Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Aucasaurus


A medium sized abelisaur from the late cretaceous of South America. Very similar to Carnotaurus but with no 'horns'. Around 13-15 feet long, and found at the bottom of an ancient lake. Some skin impressions were found around the pelvis area, but I can't find any pictures on it online (I did find a picture of dinosaur skin, but no named along with it.)

Best,

Brett

Unnamed Carcharadontosaur


I'm not quite sure what to do with this guy. I drew it when some late Cretaceous carcharadontosaur teeth were found in South America. But another study claims they might in fact be abelisaur teeth that mimic carcharadontosaurs... Sooo, this might be entirely wrong, but it was based on only a few teeth so it wouldn't be that accurate to begin with, just me having some fun;)

Best,

Brett

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Becklespinax


Known from only 3 vertebrae, the rest of this restoration are purely conjecture. Found in England from rocks dating to the early Cretaceous. It's though to be related to either the sinraptors or Acrocanthosaurus. I drew it more like Acro due to the elongated nature of the 3 vertebrae.

I've been having problems with Blogger not telling me things are spelled wrong and even keeping them wrong AFTER I have corrected them. My spelling is horrible to begin with so you might not notice;)

Best,

Brett

Friday, April 24, 2009

Spinosaurus aegyptiacus

The ever popular Spinosaurus. Originally found in the desert near Egypt (mid Cretaceous rocks) at the beginning of the 20th century, all the original material was lost during the bombing of Germany during WWII. We are lucky to have drawing of the material so all was not lost! The original material which consisted of the front part of the lower jaw, a few neck vertebrae, a few tail vertebrae, and most of the back vertebrae with the elongated neural spines. The original restoration was of a giant allosaur with a sail, like this drawing. The exact size of is hard to pinpoint. The original material appears to not have been fully grown. Sizes from 50 to 65 feet have been offered, but we'll have little to no idea until a new skeleton is found.

For a long time that was the restoration, until the 80's, when Baryonyx was found. It was quickly discovered that the 2 species were very similar, that gave us our first decent peek at what a spinosaur looked like. In this restoration I bulked up the skull a bit, the lower ends shortly after the tip, but the back of the jaw bone looks very robust. So I toyed with the idea that Spinosaurus was sort of returning to a more predatory dinosaur, Baryonyx was considered a fish eater (even though iguanadon bones were found in it's stomach contents, along with fish scales) so the skull was more delicate.
In 2003 it was suggested that Spinosaurus was actually a chimera (made up of more than on animal) since it was found in a bone bed with other animals. The jaw belonging to a spinosaur, the neck to a relative of Acrocanthosaurus. The back to a sauropod (all of the three major dinosaur branches produced a 'fin' back.) I actually like the idea (I suggested a hadrosaur for the backbone since the older adults bones seem to mimic theropods, something I didn't know until I saw Valley of the T. rex with Jack Horner. But a sauropod would explain the great size) I liked the idea of a chimera, the sail would be a great hindrance to an active predator. But science changes and moves on...

It was reported that a new skull was found earlier this decade, something that would have been around 8 feet long. Now there was/is a possible relative of Spinosaurus, or in this case a subspecies, also found in Africa, this was dubbed Spinosaurus marocannus. Only the front part of the upper jaw was found, it was very delicate. But this new skull, seemed to link the 2 species/subspecies together, the new skulls teeth matched the original lower jaws teeth so it appears that the more robust skull I drew was wrong, so this drawing was done.


This is the most recent drawing, based on all the info I could find online. It looks like Spinosaurus is actually closely related to the South American spinosaur Irritator. At first Irritator was thought to be a pterosaur (it's skull is really strange even for a spinosaur,) but the new skull material for Spinosaurs matches it rather closely, even similar in tooth count.

What appears to be emerging is a very different animal than originally described. Long and lean, the nostril s far back on the skull, the neck designed for a more heron like attack. It appears to be a giant fish eater, perhaps it was forced to the water as it's great length wouldn't protect it from the other giant theropods that shared it's environment? (Carcharadontosaurus, Deltadromeus and possibly a few others, the remains are too scrappy.)

