleading.

see, the first book was released in 1992, back when we only had a few wing bones to describe Quetzalcoatlus! they hinted at the existence of a giant pterosaur with the wingspan of a small plane, but they didn't offer much detail:

this is what James Gurney was working off of when he created the Skybax, and you can totally see where he came from! he basically took the body plan of known pterosaurs like Pteranodon and scaled it UP to match the size of the new fossils.

but over the next several years, new fossils of Quetzalcoatlus were being discovered, described, and cataloged, enough that Gurney created a new Quetzalcoatlus for his second Dinotopia book that was outright stated to be Quetzalcoatlus Northropi, which is the name of the actual animal these bones belong to!

so sized up even bigger, same body plan.

and then in the early 2000's, some very interesting discoveries started to be made about Quetzalcoatlus and its relatives! turns out that they were a bunch of giraffe-sized storkmonster predators that could probably 1v1 a T Rex.

shown here life size!

so needless to say, this was a bit of a shock.

but MAN. just goes to show, if you can imagine an animal, nature already made something 1000% crazier and more badass. and it probably wants to eat you.

[mecharexisbones]

Here’s that horse again

*in the tone of a estranged grandmother*

You love horse

Horse was always your favourite what happened?

[ravewing]

what if the cambrian period was in hazbin hotel

[samkuchingdraws]

Double-Crested Hunter

[soulsplosion]

thinkin about dinosaurs today

[paleo-cafnir]

Animated short film teaser #2

[fenjammin]

was posing my new velociraptor model and my friend said he looked like he's shyly waiting for his friend to come back after losing them at a party where he doesn't know anyone else so i had to draw it

he has social anxiety somebody help him

[feather-bone]

[ID: a colorful digital illustration of an archaeopteryx fossil with its head twisted upside down under one wing. The animal’s silhouette is shown behind the skeleton in black with a red outline. Surrounding it are various plants, beetles, fossils, a feather, and stars, all outlined in shades of orange, yellow, and green. The background is blue with a simple blue and black fern border. End.]

Archaeopteryx! A beautiful feathery link between non-avian dinosaurs and modern birds (avian dinosaurs)! This illustration is based on the iconic Berlin specimen and will be the postcard for this month’s ko-fi supporter rewards!

[dinodanicus]

A lone pentaceratops charges through the rain and fog at a suspicious sound in a nearby clearing. Without the protection of a herd the lone male flashes a deimatic display on his frill in an attempt to frighten off the would be attacker.

[paleo-punk]

More dinosaur commissions~