#parankylosaur

[ppaleoartistgallery]

#Maysozoic Day 13 - Carnotaurus

still streaming art!! but also wow it's been a while since ive drawn Carnotaurus. id also like to thank @the-morrison-man for this killer idea

here's the prompt list:

[he-who-needs-to-be-silenced]

All of my lemuria challenge submissions so far

[saritawolff]

#Archovember Day 23 - Kunbarrasaurus ieversi

In the Early Cretaceous of Australia lived the small, basal ankylosaurian Kunbarrasaurus ieversi. Originally thought to be a species of Minmi, Kunbarrasaurus was eventually discovered to be a new genus of ankylosaur and renamed in 2015. One specimen is the most complete dinosaur fossil ever found in Australia, even containing gut contents! This Kunbarrasaurus’ last meal consisted of plant tissue fragments, whole fruits, and whole seeds. The tissue fragments are small and seem to have been nibbled or chopped by the ankylosaur. Unlike some other dinosaurs, it lacked any gastroliths, leading paleontologists to believe it had a more sophisticated method of grinding up its food.

Kunbarrasaurus fossils have been found in marine sediment, so they were likely swept out to the shallow inland sea that covered Queensland during the Early Cretaceous. However, some other unfortunate dinosaurs have also been found in the same Allaru Formation. These include the titanosaur Austrosaurus and the iguanodontian Muttaburrasaurus.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Trick or treat ◡̈

Thank you for running this blog! <3

You are so welcome!

Stegouros!!

Please do not send me more trick or treat asks, I am only answering the ones I could not get to after I hit post limit last night, it is Nov 1st we have other shenanigans to attend to!

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

And here we have the open woodlands. Lemuria during the Cretaceous has large, Araucaria dominated woodlands. These were full of megafauna. Large trees plus lots of open space and lower vegetation inbetween offer many niches for sauropods, large parankylosaurs and elesmarians to move in. But these woods are also also crawling with many small animals and are filled with wonderful flora.

On Lemuria

Lemuria is a new spec evo project for and by the #paleostream community. Like the Atlantis project beforehand it deals with a fictional piece of land in 3 phases. Lemuria is an already existent concept that was invented before the recognition of plate tectonics to explain certain distribution patterns of animals and plants. In our case Lemuria is a continent consisting of India and Madagascar. We speculate how animals and plants would evolve if these two would never separate. This has MANY consequences. And the further we progress through time the more natural history will change. Phase one deals with the Cretaceous, when things are still rather "normal".

[skyland2703]

First we had Parankylosaurs, the Ankylosaurs cosplaying as Stegosaurs, but now we have the recently discovered Thyreosaurus, a stegosaur cosplaying as an Ankylosaur.

A. Stegosaur. COSPLAYING. as an. Ankylosaur.

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You know, you can’t convince me Javi isn’t inherently a pink ranger now <3

[noddytheornithopod]

While the Prehistoric Planet hype is still alive, I might as well express my desire for more and say what I'd personally love to see if they did a Season 3. I’ll put this under the cut because it’s a lot lol.

First thing's first, I'm going to be operating under the assumption we will be following the same format and setting, ie a few segments per episode set in the Masstrichtian stage of the Cretaceous with some loose overarching theme. I need to keep myself grounded in SOMETHING.

So first thing: I've already made fun of "North America" being the title of episode 2.5. What would fix this? If Season 3 did episodes centred on the other continents, of course! South America, Africa, Asia, Europe and... oh uh this might be a bit trickier. Specifically, where do Oceania and Antarctica go? Honestly, just do a vague "East Gondwana" episode for Madagascar, India, Antarctica and Zealandia.

"But we never saw anything from Appalachia!" True. Some generic "Islands 2" or "subcontinents" episode? But Antarctica isn't a subcontinent... maybe some "Atlantic" episode to combine with the European islands? Point is, it would still be messy. This isn't even my main idea, just a vague thought on how to structure Season 3 plus being salty that America gets its own episode (there weren't even any Canadian creatures lol).

OKAY enough fucking around, let's get to what I actually WANT to talk about, the stuff I'd actually want to see. Bring on the list! 

Megaraptorids. We've seen representatives of all the large predatory theropods... except megaraptorids. A strange unique group of predators we don't even know where they fit in dinosaur cladistics, but seemed to be important in South American ecosystems. Orkoraptor actually comes from the same place as Dreadnoughtus so there's an easy excuse already, but I think it would be even more exciting to consider Maip. The size of this thing pretty much confirms they were apex predators, so definitely worth considering.

