Suchomimus wading

I actually rediscovered the layout yesterday evening and figured I'd just finish it.;)

Best!

Brett

Ichthyovenator!

Another new spinosaur! These things are popping up like daisies! This one found in Laos, no skull but a partial back complete with strange sail!

Best!

Brett

Torvosaurus

A quickie Torvosaurus. Felt bad that I haven't done anything new that I can post in a bit. 

Best!

Brett

Unfinished Spinosaur

This was deemed wrong so it never got finished. But I do still like it, maybe I'll mess with it and finish it up.

Best,

Brett

Oxalaia

I had a bit of free time last night so I did a quick sketch of the new spinosaur
Oxalaia, he's swimmin'!

Best!

Brett

Partial Spinosaurus

Something I'm working on. Been awhile since I uploaded anything new.

Best,

Brett

More Humans vs. Dinosaurs!

I have been remiss in my dinosaur posting... I have been drawing them, I just can't show all of them. But I didn't want to leave you hanging. Here's the middle section of a comic page with dinosaurs on it. I'm going to use a modified version of this for the 'cover' image.

Best,

Brett

Some dinosaur comic art for fun

Sometimes I hate drawing comics, I have to draw what others have written down, which means my ideas and desires are left at the door. Right now I'm working on a novel adaption that I enjoy but I still have to stick to the script. So every now and then I like to bust out and do something on my own. Thus this, pages 2 and 3 of a 7 page mini story. Thought the followers here might like it since it's got lots of dinosaurs!

Best,

Brett

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Sorry fro the lack of new dinosaur art. I've been finishing up some work. One of the images even has a dinosaur in it, so I put the dinosaur part here;) I have to scan an ichthyosaur for Art Evolved tomorrow or Saturday so I'll post it here as well.

Best,

Brett

Dilophosaurus a Spinosaur?

Years ago Gregory S. Paul put forth the idea that the Spinosaurs evolved from animals like Dilophosaurus. They do look a lot alike, but current thinking has the spinosaurs evolving from animals similar to Torvosaurus (I'm saying Torvosaurs since I have no idea what's going on with the megalosaurs right now.) But could the similar look be the result of convergent evolution? (animals evolving similar appearance because they preform the same function, like dolphins and icthyosaurs, or Thylacines and the dog) Were Dilophosaurs also fish eaters? I have no real idea but a current study that tests isotopes in teeth might be the answer. They finally published a study on the teeth of spinosaurs that shows they were more aquatic in there habitats than other theropods, or at least most other theropods.

So does the similar look of Dilophosaurs hint at a Spinosaur like life style? Most likely not, they appear to just be ramped up Coelophysids. But one never knows, maybe we'll find a Dilophosaur with fish in it's belly like the British Baryonyx:)

For more information on swimming Spinosaurs go here!

Best,

Brett

Dino Dump

Some of these are now outdated. A Chilantrasaurus with a carcass. This beast is now thought to be related to Megaraptor. See I told you this was outdated;)

My first Austroraptor, I didn't like the feathering on this one.



Eustreptaspondylus with a baby/young pleisiosaur.

Rugops, an early Abelisaur from Africa.

Crylophosaurus with a more Dilophosaurus feel.

My first Therizinosaurus, I have a new one that I need to scan, hopefully in the next few days.

Best,

Brett

Megalosaurus 2010

Old version

New version

Recently a new paper has re-examined the first described dinosaur, Megalosaurus. Some of the changes appear to make the head much shorter and taller, unlike the longer Torvosaur like head used in the past. So based on that and one of those skeleton drawings with the flesh shadowed on the outside I decided to do a more modern drawing. After workin gon it for a bit I noticed that it looked a lot like an Abelisaur. Now I'm not saying it was, just that it had that sort of feel. Convergent evolution, an early attempt or something more? Spooky, yes?!

Up next a new Carontaurus and an explanation as to why I do the bumps I do;)

Cruxicheiros (was I can't remember the name!)

I know I'm not completely insane. I wrote it down the name but now I can't remember were I put it. A largish Spinosaur/Megalosaur from the mid to late Jurassic of England. If anyone has any idea what the name of this beastie is please let me know!

Update: Thanks to Andrea Cau of Theropoda fame for figuring out my scambled ramblings. More when it's colored!

Best,

Brett

Spinosaurus running in the water

A few weeks ago after the horribly done Clash of the Dinosaurs over on the Discovery Channel they aired a show called Monster Revealed (or something similar I can't quite remember.) Anyways the special was about Spinosaurus. In general, it wasn't that horrible, they kept saying Spinosaurus was 60 feet but the animation clearly showed something with a head about 12 feet long (whick would put the animal around 80 feet or so.) It seriously dwarfed the Carcharodontosaurus they used along with the 30 foot Rugops (which it picked in it's mouth.)