But what of the sail? It's been theorized that it was for fat storage, but the spines are very thin, I doubt they could have supported much weight. Possibly for cooling? Other theropods with similar size didn't have one, but maybe it helped when fishing in the afternoon, it does get hot inthe sun. I've also heard it was used as an actual sail for swimming... We know theropods could swim, we have 'foot' prints, really just nail prints;) But none of the other spinosaurs with associated skeletons show aquatic adaptions.. So I had an idea. It might be wrong, but what about a shade for hunting in the sun? Something to keep the glare of the sun off the water so it can see the fish below? Or maybe a combination of these? That's the most plausible scenario seeing as most parts of the body preform several functions.

Best,

Brett

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Tyrannotitan

A large early carcharadontosaur from South America. Not much is known about this animal yet. It's clearly large, around 40 feet, and the arms are very small (thus the name.)

Even though only a small amount of the animal is known, it's enough to give you a basic idea of what it looked like. Besides the small arms, it is also known to have a deep tail, so it's assumed that swimming would have been possible. Of course with all those horrors of the deep swimming around I don't think theropods would have ventured far into the water;)

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Albertosaurus Attack!

A quick shot of a sub adult Albertosaurus attacking a Struthiomimus, both from Canada. Albertosaurus grew to around 30 feet and Struthiomimus got to around 15 feet. Paleontologists are still not sure what the orstich mimic dinosaurs ate, everything from filter feeders to omnivors have been proposed.

Best,

Brett

Suchomimus

So this is an older shot of Suchomimus. As you can see I don't really like drawing backgrounds, since I don't actually get paid for doing these drawings, I tend to just concentrate on the animal.

Found in Africa, this animal is considered a close relative of Baryonyx (the first good specimen of a spinosaur found.) The skeleton that was found was of a sub adult and it was 36 feet long, so this animal might have gotten to the 40+ foot size range. There are teeth from this line of spinosaurs (Spinosaurus and Irritator are on a second branch, they have less teeth and a more pterosaur like head) from Europe, weather this is a third species is unknown right now.

Best,

Brett

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Megalosaurus and Edmarka

This is the first described dinosaur. From the middle Jurassic England, this animal grew to a length of around 30 feet. This is one of the only known theropods from the middle Jurassic, it was originaly restored as a quadraped.

Edmarka rex is a possible late surviving Megalosaur from the late Jurassic of North America. Some scientists consider it to just be a species of Torvosaurs, as Megalosaurs and Torvosaurs are thought to be closely related. I believe the only known specimen is thought to be somewhere between 36 nd 42 feet long.

Best,

Brett

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Torvosaurus

This is a reconstruction of the recent Torvosaurus find in Europe. They seemed to have T. rexed up the skull a bit from the fragmentary remains. What was found, seems to be pretty close to the other Torvosaurus material found in the US. So the head should look more like the bottom picture (which is pretty old, notice the incorrect hands) or the one I posted for the Easter Holiday. I couldn't bring myself to make the nasal bridge as high as they did in the recontruction It just looked wrong.


Torvosaurus was a large predator from the late Jurassic. Growing to around 40 feet, and with larger teeth which look similar to tyrannosaurs. This would have been more like the T. rex of the Jurassic, they don't appear to be nearly as common as Allosaurs, so it's been speculated they were more solitary.

Best,

Brett

Giganotosaurus carolinii



I really need to do a new drawing of this guy, both of these are older. The first from 2005 and the second from 2000 (with colors by Jess.) I've always like this animal, a large sauropod hunter from South America with a huge skull. The original material is around 42 feet, some estimate place it at 45 feet but that's the largest I've heard. There is a partial lower jaw from another specimen that's 8% larger so this animal could possibly get close to 50 feet long.

