#raul martin

rhamphotheca:

Pliosaur Fossil Found in Dorset, UK:  Sea Monster Battles

To aid in capturing prey, some pliosaurs (such as the one attacking a smaller plesiosaur in this illustration) evolved features such as supersize eyes, fearsome teeth, and/or extremely long necks… As for the newly discovered Dorset specimen, further research, including CT scans, may show whether the 52 ft long (16 m) beast is a new species. 

Hans Sues, a paleontologist at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., noted that “the classification of late Jurassic pliosaurs is still a mess, and, in absence of a reliable, published, modern review of all European specimens, it is hard to sustain any claim of a new species.”

(via: National Geo)   (image: Raul Martin, National Geographic)

Continuing with the paleoart book recommendationrequest: 

I was going to make a proper photoset with some pics from “Dinosaur Art, The World’s Greatest Paleoart”, which truly is a great book illustrated by nearly all my heroes (really, it’s like the best paleoartists went all Avengers Initiative and made a book), but I guess you’ve already seen a lot of the pictures here on Tumblr, so I think It’ll be best if I just include a link to Darren Naish’s review (in case my stupidly-intense fanboying right now doesn’t convince you and you need a real review). And a link to buy the book.