Do you ever wish you could get the chance to talk about paleontology more often? Of course, you do! Well, problem solved with any of these fun t-shirts. Get conversations started with strangers over topics like pterosaurs, dinosaurs (even feathered dinosaurs!) and evolution.
Ideally these two spreads would be part of a much longer comic narrative where the pterosaur spirals into anxiety after the bird informs it that it has nothing to worry about, for the pterosaur is already dead.
Also, the bone diagrams are not peer-reviewed! Nothing I create is peer-reviewed. Always do your own research. Thank you.
[img id] Page 1 Panel 1: Depicts a dinosaur evolving into a bird on the left, and into a pterosaur on the right.
Narration: This is incorrect!
Panel 2: Depicts a dinosaur first evolving into a pterosaur, then evolving into a bird.
Narration: This is also incorrect!
Panel 3: Depicts a diagram on the left and a small scene on the right. The diagram shows an archosaur evolving into a dinosaur, then a bird. The archosaur evolves into a pterosaur. The scene depicts the anxious pterosaur on a small beach.
Archosaur: (waving at dinosaur) hello
Dinosaur: (waving at archosaur) hey
Bird: (fluffing up happily) much better
Pterosaur: (panicking) b…but… then why am I fuzzy and batlike
Page 2 Panel 1: Depicts a bird, a pterosaur, and a bat flying in front of the goshdarned sun itself.
Narration: It’s the power of…Convergent evolution! Sometimes similar attributes arise in species that aren’t descended from one another.
Panel 3: Depicts a labeled cheese with mold on it, a ripe peach, and a wad of dryer lint.
Narration: Other fuzzy things that aren’t descended from pterosaurs.
Page 3 A full-bleed, single panel page covered by a sky background. Floating in the clouds are skeletal diagrams of a bird and a pterosaur. The actual bird and pterosaur flutter nearby to provide commentary.
Narration: But how do we know this is a case of convergent evolution?
Bird: the clues are in the bones
Narration: Compare these two skeletons. What observations can you make about them?
Pterosaur: …besides the grim inevitability of death
Page 4 This page has five panels floating on a sky background.
Panel 1: Depicts an x-ray of the pterosaur’s wing.
Narration: Since both animals fly, what do you notice about their wing structure?
Panel 2: Depicts an x-ray of the bird’s wing. No text.
Panel 3: Depicts an x-ray of the pterosaur’s pelvis.
Narration: We can also look at other parts for clues, such as their hip bones!
Panel 4: Depicts an x-ray of the bird’s pelvis. The pterosaur and the bird are perched on this panel.
Bird: relax
Bird: everyone has bones inside
Pterosaur: no its morbid!!!
Narration: (Depicted next to a small pencil on paper) Try drawing or tracing the bones to see their differences!
The final two image graphics in this post are the pages depicted earlier, but put together in full-spread form so that readers can envision how it would look in a comic book. [end id]
Quadrupedal water launch capability demonstrated in small Late Jurassic pterosaurs
Pittman, Kaye, Campos, Habib
Abstract
Pterosaurs thrived in and around water for 160 + million years but their take-off from water is poorly understood. A purportedly low floating position and forward centre of gravity barred pterosaurs from a bird-like bipedal running launch.
Quadrupedal water launch similar to extant water-feeding birds and bats has been proposed for the largest pterosaurs, such as AnhangueraandQuetzalcoatlus. However, quadrupedal water launch has never been demonstrated in smaller pterosaurs, including those living around the Tethys Sea in the Late Jurassic Solnhofen Lagoon.
Using Laser-Stimulated Fluorescence, we singled out aurorazhdarchid specimen MB.R.3531 that alone preserved specific soft tissues among more than a dozen well-preserved Solnhofen pterosaur specimens. These soft tissues pertain to primary propulsive contact surfaces needed for quadrupedal water launch (pedal webbing and soft tissues from an articulated forelimb) that permit robust calculations of its dynamic feasibility without the need to make assumptions about contact areas.
