#saurischian

Hi everyone, hope you’re all staying safe and staying indoors during this pandemic!

I had a go at drawing a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton in Paint (I based it on lots of different drawings and photos of skeletons I saw, but the one I used the most is the Nation’sT. rex at the Smithsonian. The leg stance is my own, so palaeotumblr, let me know if that’s anatomically impossible!)

After that I decided to have a go at giving it a body. I hope I didn’t make it too shrink-wrapped?

Palaeoartists - feel free to give me a critique so I can improve for next time!

A few things I opted to include, along with sources linked:

• Feathers on the back and arms, but nowhere else.
• Lips. Enamel has been found preserved on theropod teeth, which needs to be kept wet. Crocodilians live in water so don’t need lips, but theropods may have.
• Crocodile-like integument on the face.
• Neck ribs and gastralea (stomach ribs), which are delicate, hard to mount and often missing from museum skeletons!
• Keratinised facial features are from this Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong video.
• I tried to make it obvious that the eyes face forward, the hands are supinated, not pronated, and the feet are digitigrade - common mistakes in beginner dino art!

Possible mistakes I can see already, palaeotumblr let me know!

• The tail looks way too thin to be an effective counterweight to that huge head, should it be thicker?
• More keratin on the lachrymal than just that little eyebrow-like ridge?
• Would the feathers stop there, or would they plausibly extend all the way down the dorsal side of the tail? I know the ventral side was scaly as we have impressions for that. 
• The teeth need to be more obviously heterodont, but that’s hard to draw in Paint!