More notosuchians. It's wild how diverse they were, Simosuchus is just one of many species worth showing. Might as well mention Baurusuchids in particular, especially since they seem to have become significant predators in parts of South America. Dinosaur hunting crocs, guys.

Honestly? I'm down for crocodyliformes in general. Show us dyrosaurs in the seas, and even Eusuchians. Similar to modern crocs like Shamosuchus in Swamps, or something different like the more terrestrial Allodaposuchus.

More Europe weirdness! Whether it be Hateg fauna or stuff we know from other parts of the continent, I think people don't realise how unusual those ecosystems were, especially compared to Laurasia in general. Maybe I just want to see Magyarosaurus in detail, but also think about how Abelisaurs seem to be prominent terrestrial predators, for example? Also all the strange birds like Gargantuavis and maybe Balaur. Also, Asteriornis I see a lot of hype for. ;P

On a similar note, more stuff from Africa could be nice, especially terrestrial fauna! We know dinosaurs from Ouled Abdoun, which had fauna featured in Coasts and Deserts, and it's worth considering especially because you kind of see how some of these animals' ancestors may have led to similar species in nearby Europe. Also, if they ever further described more remains from the continent like that giant Kenyan abelisaur, that could provide cool opportunities.

This is a bit more out of left field but: non-ceratopsid ceratopsians. Leptoceratopsids, and even Protoceratopsids (hey, we have Velociraptor, we can make that stretch). Show how they're different from say Triceratops.

More non-hadrosaur ornithopods. Whether it be Thescelosaurus, more rhabdodontids, or some good ol Elasmarians from the Southern continents, I'd be down.

More India stuff is always fun, Deccan Traps FTW, could show other animals like noasaurs for that matter too.

Also Parankylosaurs, whether it be Stegouros with the macuahuitl, or an updated Antarctopelta (more Antarctica FTW).

Basically, even in terms of dinosaurs, show more stuff you've yet to do. Nodosaurs, Halzkaraptorines (again, see Velociraptor), heck even more of some groups we only briefly saw eg Alvarezsaurs and Pachycephalosaurs.

Honestly? More birds would be cool in general. I know we don't know much about a lot of them like Enantiornithines, but we could still try showing what we do know.

In terms of more familiar and recognisable stuff? I mean, you can't go wrong with well known species, but this is me wishing for stuff that's new. :P I will say though, if you want big names, we still haven't seen Ankylosaurus or Gallimimus...

Hmm, we haven't seen choristoderes, have we? In terms of other reptiles, not much comes to mind, nice we got to see Madtsoia in Islands at least.

Honestly more mammals could be fun. I'm pretty sure we have members of every modern group from the Maastrichtian somewhere (even monotremes, Patagorhynchus was recently described). Also diversity of lifestyles too.

Appalachia. More North America, but we see how life evolved somewhat differently on the eastern side of the continent and how it likely lacked some of the more recognisable animals we know from Laramidia.

I don't know enough about other groups to comment, so I'll leave it at that. Definitely got quite extensive, but honestly I'm all for exploring new places. Hell, look into invertebrates and fish I know heck all about (hmm I'm sure there's some cool sharks, right?).

Anyway, time to address the elephant in the room. What if the next season left the Maastrichtian, or we got a spin-off that did that? Well, I do have thoughts on that. For that, I could easily be SUPER biased and just name stuff that I personally want to see, but I think you'd need to think from the perspective of the higher ups too. In other words, what's gonna get the most eyes on the show? There's that, and also how well known the information of that time is, as well as considering things like cost and practicality. The Maastrichtian was chosen because it filled all three of those needs. You have iconic and charismatic species like T. rex, the Maastrichtian is very well studied and has sites from almost every continent, and because it's the closest to today, it's the easiest to film for. 

I don't really know anything that would fit these three needs perfectly, ESPECIALLY in terms of filming locations (unless they wanna go majority CG, which I wouldn't mind personally but I know the production team likes real locations because of what they add to the show). But anyway, I have two possible eras as my main choices if they choose to do a similar kind of show: the Late Jurassic epoch (I'd name a specific stage but I don't know enough about them lol), and the Cenomanian stage at the start of the Late Cretaceous. 

