#tetanurae

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!

:Tetanurae matriarch:
3-6
To confirm foreign development the team located and recalled one of our active Matriarchs to compare how the ‘caged’ and ‘wild’ specimens develop.
The cage Matriarch grew only slightly and remained physically unchanged. The wild specimen however, grew substantially and adapted common traits of theropoda. Losing it’s wings and developing denser structure along with a more muscular build that serve it in grappling or climbing.
Some unknown growths spark concern, but nothing outside of the current margin of error.
Further observation required.