I have learned recently that the skull is much more fragmentary than is commonly known. Theropoda has a post on it. It's from a few weeks ago but it's there:)

Best,

Brett

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Saurophaganax


I get a lot of hits on this one over on the regular blog. So I figured I'd post it here. There isn't much known on this theropod. Some vertebrae, some leg bones, but no skull. As I mentioned before this might turn out to not be an allosaur but an early carcharadontosaur, that's how I drew it here.

I actually have been to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and got to see their mount of Saurophaganax (based on Allosaurus.) Unfortunately my camera died and I couldn't get any pictures. I'd like to head up that way again, they have a new Triassic exhibit that I want to check out.

Best,

Brett

Tyrannosaurs part the Third: T. rex!


This is a quicky of a female, we call her the Chocolateosaurus here, I was going for a more drab look on her compared to the male in the next picture.


This is the most current picture of T.rex that I have done. I'm actually not a big fan of the animal. Maybe it's over exposure?


This one (and the next one) was colored by Jess, and the tails are WAAYY to long. But I do like the juvenile rex and triceratops. I drew this one awhile ago so go easy on me.


This was the very first picture of Tyrannosaurus rex I did. The little ones on the side were added for a book, I can't remember what it was called or if it was even used. Depending on who you talk to there are 1 to 3 species in this group. Tyrannosaurus rex, possibly Tyrannosaurus (Tarbosaurus) bataar and Tyrannosaurus (Nanotyrannus) lancensis. It will be interesting to see if they ever come to some sort of conclusion on this but since they only have bones it doesn't seem likely.

Right now I'm just posting a bunch of the older images I have on the computer. I'll interspace some new stuff as well. I've got several colored pictures started:)

Best,

Brett

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Tyrannosaurs part the second: Tarbosaurus Attack!


This is the only picture I've done of the Asian tyrannosaur Tarbosaurus. It's attacking a giant hadrosaur also from Asia. I was asked to compete with some other people for this Italian Jurassic Park site. I think I was criticized for the fact that both of the Tarbosaurs feet are off the ground, but I don't speak Italian the Google translator is sometimes very useless, especially with message boards. I don't really see why they couldn't jump a bit, it's not like he's really far off the ground or anything.;)

Best,

Brett

Monday, April 13, 2009

Tyrannosaurs part the first


A hypothetical adult 'Nanotyrannus'. I had watched the NG show that featured 'Jane' and was inspired to draw Jane as a new species of Tyrannosaur. It always bothered me that T. rex is the only large predator at the end of the Cretaceous. Plus, I'm not convinced that Jane is really a juvinile T. rex, the brain case being different as are the teeth. I'm happy to be wrong of course, just new stuff to draw:)


The classic version of Nanotyrannus, a small agile tyrannosaur.


A shot of Jane and her parents. I really just wanted to try a black dinosaur:)

Best,

Brett

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy unnamed religious holiday


I'm trying to stick to just dinosaurs on this blog, if you want to read about my politics and religion you'll have to hit my regular blog. But in the spirit of the holiday/spring I've messed with a quickly toned Torvosaurus, done for a blog post last year.

Best,

Brett

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Feathered Dinosaurs


A hypothetical feathered Spinosaurus hatchling. Colors by Jess


A Utahraptor, but I'm told that Dr. Kirkland thinks this one is too skinny. Fair enough, it's now Deinonychus;) Just kidding. Perhaps a delicate female? the colors were chosen as an homage to the book RaptorRed.


Sinosauropteryx, the first feathered dinosaur discovered. The arms are wrong, but I was going for gopher or weasel and the palms in looked strange.


A feathered Ornitholestes, I'm stillnot ure where this guy goes onthe dinosur family tree, I've heard maniraptors and then early tyrannosaur (which would actually be in the maniraptor family...my brain hurts.) I gave it a 'raptor' claw but I can't remember why...

I'm actually not tha tinto the feathers, they look good colored but the drawing of them is rather boring which is why I don't do more of them. Plus I have to be in the right mood to do the thinness of these guys right, I don't know why I just do.

