all ornithischians, all the time

Via National Geographic:

Finally, You Can See Dinosaurs in All Their Feathered Glory

At first glance, it may be hard to see how the ducks you feed, the pigeons you dodge, or the peacocks you admire have anything in common with the “terrible lizards” portrayed in iconic dinosaur movies such as Jurassic Park.

But many scientists now believe that modern birds are living dinosaurs. Specifically, a group of two-legged carnivorous dinosaurs called theropods seems to have evaded the great dino extinction event 65 million years ago by developing feathers, bigger and more adaptable brains, and smaller, more airborne forms.

“It’s important that people understand dinosaurs are still among us,” says Mark Norell, chair of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. “They’re represented by at least 13,000 species alive today.”

Norell has curated the new exhibit Dinosaurs Among Us, which opened on March 18, that maps out the evolutionary history of birds while challenging the popular perception of dinosaurs as green, scaly lizards.

Read the full story and learn more about Dinosaurs Among Us, now open. 

“Nasutoceratops” I finally posted this piece. For a better look, go to my FB or DeviantArt page. #Nasutoceratops #ceratopsian #dinosaurs #digitalart #finishedart #animals #animalart #anatomy #wildlifeart #WIP #wildlife #paleoart #paleontology #drawing #sketch #corelpainter #art #aau #academyofart #kaiparowitsplateau

There comes a time in every palaeoartist’s life when they much paint a feathery tyrannosaur and a fuzzy ceratopsian. My time has come.

Also from the PalaeoTumblr chat – Pachycephalosaurus with floof!

So I finally fixed my 3DS after it being dead for the better part of a year And that means animations are here!!!

Australovenator wintonensis and Laellynasaura amicagraphica Read more about those and other australian dinosaurs over at Earth Archives.

Muttaburrasaurus langdoni

Australia, Early Cretaceous Period

I was thrilled to see my illustration of this large ornithopod featured alongside work by some of the leading paleoartists from around the globe in a new article on the dinosaurs of Australia! Check out the other images and learn more about Australia’s fascinating Mesozoic megafauna, including Muttaburrasaurus, a newly-found and as-yet-unidentified spinosaurid, Leaellynasaura, Australovenator, and Diamantinasaurus, over at Earth Archives: http://www.eartharchives.org/articles/dinosaurs-down-under/

Diapsida: The Cladogram

Version 1.11 · 20 March 2016

Attention: This post will be updated should someone here correct a mistake I made. Please consider reblogging from the original post to get the latest update.

After one exhausting week and tons of feedback from paleonerds and graphic designers, the cladograms are finally here! These cladograms explain the relationships between notable genera within the group Diapsida which encompasses all modern reptiles including birds.

The PDF version is available by donation here, and merchandises such as posters and stickers will be made available as soon as the accuracy of data is fully confirmed. Bookmark the link to my store or stay in touch with me to find out more.

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v1.11 is out and I believe it’s more or less compliant with the latest findings~

Art prints! Posters! T-shirts! Stickers! Various products are now available from my store. And RedBubble is having a 20% off storewide. Use code PRIVATE20. Expires on March 21, 2016 at 11:59pm Pacific Time.

To those people who says feathers can’t be intimidating on any dinosaur, here’s an herbivorous (albeit it’s supplementing a little) Heterodontosaurus with completely plausible and accurate feathers.

Koreaceratops hwaseongensis, a basal ceratopsian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of South Korea (~103 mya). Although only the back half of its skeleton is known – discovered in a quarried sandstone block used in the construction of a dam near Hwaseong City – it was probably around 1.6m in total length (5′3″).

The long neural spines along its tail have caused some speculation that it was semi-aquatic, forming a sort of paddle-like fin, but actual evidence for this is somewhat lacking. Many other ceratopsians also had similarly deep tails, and the presence of quills on relatives like Psittacosaurus suggests that these might instead have served as display structures before the group later evolved their distinctive horns and neck frills.

seems like the only dinos i ever draw are theropods, but protoceratops is my favorite dinosaur ever. 

I saw some people doing that dinovember thing and wanted to join in, so here’s  a baby Triceratops balancing a leaf on his nose!

There are many things in life that I can’t say no to, and fall colors and baby ceratopsids are approximately 100 of them.

Weird Backs Month #16 – Kentrosaurus

There were no examples of sailbacks during the Jurassic, so far as we know, but there was a whole group of dinosaurs famous for their fancy back ornamentation: the stegosaurs.

Kentrosaurus here was a fairly standard example of the group, known from the Late Jurassic of Tanzania (155-150 mya) and reaching a size of around 4.5m long (14′9″). Like other stegosaurs it had some odd-looking proportions, with a tiny head and short forelimbs combined with much larger hindlimbs and a long horizontal tail.

It had paired plates running along its back merging into spikes along the tail, all formed from modified osteoderm armor. Another set of large spines were positioned on the shoulders. (Well, probably. They may instead have been on the hips. None have been found articulated to a skeleton, so we don’t know for certain.) The end spikes on the tail would have stuck out more to the sides, forming a defensive thagomizer.

Unusually, Kentrosaurus had a center of mass resting just in front of its hips, a condition normally seen in bipedal dinosaurs. The shape of its femurs show it was indeed a quadruped, but its forelimbs would have supported at most only 15% of its total bodyweight – suggesting that it was capable of rearing up to reach higher vegetation.

Weird Backs Month #17 – Stegosaurus

Living during the Late Jurassic (~155-150 mya), Stegosaurus is one of the most iconic dinosaurs of all time. Its remains are known from both the western United States and Portugal, and the biggest individuals reached up to 9m in length (29′6″).

But despite its superstar status, it was actually sort of an oddball stegosaur. It was larger than its relatives, had only four thagomizer spikes, had no shoulder spines at all, and those big plates were arranged in a strange staggered pattern.

The plates probably would have had a keratinous covering of horn, and so their actual shape may not have exactly matched that of their bony cores – the scalloped edge in this image is speculative but certainly possible.

The function of the plates has also been debated for a long time, with explanations including display, defense, thermoregulation, and hang-gliding.

Weird Backs Month #18 – Morelladon

Named only a couple of months ago – in December 2015 – Morelladon was an ornithopod dinosaur discovered near the city of Morella in Spain. It lived during the Early Cretaceous (~130-125 mya) and is estimated to have measured about 6m in length (19′8″).

It had long neural spines on its vertebrae, up to 60cm high (2′), indicating there was some sort of sail or hump along its back. Interestingly, though, it seems to have been more closely related to the sail-less Iguanodon and Mantellisaurus than to the famous sail-bearing Ouranosaurus – suggesting that this feature evolved convergently within the iguanodonts.

Weird Backs Month #19 – Ouranosaurus

Ouranosaurus is one of the more famous sailbacked dinosaurs, living during the Early Cretaceous (~125-112 mya) of the Republic of Niger. Known from two fairly complete skeletons, it measured up to 8m long (26′2″) and was probably a basal member of the hadrosauriformes.

While many later hadrosaurs also had very long neural spines, Ouranosaurus had a particularly distinctive sail that was longest just behind its forelimbs, with the tallest spines reaching at least 63cm high (2′1″). These spines would have been criss-crossed with stiffening tendons in life, and the “sail” would likely have been fairly thick and fleshy – more of a dorsal ridge than the shrink-wrapped fin-like things seen in some dubious reconstructions.

late cretaceous landscapes