Amargasaurus cazaui was a sauropod dinosaur with a very distinctive-looking skeleton, sporting a double row of long bony spines along its neck and back. It lived in what is now Argentina during the Early Cretaceous, about 129-122 million years ago, and was fairly small compared to many other sauropods, reaching about 10m in length (~33’) with a proportionally short neck compared to its body size.
And despite being known from fairly complete skeletal remains there’s still a lot we don’t know about this dinosaur – especially what was actually going on with those vertebral spines. While it’s sometimes been depicted with skin sails over the spines, for the last couple of decades the general opinion has trended towards them being more likely to have been covered by spiky keratinous horn-like sheaths.
But recently that’s been brought back into question. A detailed study of the microscopic bone structureofAmargasaurus’ spines shows no evidence for keratin attachment and instead found textures associated with skin coverings, along with an extensive web of ligaments connecting the spines to each other along each row.
While large, thin structures and extra surface area may seem like a liability for creatures in colder climates, the sails on Aurorus are crucial to its behaviors and lifestyle. Not only do the size and movement of the sails help to convey status and emotions between individuals even during heavy snowstorms, chromatophores in the sails allow them to change color as well.
Got the idea to do this while drawing and chatting with a friend. Aurorus’ sails can be pretty expressive, with 2/3 alternate sail colorations seemingly only used in Pokémon Amie. So it seemed a shame not to do something with them.
Remarkably, both fossilized bones and frozen tissues from Aurorus have been uncovered by researchers. Having such complete remains has allowed scientists in the Kalos region to not only hone the process of fossil revival, but also make exciting new discoveries. For instance, it was long speculated how a large creature like Aurorus could survive in the cold climates the rock record suggests it lived in. Analysis of preserved blood revealed high levels of glucose, which helps to keep cells from freezing even at very low temperatures
I played around with the formatting, lighting, and texturing for this one. I think a lot of the changes were for the better, but it may mean I have to go back and fix up Rampardos and Aerodactyl later. A bit painful since these take so long to do, but I think it’ll be worth it.
The “leaf-like” profile created by the high, laterally compressed neck feature here puts me in mind of phasmid or chameleon-style camouflage….I can almost see it rocking in the breeze.
BOTTOM: Speaking of chameleons–beautifully chameleon-like color and textures applied to the anomalous short-necked sauropod Brachytrachelopan.
Amargasaurus cazaui was a sauropod dinosaur with a very distinctive-looking skeleton, sporting a double row of long bony spines along its neck and back. It lived in what is now Argentina during the Early Cretaceous, about 129-122 million years ago, and was fairly small compared to many other sauropods, reaching about 10m in length (~33’) with a proportionally short neck compared to its body size.
And despite being known from fairly complete skeletal remains there’s still a lot we don’t know about this dinosaur – especially what was actually going on with those vertebral spines. While it’s sometimes been depicted with skin sails over the spines, for the last couple of decades the general opinion has trended towards them being more likely to have been covered by spiky keratinous horn-like sheaths.
But recently that’s been brought back into question. A detailed study of the microscopic bone structureofAmargasaurus’ spines shows no evidence for keratin attachment and instead found textures associated with skin coverings, along with an extensive web of ligaments connecting the spines to each other along each row.
Sauropods have been near and dear to me since I was pretty much a baby, so it was very hard to choose which one to include. Even though I love diplodocus, Amargasaurus seemed the obvious choice for this list with it’s rocker spines, and I have been meaning to draw one for quite some time.
I’ve been slowly trying to make my way through redrawing some of my older paleoart at higher resolutions, but I actually had to update this one.
Since Amargasaurus cazaui was first discovered, its unique neck spines have been the subject of much speculation. While some hypothesized the bony struts supported a skin sail, the more popular hypothesis was that they were each singularly covered in a keratinous sheath, making for a row of intimidating spikes down the sauropod’s neck. For years, this was considered the most accurate depiction.
However, as of a more in-depth study in early 2022, it is now thought that these spikes were indeed enclosed in flesh, and would have supported thick “humps” on the animals’ necks.
A dicraeosaurid amargasaurus is went from weird translation from retro style skin frill of 1990’s to neutral keratin sheath and finally to the bison hump-like skin of soft tissue, thanks to the another paleo paper. No NFT related post, please.
While Spinosaurus and Baryonyx are both quite good swimmers except for suchominus, but that’s not the only thing where everyone’s interested, following the day afterwards were Dicraeosaurids with new bizarrely soft tissues thanks to latest paleo paper. #paleoart #dicraeosauridae #amargasaurus #amargasauruscazaui #bajadasaurus #bajadasauruspronuspinax #pilmatueia #artist#ballpointpen #ballpointpenart #ballpointpendrawing #sauropoda #diplodocoidae #diplodocoidea #dinosauria #dinosaur #myart #sketchbook #sketchbookdrawing https://www.instagram.com/p/CbiLYDgrWfc/?utm_medium=tumblr