Lagosuchus


Now the neck might be a bit long, but I'll call that artistic license (the stubby neck looked wrong);) This is not a dinosaur, it's too early, but some think it was one of the precursors to the earliest dinosaurs. This was a small animal, Dinodata has it listed at .30 meters, so around a foot. And more than likely, it could run on it's hind legs from short bursts.

Brett

Edit: I have been informed that this is not a archosaur made of brightly colored blocks. It has been changed;)

Friday, April 10, 2009

Acrocanthosaurus


This is one of my most beloved dinosaurs. An early carcharadontosaur (a few still consider this an advanced allosaur) from the central US. Paleontologists have several partial specimens and have been able to cobble together a decent restoration. It's a large beast growing to about 40 feet (12 meters for those outside the US.)
This animal is one possible suspect of trackways found in Texas, trackways showing a possible bite attempt, depending on who you ask;) I was trying to figure out how to do a nice yellow color here, it didn't quite work out and I got a more goldish look than I wanted. I'm actually fairly new to coloring these things so there is a lot of trial and error:)


The first colored picture I did of this animal, the legs are to long and the calves to, for lack of a better word, boofy. The 'sail' (just elongated vertibrae along the back, about 2 feet high) is smaller on this one. I've seen several skeletal restoration and each one has a different sail height (I cover it in muscles since it wasn't very tall.) Maybe differnences in the sexes? Or just different artist adding their touch?

Best,

Brett

More Allosaurs

'Epanteris' the giant allosaurs specimen. It's a bit bulky but it was a big animal. I wanted to enclude these in yesterdays post but my signal wasn't good enough to upload after the first image. Damn wind!



This one is sort of a revamp of the male Allosaurus in the last post. Since that one was based off of Paul's Allosaurus fragilis skeletal reconstruction in PDoW, I thought I'd draw one based off of the Allosaurs atrox reconstruction in the same book.

Jess nicknamed this one Fluffy right after it was drawn, the feathers are entirely speculative and more than likely wrong, but it is a fun picture. This one as well as the family from the last post were colored by my wife Jess.

I have more but most aren't colored and some I just don't like. I have been asked to draw some dinosaurs without all the spikes and protofeathers, but the animals just look plain to me. Just an FYI the Big Al specimen of allosaurus might turn out to be a new subspecies:)

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Allosaurus fragilis


This is the very first dinosaur picture I drew using actual reference that wasn't either a model or from JP. I did this way back in 2000 for Prehistoric Times. This is what sparked my interest in drawing dinosaurs, and while the style might be a little off from the norm, there are other comic book pros that have also delved into the world of dinosaurs, Art Adams, Ricardo DelGado, and William Stout. I've heard rumors that Walt Simonson also draws dinosaurs, but I have not been able to find anything else about that:( Now on to Allosaurs:

This was the first large theropod described, there have been several subspecies attributed to it, Atrox, Maximus, as well as similar animals that might be sysnonomus with it, Epantaris, Saurophaganax. The Fragilis skull is now thought to have been restored incorrectly, so since it was named first Allosaurus atrox has been lumped into Fragilis. Likewise Epantaris seems to just be a large adult individual so it too seems to now be lumped into Fragilis. As for Saurophaganax A.K.A. Allosaurus Maximus? An unpublished analysis appears to place it as an early Carcharadontosaur and therefore not a member of Allosaurus, just closely related.

The first picture has some flaws, the arms on but the main allosaur are incorrect, some of the anatomy is off, but for a first try it still holds up well. At the time of this drawing the feathers were entirely speculative, but recent finds might actually prove this drawing feasible.

Allosaurus is a medium to large theropod from the late Jurassic, we have lots of specimens, from small to large. Maximum size would be somewhere around 40 feet with a 3+ foot long head. Sometimes referred to as the lion of the Jurassic... but they most likely would be better compared to wolves, they have smallish teeth for such a large animal. They've found many of them fossilized together in large bone beds so they were most likely pack animals, I find it hard to believe all dinosaurs lived solitary lives.

That's all for now,

Brett