A first-principles-based dynamics model of MB.R.3531 reveals that quadrupedal water launch was theoretically feasible and that webbed feet significantly impacted launch performance. Three key factors limiting water launch performance in all pterosaurs are identified, providing a foundation for understanding water launch evolution: available propulsive contact area, forelimb extension range and forelimb extension power about the shoulder.
“Scene of the Late Cretaceous of Coahuila State, Mexico. Featuring (from left to right) Coahuilaceratops magnacuerna,Latirhinus uitstlani,Velafrons coahuilensis,Saltillomimus rapidus, and Muzquizopteryx coahuilensis flying over the scene.”
1· Escaping the Odds (Leicester New Walk Museum) The first Liopleurodon attacked the Muraenosaurus from below and behind. In this ambush the Liopleurodon, a pliosaur, tore away half of a forelimb. But the smell of blood in the water attracts a second nearby Liopleurodon, and the following confrontation will allow the Muraenosaurus, a plesiosaur, to escape!. PRINTS
2· Leviathan (Museum of Jurassic Marine Life) The greatest predators in the Jurassic oceans were pliosaurs, some of which grew over 12m in length. Here an enormous Pliosaurus lunges forward to capture and swallow a Cryptoclidus whole. Above this attack are four large fish, called Pachycormus, and below swim ammonites, Pectinates, and a shoal of belemnites, Belemnoteuthis.PRINTS
3· Dancing Pliosaurs At dusk, two pliosaurs dance while a third takes advantage of a pterosaur cleaning station. The pliosaurs and pterosaurs are no particular species; I just thought it was a nice idea that I hope to paint one day soon (in future I might try to make my sketches more species specific). And I realise the low sun may attract criticism because of the sunset cliché, but I figure every place on Earth (except the poles) has a sunrise and a sunset every 24 hours so they are very frequent events.
4· Jurassic Red Tide (Private commission) A paleoartwork with an abstract expressionist twist! Here a Liopeurodon ferox is swimming amongst a bloom of red algae near a coastal coral reef. This was rendered using photographs, digital painting, and an acrylic painted scale model of Liopleurodon.PRINTS
There’s a new paper out describing the neck bone of a medium-sized Romanian pterosaur. In stark contrast to its giraffe-esque cousins (think Quetzalcoatlus), this azhdarchid had a relatively short, robust neck. The thing is, I’m so used to seeing super-long-necked azhdarchids that this critter just seems off to me. Cute, but off.
Depictions of iguanodon, pterodactylus, ichthyosaurus, plesiosaurus, hylaeosaurus and megalosaurus based on the crystal palace statues as well as their modern counterparts. The crystal palace dinosaur statues constructed in the 1850′s are both very impressive pieces of art as well as a striking demonstration of scientific progress in the field of paleontology, for all their inaccuracies they are still an extremely important piece of paleoart history.
A selection of very quick sketches I didn’t post to tumblr, rhamphorhynchus, asteriornis, deccenatherium, quetzalcoatlus, temnodontosaurus, cotylorhynchus, edmontosaurus, concavispina, dilophosaurus and spinosaurus
I admit it, I’ve not been at all consistent with social media. I’m working a lot, so here’s a timesaver of a post for me…a little late (sorry). Here are a few articles about relatively recent paleo news that I found worth sharing; but since this is Instagram aka The Land of No Links, you get screenshots. I figure a quick web search will get you whatever more you wish to read.
Featuring Fuck Capitalism Triceratops, Eat The Rich T-Rex, and ACAB Pterosaur! There will be more dinos and phrases coming in the near future! These are specifically drawn in a retrosaur style, taking inspiration from early paleoart depictions of these animals.
i made my first infographic on a topic ive been very interested in lately: wings! ive seen a lot of anatomical sins relating to wings lately (i am not exempt from this) particuarly involving pterosaurs so i put this together to help artists who may be struggling with drawing wings. enjoy. i am also open to criticism on anatomy or errors
In Kaimere’s history, two lineages of pterosaur have independently evolved derived arboreal adaptations.
On the left is the more basal mokua, one of about a dozen species of tapejarid pterosaurs throughout Kaimere with tree-climbing adaptations, such as smaller wings, more compact head and neck, and an opposable thumb. Some of these animals are frugivores. The mokua is mostly an active predator of small game, their blade-like lower jaw cutting into prey, although they do take advantage of fruit at the height of their season. This clade has widespread success throughout Kaimere, with species found throughout the forests of the known world and beyond.
