#Triassic

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

We are approaching the maximum of images you can post here so I thought it was time I make a little showcase of all the formation pieces we covered so far on the streams.

For people who don't know: for several months now I draw one formation or fossil locality every Saturday. The next place we visit is chosen by a wheel of names, which we also constantly fill up again when a new formation is picked.

I try to make it as interesting as possible in my composition and choice of animals and I can tell you this series has been a great training when it comes to constructing these, how I call them, Menageries.

I have to thank a team of friends and colleagues who help behind the scenes with research, creation of size charts and conversation partners when it comes to deciding on the compositions of these pieces. Their help has been invaluable!

[amnhnyc]

Skin? Moisturized. Teeth? Tusk-like. Today’s mood? Mastodonsaurus giganteus. This animal lived during the Late Triassic about 215 million years ago. It’s an extinct relative of frogs and salamanders, but it probably behaved more like a crocodile: Its large, flat skull and tusk-like teeth (some of which protruded through the skull) seem to be adapted for seizing large prey. You can see this life-sized model in the Museum’s Hall of Vertebrate Origins! Plan your visit.

[aberrantologist]

Dinocephalosaurus, a strange, viviparous reptile from the Triassic, gives live birth in the shallows.

[the-bonclave]

If you've been following paleo news lately, then you know ichthyosaurs have been screwing with evolution again.

[bobnichollsart]

My 25 years of palaeoart chronology...

Here's how I built my model of Morganucodon (2017), a Triassic-Jurassic mammaliaform, commissioned by the University of Bristol and the National Museum Wales. Part 2 of 2 – I liked the furry trousers stage!

[monarchbutt]

me and my homies pulling up to the function

[wobblyworks]

A Coelophysis pair enjoying the early morning hours

[camiliar]

The Triassic Cuddle

“The Thrinaxodon was in a torpor and wouldn’t have woken up before it drowned in the rain. The Broomistega was badly injured and dying. Neither of them ever actually knew each other but their last moments are curled up together and immortalized in stone.” -xxx @picckl

[apsaravis]

Herrerasaurus

fineliner + watercolor pencils

[bearye-draws]

The Triassic Cuddle

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Trying to show or at least give a feeling of size in extinct animals can be tricky without a human next to the critter. That's why I made this quick second version of my Ichthyotitan piece. Size and shape is of course partially speculative. Take it with a grain of salt!

Based on the surangular I estimated a lower jaw length of roughly 4,5 meters.

[amnhnyc]

It's time for Fossil Friday! Meet Cryptocleidus oxoniensis, a short-necked plesiosaur. Plesiosaurs were large marine reptiles that lived from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous. The plesiosaurs had extensive modifications to the shoulder and pelvic girdles: these elements form large, flat sheets of bone, presumably for the attachment of swimming muscles. Cryptocleidus' trunk was very rigid and short, and the short tail could only function as a rudder, leaving the limbs as its main organ of propulsion.

Photos: © AMNH

Image 1: Cryptocleidus on display in the Museum.

Image 2: Photographic negative of the fossilized remains of Cryptocleidus, circa 1910.

[aberrantologist]

Ichthyotitan, the newly named and potentially largest marine reptile ever, witnesses two smaller ichthyosaurs surfing the underwater wave created by its massive body.

[kiabugboy]

Triassic non-marine horseshoe crabs,

many ancestors of today's marine animals find refuge in brackish environments, as the Permian Great Dying caused the sea to become anoxic and choked most of the marine life at the time

[bobnichollsart]

My 25 years of palaeoart chronology...

Here's my 2017 model of Morganucodon (2 x life-size), a mammaliaform that lived through the Late Triassic to the Middle Jurassic. It was commissioned by the University of Bristol and the National Museum Wales.

[psie-smutki]

Triassic palaeofauna of Miedary locality