Mae g'ovannen

British, 28. Palaeontologist. Natural history. Geology; Geoscience. Archaeology. History. Sci-fi and Fantasy. Britain. Scenery. Architecture. Astronomy. Mineralogy. Classics. Military history. Many more visual curiosities. Tolkien, Zoology, Palaeontology, Fossils, Futurism, DBZ. Sensuality. Female beauty. NSFW.  

[alphynix]

Lessiniabatis aenigmatica was a rather strange stingray.

It lived around 50-48 million years ago during the early Eocene, in a shallow warm sea covering what is now Italy, with its three known fossil specimens all coming from the fish-rich Monte Bolca fossil beds.

About 60cm long (~2'), it had a round pancake-like body similar to many modern seafloor-dwelling stingrays – but uniquely it was also almost tailless, with only a tiny, slender, stingless tail.

It wasn't a particularly strong swimmer, instead probably spending most of its time buried in the muddy seafloor sediment. When on the move it likely swam along just above the surface of the seafloor using undulations of its fins, foraging for smaller bottom-dwelling animals like worms, molluscs, crustaceans, and fish.

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NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Patreon

[joakinmar]

Yutyrannus by Reiimon.

[armadillorollup]

Spinosaurus and child

[berensreverie]

Sea-Wing

[stavrosskundromichalis]

An old and tired Lessemsaurus sauropoides wandering around late Triassic Argentina. From my book ”De första dinosaurierna” (”The first dinosaurs”)

[just9art]

Aboriginal style Australovenator, finished the piece quite a while ago but i figured I might as well post it now.

[birchleahf]

Allosaurus among some ginkgo branches, both existed in the Jurassic, and the ginkgo still does!🍁✨

[ttorroo-deactivated20250927]

32 new species in 2023 that discovered in 2023 (illustrated by me)

(name is not in order)

[againbeholdthestars-deactivated]

[landsccape]

[paleoart]

Will it crack?

Morrosaurus, Cretaceous Antarctica

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[escuerzoresucitado]

American dipper (Cinclus mexicanus)

[07170]

really love these two replies in particular

[paleoart]

Styracosaurus is lookin’ lavish.

My Patrons got to see the step-by-step of this illustration way back in October, with a bonus: a similar drawing that I made almost 20 years ago which served as inspiration.

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[alphynix]

Mambachiton fiandohana lived during the mid-Triassic, about 237 million years ago, in what is now Madagascar – which at the time wasn't yet an island, still being connected to both east Africa and India as part of southern Pangaea.

It represents the earliest known branch of the avemetatarsalians, or "bird-line archosaurs", a major group of the archosaur reptiles that also includes pterosaurs and dinosaurs/birds. 

It's only known from a few fragments but it was probably around 2m long (~6'6"), and would have been a carnivorous lizard-like animal with a long neck and semi-erect quadrupedal limb posture.

Unexpectedly for a bird-line archosaur it also had a staggered double row of bony osteoderms along its back, suggesting that the very earliest avemetatarsalians had some crocodilian-like armor. This seem to have very quickly been lost, though – there's no sign of osteoderms in the next branches to split off after Mambachiton, the aphanosaurs and pterosauromorphs – and although they occur again later in one dinosauriform and various non-avian dinosaurs, this appears to be multiple cases of independent re-evolution rather than retaining the original ancestral trait.

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NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Patreon

[anomallite]

Explore the wonders of the Mesozoic with these National Park posters! Now available on my Inprnt Store

Shop gallery quality art prints by Jack Socal.

[myfairylily]

The Library at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, UK. The house was built between 1749 to 1776.

[lotrlorien]

The Green Dragon was one of the many inns of the Shire. It was located in Bywater on the Bywater Road and was the building nearest to Hobbiton, being one mile south-east from the bridge over the Water that led to Bag End. As such, Hobbits from both villages could be seen there.