For the Late Jurassic (insert chosen stage of it here), you have a lot to work with. You have all the other most iconic traditional staple dinosaurs like Stegosaurus, Brontosaurus, Brachiosaurus and well known contemporaries like Diplodocus, Allosaurus, etc. In fact, the Morrison Formation is the main reason I opted for a Late Jurassic option. Sure, it does cover quite a bit of time, but we've seen Prehistoric Planet already take liberties with a six million year time span.

I think my main worry would be that some of the ecosystems on different continents might seem a bit similar, but honestly I doubt anyone would care too much. Plus, you have Asia with slightly different dinosaur groups, and Europe with their island ecosystems (eg Solnhofen). So even if it would be harder to film and some of the best locales for data are in more concentrated areas, I think there's enough to justify it. Also, novelty of early birds and birdlike dinos like Archaeopteryx.

As for the Cenomanian, you already have an easier time filming because angiosperms are now widespread, and you do have data from every continent. And while it doesn't have so many iconic species, there are a few, and some very charismatic animals to explore. Like, you have some of the biggest titanosaurs like Argentinosaurus. Massive Giganotosaurins who are built for hunting large sauropods. Everyone's favourite dinosaur, Spinosaurus. And again, stuff from almost every continent. Like, you could even have freaking Australia show up! Winton Formation is Cenomanian, so it could join the showcases of Africa, South America and others (I don't know so much about Cenomanian Laurasian fauna RIP). And while it would be true for the Late Jurassic as well, this time had especially peculiar nondinosaurs coexisting. Strange mammals. Giant freshwater fish. More unusual crocs. Even the earliest mosasaurs, all while ichthyosaurs and pliosaurs still existed. Basically, even if a layperson might only know Spinosaurus and Giganotosaurus from this time, you still have loads to potentially awe people with.

Anyway, that's a wrap on that. I have no clue what to expect for the future of Prehistoric Planet or what other upcoming palaeo docs will be like, but it's always fun to speculate!

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

rip to plateosaurids and pengornithids but things had to be cut

[ppaleoartistgallery]

#LemuriaChallenge backlog 18/23 - Submission 18: Parankylosaur Burrows Part 1

I had this idea from day 1 but procrastinated HEAVILY on doing it, so on literally the second last day i stuck my head down and did it, ill post the full image at the very end

[ppaleoartistgallery]

#LemuriaChallenge backlog 20/23 - Submission 20: Parankylosaur Burrows Part 3

and we're getting quite close to the end of my backlog :P

[ppaleoartistgallery]

#LemuriaChallenge backlog 19/23 - Submission 19: Parankylosaur Burrows Part 2

ive honestly never drawn so many invertebrates in one sitting (which is a massive shame), i had to fit in all the groups i really wanted to do/finish so i just wanted to

[ppaleoartistgallery]

#LemuriaChallenge backlog 21/23 - Submission 21: Parankylosaur Burrows Part 4

and that's the last of the burrows, im still very happy with how this was executed ngl, worked around the 5 species per submission limit in a way that doesnt feel cluttered

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

since paraves and pennaraptora both include all living dinosaurs, they were not eligible for this poll

[saritawolff]

#Archovember Day 30 - Scutellosaurus lawleri

For our final archosaur, we head to Arizona, USA during the Early Jurassic. Scutellosaurus lawleri was a basal thyreophoran, part of the group which would lead to stegosaurs, nodosaurs, parankylosaurs, and eventually ankylosaurs. But in the Early Jurassic, thyreophorans were small and lightly built, a far cry from the lumbering tanks they would someday become. Scutellosaurus was mostly bipedal, using its long tail as a counterbalance. It had several hundred osteoderms covering its whole body and forming parallel rows, some flat and some pitted.

As more than 70 specimens are known, Scutellosaurus lawleri was probably a fairly common animal. It has been found all over the Kayenta Formation. Its excess of osteoderms was likely due to the amount of predators here. It would have had to look out for the theropods Coelophysis, Kayentavenator, and the apex predator Dilophosaurus. It also lived alongside other herbivorous dinosaurs like the sauropodomorph Sarahsaurus. Early pterosaurs, like the dimorphodontid Rhamphinion, and pseudosuchians like Kayentasuchus also lived here, as well as a variety of early frogs, salamanders, rhynchocephalians, and small synapsids. This environment was an ever changing floodplain, experiencing rainy summers and dry winters at the edge of a large desert.