To the right is the notzokideu, the most derived pterosaur of Kaimere. These omnivores are highly intelligent, talented in mimicry, and extremely swift and dexterous in the trees. They are azhdarchids that evolved after Pakardia broke off from the south polar continent 80 million years ago, exploiting the bountiful fruigivore niche that, at the time, was only exploited by ground-based animals. As Pakardia moved north and fruit bats, monkeys, and frugivorous birds were introduced, suddenly this niche became highly competitive. Now the 90-200 pound notzokideu is the last surviving member of their clade, with small populations that spread onto the mainland, but most remain in Pakardia, holding on where their smaller cousins could not.
I speak in brief about these two groups in my latest video, What Is Speculative Evolution, using these animals as examples of convergent evolution. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-NwQux9_w4
Several years ago I started playing around with the speculative evolution concept of a pterosaur that adopted a similar lifestyle to a chimpanzee, abandoning flight in favor of life in the trees. The idea is that it evolved these traits in the 65 million years following the KT extinction. Originally this design was an ornithocheirid, perhaps descended from Tropeognathus, since I liked the look of the toothed beak. Since then I have refined the design, and chose a short necked Azhdarchid as my template.
Now I present the arboreal snatcher, an omnivorous pterosaur that lives in the canopies of the forests that dominate Pakardia. Since giving up flight, they are terrifyingly precise with their movement as they speed through the trees, investing much of their large brains into coordination. Arboreal snatchers are extremely intelligent, a side effect of their dynamic lifestyle and volant ancestry. Their shoulders and forearms have increased in flexibility as an adaptation to climbing and leaping through branches. The finger that once supported wings has now become a strong and dexterous ‘thumb’ that helps them grip branches as they brachiate. Although not normally aggressive, they are curious by nature and the villagers of Pakardia have many stories of these animals learning that children make easy meals and swiftly becoming an elusive and persistent monster…
The antagonist of my first short story, Death Walks on Broken Wings: amzn.to/2GUQHhY
By reasons unknown, a large male titan crow received an injury to his left wing which banned him from the skies. Trapped in territory south of his usual hunting ground, with a wall preventing him to return north, the old crow was forced to wander. Quickly he was drawn to livestock in the farmsteads and towns near the wall. After a few violent encounters with farmers, the beast associated people with pain. After a few more injuries, pain turned to rage, and he found the farmers and lumberjacks of the region to make for an easy meal. After this, it was a short step to surplus killing.
Soon he killed for pleasure.
Eventually his standard hunt turned into a massacre, eating one or two and killing a dozen. The great titan was given the name Vaskalamaldus, Qajarith for Death Walks on Broken Wings. Others called him the Raven King. Three towns have suffered great loss by his attacks, and as they are tied up with war, the senate cannot spare the resources to vanquish the beast. And so he is unchecked, killing as he pleases without fear of retribution.
Another entry for Jurassic June(-ior), some pterosaurs! These are the Pteranodon from Jurassic World and the Geosternbergia that was present in concept art for The Lost World. The final movie used an actual Pteranodon, I guess I was just going for bonus points.
In other news, I gave them a healthy coating of pycnofibers (feather-like filaments on pterosaurs) even though, for instance, the JW Pteranodon is leathery and bare. This was based on the fact that birds like the Australian Ibis can have bald patches in adulthood that are feathery when young. Perhaps a bit of a stretch, but I’m trying to somewhat appease the proper paleo people as well. Enjoy!
ZOIDS-like robotic pterosaur by Takashi Yamazaki…I’m getting Roger Dean and Hajime Sorayama vibes from this one. This illustration appears on page 106 of The Mind’s Eye: The Art of Omni.
We are watching prehistoric planet together and decided to make ocs so I made a male barbaridactylus without the large crest development for my partner @0alacrity
Cause Prehistory isn’t just about dinosaurs, I made a poster with every ‘Dinovember Without Dinosaurs’ illustrations that I’ve been drawing during last month. Hope you like it!