The reason for the blogpost and image? They mentiond that one of the newest ideas was that the sail was used for hunting/fishing. Something similar to what I had mentioned earlier this year, I couldn't find anything about it online and knowing the track record of these dino specials I wasn't sure if someone might have happened upon my blog and missread it. They credited it to Dal Sasso who has done some fo the most recent work on Spinosaurus. This idea was slightly different than mine as it was saying the shade the sail provided was to attract the fish, mine was that the sail was used to help see the fish. I like the new idea myself so it's cool to think I might have provided an insight or at the very least came to a similar conclusion. Of course I might really be totally delusional in this;)

More dinos soon, I need to find a new Megalosaurus I drew (This new version based on a new paper makes the animal look more like an abelisaur.) A holiday image and a new spinosaur/megalosaur.

Best,

Brett

Baryonyx in a swamp

Just a quick pic. I'm not sure I like this or not yet.

Brett

Australovenator and Megaraptor

This animal was announced over the summer, along with 2 large sauropods. Since it's the first good theropod remains from down under they named the beastie Autralovenator. I finally got around to drawing it, and a good thing I waited so long. Last week a new paper was published that finally (for now at least) sheds some light on a new group of theropods The Neovenatoridea. This appears to be a second group of allosaurs, the sister group of the Carchadontosaurs, and in this group is Australovenator and drum roll please.... Megaraptor.

So Megaraptor isn't a Spinosaur or a Carcharadontosaur but a really advanced allosaur. I'm still geeking about this!

More later, including a new giant Tyrannosaur.. oooohhhh!

Best,

Brett

Swimming spinosaurs?

Sorry it's not in color, but I just finally got it scanned! A Suchomimus catching a young plesiosaur.

A few years ago I was asked what I thought of the swimming Spinosaurus idea (I was told this was put forth by Robert Bakker but I've only heard it mentioned a few times so I have no idea.) At the time I said I found it unlikely, at least for Spinosaurus, the sail would be a hinderence in the water, waves would topple it, the local crocs would eat it for lunch as they were far more adapted to the water, yadda, yadda, yadda. I didn't really look into it, I knew spinosaurs seemed to found close to water, and that they would eat fish (fish scales found in the stomach area of Baryonyx) but that's all I had read about swimming spinosaurs... until a few months ago.

Other than the scene in JP3 most of the spinosaur pictures show them wadding out into ankle deep water looking for fish, like some giant egret or stork. Since spinosaurs are so poorly known and fragmentary it's very difficult to get an idea about what they might have been doing, why did they get to big? Spinosaurs has been said to be 65 feet long dwarfing every other theropod, that's at least 17 feet longer than the next largest theropod (this is highly unlikely but is found all over the web. They were more likely similarly sized to the other large theropods, perhapse a bit longer but more gracile.) Did they eat fish exclusively? A spinosaur tooth has been found embeded in a pterosaur bone, along with the fish scales in Baryonyx's stomach were the remains of an Iguanadon (so the answer to that would be no.) How did they behave? Questions upon questions that we'll most likely never be able to fully answer.

I stumbled upon this site looking for skeletal reference: spinosauridae.fr.gd
(This is the English translated version, its really easy to read so don't let the translation stop you!)

On the site are papers, drawings and pretty much the best place to go for info on spinosurs on the web. As I read the papers cited, and looked at the images, the site was trying to tell me something. The papers mentioned isotopes from spinosaur bones are more in line with crocodiles and animals that live in an aquatic habitat, foot print traces of swimming theropods... this site was arguing FOR semi aquatic spinosaurs. I spent a few hours looking everything over (I'd go over specifics some, but I can't get it to load properly, my computer has bogged down, but go read it for yourselves!) And while I think more finds need to be located, it's very compelling stuff. Semi aquatic spinosurs... cool!

Best,

Brett

Megaraptor idon'tknowwhatasaurus

I think I might have figured out how to put text above the first image (yeah!) Anyways, I wanted to put up strickly colored stuff here on Carnosauria. But I'm a bit behind work wise and so here are a few scene type drawings of the pencil/line art before coloring. These are both images of the mysterious Megaraptor....

Originally thought to be a large dromeosaur, the claw turned out to actually be from the hand, as an almost complete forearm and hand were found. So that tosses this animal out of the 'raptor' clan (sorry Jurassic Park fans!) But were does it go now? That's the probem. I've seen several papers on it, but it appears to have anatomy similar to 2 lines of theropods. The spinosaurs and the carcharadontosaurs. When I was originally told about the change from foot to hand I was told it was, most likely, a spinosaur by several people inthe feild, it was also mentioned as a possible spinosaur in the Holtz/Rey dinosaur book called, simply enough, Dinosaurs (I completely forgot the name and had to google it, I feel like such a tool;). I liked the head design Rey used on his image so I kind of took that and modified it a bit, kind of a more robust Suchomimus.) But after I posted that image, I was told I was wrong...

I received several comments that a new paper would show that Megaraptor was, in fact, a late surviving carcharadontosaur. I actually read the paper, it still seemed up in the air to me, but not wanting to get even more comments telling me I was wrong I decided to draw it as a carchardontosaur for a book I'm working on (images seen here and some new ones with a few comic like scenes showing possible behaviours...)

