Archelon ischyros is the largest sea turtle known to have ever lived, with a weight of two tons and a shell breadth of around 15 feet. It swam in the shallow sea covering central North America around 80 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous Period. Equipped with a sharp beak, it would likely have been a carnivore feeding on other marine creatures.
Here are the last three 2″x2″ ‘Fossil in a Bottle” paintings that I made this year. This time it was for a commission. I personally like how the elasmosaurus turned out.
Prehistoric creatures featured are Elasmosaurus, Parasaurolophus, and Pteranodon.
Megacephalosaurus was a Late Cretaceous pliosaur. It was discovered in the Carlile Shale Formation in Kansas. Megacephalosaurus actually represents one of the last members of the pliosauridae family.
Morturneria lived during the Late Cretaceous, and was discovered in Antarctica. What’s really fascinating is that Morturneria was a filter feeding plesiosaur, using its mouth as a sieve to indulge in marine invertebrates. The filter feeding strategy may have evolved in order to avoid direct competition with its other marine reptiles. Morturneria was once thought to be a juvenile Aristonectes, but paleontologists saw differences in non-ontological characteristics in Morturneria, thus distinguished it from Aristonectes. Fun fact, Morturneria was originally named Turneria, but the name was already taken by a genus of ant.
We have another marine reptile from the Paja Formation in Colombia. Muiscasaurus was a Late Cretaceous ophthalmosaurid, we have uncovered part of its skull, some ribs, and vertebrae. Muiscasaurus had four nostrils, two openings on each side of its snout.Muiscasaurusprobably consumed prey that were soft and small.
Opallionectes was a plesiosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous of what is now known as Australia. Data suggests that this plesiosaur may have dwelled in very cold waters. Opallionectes may have had blubber as an adaptation for this freezing type of environment. Paleontologists actually found Opallionectes in an opal mine down in South Australia.
You are a mammal. A very very long time ago, you were a fish. You decided that you shouldn’t stay in the water and should go on land, because land is safer because all of your predators are in the water. Oops! You need lungs for that. Okay so you make some lungs, and then some legs. You still need the water though, so you stay by it and go in and out.
Now you are an amphibian. Welcome to being a salamander. But this seems really inconvenient - you lay eggs but you live on land and in water. It would probably be easier to stick to one. So you decide to make your eggs have a hard protective shell, to keep the water in. Thats a good idea! Now do the same thing to your body. Now you have skin. Skin is actually pretty fragile so lets add some protection. Slap some scales on.
Welcome to being a reptile. Its a land full of giant insects. So you stay small and bide your time until the insects get smaller. And then you get bigger. And bigger. Until you’re the biggest thing on land. You look like a lizard but you act like a mammal. You hunt your prey. Some of your prey hunts plants. Works out nice. But it could be better. You still need the sun to warm you up. So why don’t you start making your own warmth?
Welcome to being warm blooded. You start to grow weird long, thin scales that is called fur, while other reptiles start to get crazy big. You decide its better to stay small for now. You can hide. You can run. Your neighbors keep growing, getting bigger, and their skeletons fill up with air pockets. They also make body coverings, but they’re long and flat. They are called dinosaurs. Some of them stay cold blooded and stay near the water, getting harder scales and needing less food to keep up their metabolism. These are crocodilians.
You stay small until space decides to blow up the planet. All the big reptiles are gone, so you take over and get bigger now. You decide its easier to grow your eggs inside of you and give birth to live babies instead of waiting around a nest for that time. But they cant really eat, so you create a special gland for milk. The little reptiles that are left have learned to fly, and now are called birds. Some of the other side stay small. Turn into lizards, snakes, turtles and the crocodiles are still here somehow.
Blah blah blah you start walking on two legs and losing hair. Now you are a person. You are a human being. You have been a reptile, and you have been an amphibian and a fish. But now you are you! And I think thats pretty cool.
The only animal type you didnt get to be was a bird, and thats because they had a better idea at the same time and got to it first. Bummer.
Blaesospira is a genus of land snails with an operculum, terrestrial gastropod mollusks in the family Pomatiidae. This is a land snail species endemic to Cuba.
