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@kheironomos
ADDENDUM 2026: I'M ONLY ACTIVE ON @KANAFINWEAN! FOLLOW THAT ONE!
Hey. Reblogs are off forever—I’m sick of seeing notifs for this blog because paleoart is FAR in my past now and I can’t deactivate because it’s my main. Sorry!
For anyone somehow still around, consider this my last post as well. Stay crack-a-lackin’ 🦖🐔🤙
it amuses me how many people are reblogging that diogenes shitpost with “um, actually” declarations that t. rex has feathers/is related to modern avian dinosaurs as though I am not a paleoartist whose specialty is feathered theropods
*I kick down the doors to the school of Athens and come charging in with a Tyrannosaurus in tow*: BEHOLD A MAN
watching the resurgence of this two-year-old post in live time
*I kick down the doors to the school of Athens and come charging in with a Tyrannosaurus in tow*: BEHOLD A MAN
watching the resurgence of this two-year-old post in live time
A bit of a more moderately obscure taxon for today: Sinovenator changii, the Chinese hunter! Sinovenator was a troodontid that lived during the early Cretaceous, roughly 125 million years ago, making it a primitive member of its taxonomic family. Like its relatives, Sinovenator was a gracile and bird-like maniraptoran; its resemblance to basal avialans and dromaeosaurids makes it an important fossil in demonstrating the evolutionary relationships between these groups.
The remains attributed to Sinovenator include a partial skull and articulated but incomplete fragmentary postcranials. Though the holotype was about chicken-sized, we know that this specimen was only a subadult, and other remains suggest it could grow to twice this attributed size. This actually makes it one of the larger troodontids known—troodontids were small creatures!
Hey! Pardon the dust around here; it’s been a while since I’ve posted artwork.
Here’s an Archaeopteryx I drew some time ago. Archaeopteryx lithographica is one of the most famous Mesozoic creatures discovered due to its apparent mixture of avian and dinosaurian features. The iconic fossil uncovered at the Solnhofen formation was exquisitely preserved and displayed the full extent of the creature’s feathering. Recent analysis on Archaeopteryx fossils suggest it was actually mostly lightly colored, rendering this particular design inaccurate. Nonetheless, the magpie-reminiscent pattern evokes the estimated size of an average adult Archaeopteryx! These were small creatures.
We know that Archaeopteryx had a pair of true wings, although whether these were able to support flight is still a matter of paleontological debate. Some argue that the apparent weakness of the sternum and the inability of Archaeopteryx to lift its wings above its back render it a glider; recent studies, however, grant some integrity to the flying hypothesis. These posit that the feather configuration of Archaeopteryx was more typical of flying birds than flightless ones, and that bird-like dinosaurs may have had a different style of flight than modern birds.
Archaeopteryx has been grouped with both birds and dinosaurs since its discovery. Currently, it is regarded as a particularly bird-like dinosaur. It shares traits in common with Maniraptorans such as an elongated third claw and a large brain case.
Meet Oculudentavis khaungraae, a tiny bird(?) that’s sparked a big controversy. Oculudentavis, according to current phylogenetic analysis, is a basal avialan that lived 99 million years ago. This is all well and good; however, the truly extraordinary thing about this creature is that its skull wasn’t even two centimeters across! This would’ve made it roughly the size of a bee hummingbird... and thus by far the smallest dinosaur yet discovered.
However, two controversies have surrounded this fossil: one taxonomic and one ethical. Some scientists are arguing that Oculudentavis was not a bird at all, for example, but rather a lizard-like lepidosaur. Why? Because the skull structure and pleurodont teeth, they argue, are suspiciously non-avian.
It is also known that the amber mines in Myanmar are kept running by forced labor and deplorable conditions, and that the profits garnered from them are used to fund the brutal and ongoing Kachin conflict. Certain paleontologists have warned of this association and are distancing themselves from Myanmar specimens as a result; renowned paleoartist Mark Witton even write a blog post about it.
Oculudentavis, as cool as it is, is a cocktail of controversies and uncertainties. Should it be proven a lepidosaur, this post will be updated.
Oculudentavis is confirmed as a lepidosaur with the discovery of another fossil! This drawing is now outdated.
Lilien for @kheironomos Artfight!
it’s my girl :’)
Meet Oculudentavis khaungraae, a tiny bird(?) that’s sparked a big controversy. Oculudentavis, according to current phylogenetic analysis, is a basal avialan that lived 99 million years ago. This is all well and good; however, the truly extraordinary thing about this creature is that its skull wasn’t even two centimeters across! This would’ve made it roughly the size of a bee hummingbird... and thus by far the smallest dinosaur yet discovered.
However, two controversies have surrounded this fossil: one taxonomic and one ethical. Some scientists are arguing that Oculudentavis was not a bird at all, for example, but rather a lizard-like lepidosaur. Why? Because the skull structure and pleurodont teeth, they argue, are suspiciously non-avian.