I then recieved new comments that I was wrong and that another new paper showing that Megaraptor was related to a new spinosaur from Austrailia would prove it. I read that paper as well.... And to be honest. I have no fricken idea which group this thing belongs to. So until more fossils are found it's an idon'tknowwhatasaurus.

But what to do with the comic page..? I decided to modify it and changed it to a Mapusaurus, easy enough, I used that as the base for the restoration. But since Mapusaurus is older than Megaraptor the Carnotaurs are now fromthe wrong time... So I contacted a few fellow bloggers, Darren Naish and Brian Switek. They had some excellent ideas and Darren mention a few new animals that were comming down the pipeline. I'll post the changed image when I get that drive up and running but I wound up using Skorpiovenator, I just like the name;)

Best,

Brett

Spinosaurus aegyptiacus

The ever popular Spinosaurus. Originally found in the desert near Egypt (mid Cretaceous rocks) at the beginning of the 20th century, all the original material was lost during the bombing of Germany during WWII. We are lucky to have drawing of the material so all was not lost! The original material which consisted of the front part of the lower jaw, a few neck vertebrae, a few tail vertebrae, and most of the back vertebrae with the elongated neural spines. The original restoration was of a giant allosaur with a sail, like this drawing. The exact size of is hard to pinpoint. The original material appears to not have been fully grown. Sizes from 50 to 65 feet have been offered, but we'll have little to no idea until a new skeleton is found.

For a long time that was the restoration, until the 80's, when Baryonyx was found. It was quickly discovered that the 2 species were very similar, that gave us our first decent peek at what a spinosaur looked like. In this restoration I bulked up the skull a bit, the lower ends shortly after the tip, but the back of the jaw bone looks very robust. So I toyed with the idea that Spinosaurus was sort of returning to a more predatory dinosaur, Baryonyx was considered a fish eater (even though iguanadon bones were found in it's stomach contents, along with fish scales) so the skull was more delicate.
In 2003 it was suggested that Spinosaurus was actually a chimera (made up of more than on animal) since it was found in a bone bed with other animals. The jaw belonging to a spinosaur, the neck to a relative of Acrocanthosaurus. The back to a sauropod (all of the three major dinosaur branches produced a 'fin' back.) I actually like the idea (I suggested a hadrosaur for the backbone since the older adults bones seem to mimic theropods, something I didn't know until I saw Valley of the T. rex with Jack Horner. But a sauropod would explain the great size) I liked the idea of a chimera, the sail would be a great hindrance to an active predator. But science changes and moves on...

It was reported that a new skull was found earlier this decade, something that would have been around 8 feet long. Now there was/is a possible relative of Spinosaurus, or in this case a subspecies, also found in Africa, this was dubbed Spinosaurus marocannus. Only the front part of the upper jaw was found, it was very delicate. But this new skull, seemed to link the 2 species/subspecies together, the new skulls teeth matched the original lower jaws teeth so it appears that the more robust skull I drew was wrong, so this drawing was done.


This is the most recent drawing, based on all the info I could find online. It looks like Spinosaurus is actually closely related to the South American spinosaur Irritator. At first Irritator was thought to be a pterosaur (it's skull is really strange even for a spinosaur,) but the new skull material for Spinosaurs matches it rather closely, even similar in tooth count.

What appears to be emerging is a very different animal than originally described. Long and lean, the nostril s far back on the skull, the neck designed for a more heron like attack. It appears to be a giant fish eater, perhaps it was forced to the water as it's great length wouldn't protect it from the other giant theropods that shared it's environment? (Carcharadontosaurus, Deltadromeus and possibly a few others, the remains are too scrappy.)

But what of the sail? It's been theorized that it was for fat storage, but the spines are very thin, I doubt they could have supported much weight. Possibly for cooling? Other theropods with similar size didn't have one, but maybe it helped when fishing in the afternoon, it does get hot inthe sun. I've also heard it was used as an actual sail for swimming... We know theropods could swim, we have 'foot' prints, really just nail prints;) But none of the other spinosaurs with associated skeletons show aquatic adaptions.. So I had an idea. It might be wrong, but what about a shade for hunting in the sun? Something to keep the glare of the sun off the water so it can see the fish below? Or maybe a combination of these? That's the most plausible scenario seeing as most parts of the body preform several functions.

Best,

Brett

Suchomimus

So this is an older shot of Suchomimus. As you can see I don't really like drawing backgrounds, since I don't actually get paid for doing these drawings, I tend to just concentrate on the animal.

Found in Africa, this animal is considered a close relative of Baryonyx (the first good specimen of a spinosaur found.) The skeleton that was found was of a sub adult and it was 36 feet long, so this animal might have gotten to the 40+ foot size range. There are teeth from this line of spinosaurs (Spinosaurus and Irritator are on a second branch, they have less teeth and a more pterosaur like head) from Europe, weather this is a third species is unknown right now.

Best,

Brett