#fujianvenator

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Chuang Zhao's depiction of the newly described Fujianvenator is everything

and the volcano is actually accurate for once!

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Results from the #paleostream!

Fujianvenator, Uruyiella, Sinopa, Scalarites

[unexpecteddinolesson]

Fujianvenator

Fujianvenator is an anchiornithid avialan from the Late Jurassic of China, whose discovery gave important insight to the evolution of birds. It had proportionately long legs, with the tibia twice the length of the femur. This suggests it may have been a strong runner, and possibly had a terrestrial or wading lifestyle. Fujianvenator was a small dinosaur, weighing about 640 g. As an avialan, it was almost certainly covered in feathers, though it does not seem likely to have been capable of flight.

[the-paleoraptor]

A quick little sketch of the recently described avialan Fujianvenator prodigiosus from the Jurassic of China !

[dinodorks]

[ Fujianvenator prodigiosus, illustrated by Mr. Chuang Zhao. ]

"One hundred and fifty million years ago, a young, bantam-sized, bird-like dinosaur became mired in a swamp in what is now southeastern China, and succumbed. Its fossilized remains, unearthed in 2022 and named Fujianvenator prodigiosus, show it to be one of the earliest bird-like dinosaurs to date from the Jurassic period. The researchers describe their discovery in a paper published today in Nature. “This is really a weird animal within the group of birds,” says Mark Loewen, a palaeontologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, who was not involved in the discovery. The creature had oddly lanky legs and might have lacked the ability to fly. It also doesn't seem to conform to the accepted bird-evolution story. Although dinosaurs were largely extinct by 66 million years ago, therapods, the three-clawed, hollow-boned group that included Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus rex, had started to evolve into today’s birds. Many palaeontologists consider the first bird to be a 150-million-year-old feathered dinosaur called Archaeopteryx, fossils of which were found in Germany. But this study adds to mounting evidence that by the time of Archaeopteryx, dinosaurs had already diversified into different kinds of birds, Loewen says. Hailu You, a palaeontologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and one of the co-authors of the paper, says that in the Jurassic, bird-like dinosaurs might have been occupying different ecological niches. “Early bird evolution is complicated,” he says. Fujianvenator’s fossil lacks a head or a complete tail, but its body and limbs show a medley of traits similar to those of other bird-like dinosaurs, such as the relative lengths of the fingers, and details of the pelvis and vertebrae. But it didn’t have many modifications that would contribute to flight."

Read more: "‘Weird’ dinosaur prompts rethink of bird evolution" by Jude Coleman.

[new-dinosaurs]

Fujianvenator prodigiosus Xu et al., 2023 (new genus and species)

(Type specimen of Fujianvenator prodigiosus [scale bars = 20 mm], from Xu et al., 2023)

Meaning of name: Fujianvenator = Fujian hunter [in Latin]; prodigiosus = bizarre [in Latin]

Age: Late Jurassic (Tithonian), 149.9–150.2 million years ago

Where found: Nanyuan Formation, Fujian, China

How much is known: Partial skeleton of one individual including most of the trunk and limbs.

Notes: Fujianvenator was an early avialan, a group of mostly flight-capable theropod dinosaurs that also contains modern birds. Most members of this group, including modern birds, have short tails, but like other Jurassic avialans, such as Archaeopteryx and Anchiornis, Fujianvenator retained the ancestrally long tail found in most other dinosaurs. It had unusually long lower legs and feet for its size, not just for an avialan but for a theropod of any kind, which may suggest specialization towards a running or wading lifestyle.

In addition to being a newly named dinosaur, Fujianvenator comes from a newly discovered fossil site, from which over 100 reptile fossils have been uncovered so far. Given that well-preserved fossils of Jurassic avialans are only known from a few localities worldwide, this new site has the potential to become a valuable resource for understanding the early diversity and evolution of these theropods.

Reference: Xu, L., M. Wang, R. Chen, L. Dong, M. Lin, X. Xu, J. Tang, H. You, G. Zhou, L. Wang, W. He, Y. Li, C. Zhang, and Z. Zhou. 2023. A new avialan theropod from an emerging Jurassic terrestrial fauna. Nature advance online publication. doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06513-7

[si-nequal-is]

Fujianvenator prodigiosus

[makairodonx]

An impression of Fujianvenator prodigiosus

References:

http://www.nature.com/articles/s41586

[grecoromanyaoi]

haiii ur linocut work is litcherally soo beautiful especially the hatching work and its been inspiring me to try getting into stamp or printmaking if my body allows!!

quick question if u dont mind: how do u transfer the image to the lino itself? do u just draw everything backwards straight onto the lino or do u use something like carbon paper or transfer paper? i ask coz im primarily a digital artist and wanted to see if i could just use printing to transfer my digital lines to the lino to carve! i couldnt get any clear answers online and figured itd be better to ask an actual artist LOL AND SORRY IF THIS QUESTION IS CONFUSINGLY WORDED english is nawtttt my first language 😭😭😭😭 thank yew in advance!!

hi! ty first of all, it means a lot <3 i use carbon paper to transfer the drawing! i draw it digitally, then flip it (so i know the end result looks good), print it and trace it over carbon paper! i tried to transfer thru laserjet and acetone, but it didnt work as well :( id love to see what ur making if ur comfortable sharing!

[armatofu]

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02757-5

I love this new guy! I don't think it really makes us "rethink bird evolution", that's just sensationalist headlines, but it is really cool and important for understanding those early Paravians

[spectralpaleon]

LETS GO BABYYYYYY

[greenfrog04]

A new avialan theropod from an emerging Jurassic terrestrial fauna

Published 6th September 2023

A new species of avialan therapod, Fujianvenator prodigiosus, thought to be one of the stratigraphically youngest Jurassic avialan from the Tithonian age of Zhenghe Fauna locality, China.

Fujianvenator prodigiosus holotype and detailed line drawing

Fujianvenator prodigiosus phylogenetics

Life reconstruction of Fujianvenator prodigiosus, art by Chuang Zhao

source:

[anyonghalimaw]

fujianvenator>timogsilangan

[shiningcindyz]

Revenge on @fujianvenator

[hollowsart]

@fujianvenator

the reddit does come to mind, but I don't have an account and I can't be bothered jdsfhhdsf but hey, if anyone wants to help ask the question there for me, by all means, please do!

I can provide crudely drawn artist renditions from memory and whatever descriptions of the games I can remember, too.

I've made a few posts before about a few of them that I can remember. 1 of which I actually was able to find again myself (Slackerman (pac-man, but with a business man/office aesthetic with coffee & donuts being what you collect))

so I can easily just grab those again.