It is also known that the amber mines in Myanmar are kept running by forced labor and deplorable conditions, and that the profits garnered from them are used to fund the brutal and ongoing Kachin conflict. Certain paleontologists have warned of this association and are distancing themselves from Myanmar specimens as a result; renowned paleoartist Mark Witton even write a blog post about it.
Oculudentavis, as cool as it is, is a cocktail of controversies and uncertainties. Should it be proven a lepidosaur, this post will be updated.
*I kick down the doors to the school of Athens and come charging in with a Tyrannosaurus in tow*: BEHOLD A MAN
Tralkasaurus cuyi, a new abelisaurid described about a week ago. It lived about 90 million years ago in South America, hailing from the Huincul Formation in Argentina (from where, interestingly enough, another dinosaur was described this year—the noasaurid Huinculsaurus).
It was a medium-sized abelisaurid, about as tall as the average human. The specimen’s conflicting characteristics made its phylogeny difficult to determine. As of now, Tralkasaurus is grouped as a more basal abelisaurid, though it also displays some features of the later brachyrostrans (the group that includes Carnotaurus).
Pattern referenced loosely on those of cheetahs and other big cats because abelisaurids are known for their speed.
My dromaeosaurs tend to be quite cartoonish, so I wanted to start taking some steps toward a vaguely more realistic style. You’ve all seen Deinonychus before, but it was a safe beginning!
Deinonychus is one of the most famous dinosaurs discovered and maintains a reputation as the poster child of dromaeosauridae. It served as the inspiration for the Jurassic Park raptors and helped revolutionize paleontologist’s understanding of the lifestyles and phylogeny of its prehistoric relatives.
Deinonychus (meaning “terrible claw”) lived about 110 million years ago in the midwestern United States. We know it hunted the ornithopod Tenontosaurus because several fossils have been found of predator and prey in extremely close proximity. However, despite some of these Deinonychus fossils existing clustered around Tenontosaurus bones, we cannot definitively rule in favor of a pack hunting strategy. Cooperative hunting is rare in birds and living archosaurs, deeming it unlikely that Deinonychus would have the capability to engage in such complex social behavior. There have been Deinonychus trackways that suggest some form of gregarious behavior (possibly families), but we still have no conclusive evidence that dromaeosaurids were Cretaceous wolves.
Rather, they were more like birds of prey. It’s thought that Deinonychus, almost certainly fully feathered with well-developed wings, used raptor prey restraint (RPR) to subdue its quarry. According to this model, Deinonychus would tackle and pin its prey with its talons and maintain balance by flapping its wings; it would eat the unfortunate victim alive. Furthermore, analysis of juvenile Deinonychus fossils shows their arms were proportionally longer than those of adults, possibly permitting limited tree-scaling abilities. (This, combined with the understanding of dinosaur maturation provided by the Wulong fossil, could open up the possibility of wing-assisted incline running for juveniles—however, that delves heavily into speculative territory.)
A new paper published on peerj (Chure et. al) has designated a new species of Allosaurus. Though impressively complete skeletons of this distinct taxon had been known to science for some years, they were not officially described until a couple of days ago. The new species is called Allosaurus jimmadseni, named for James Madsen Jr., a late Utah paleontologist who was famous for his work with Allosaurus.
The paper also invalidated the twelve or so species of Allosaurus that had been thought to exist. Only two species, it was concluded, stalked the semi-arid floodplains of the Morrison Formation: the iconic A. fragilis and the new A. jimmadseni. The third species lived in Europe and is known best for being smaller than its American counterpart. It’s now thought that several iconic Allosaurus specimens had been incorrectly identified under either one of these species or under A. fragilis; Big Al, the dinosaur featured in “The Ballad of Big Al,” is now assumed to have been A. jimmadseni.
A. jimmadseni lived five million years prior to A. fragilis. It was described as having shorter nasal crests and a more narrow skull, thereby giving it a somewhat weaker bite.
For this Allosaurus jimmadseni, I tried giving it a vaguely leonine coloration because of Allosaurus’ reputation as the “lion” of the Jurassic.
More adventures in iridescence.
Caihong is a little paravian theropod dating to the late Jurassic. It was discovered in China in 2014 and described in 2018. The fossil was so exquisitely preserved that traces of old pigment cells still remained within the feathers. Testing revealed that these pigment cells were melanosomes arranged in a very specific way, revealing a striking hitherto unknown coat of prehistoric plumage: Caihong was vividly iridescent. This is reflected in its generic name; “Caihong” means “rainbow” in Chinese.
One of Caihong’s most prevalent features is a bony crest upon its head, upon the lacrimal bone (think the side of your eye-pit closest to the tear ducts). Caihong also had a second pair of wings on its legs similar to those of Microraptor, and its close relationship to tree-dwelling anchiornithines may indicate that it too was a gliding, arboreal hunter. Undoubtedly, however, its diminutive size would’ve made it a prime meal for larger predators.
Wulong bohaiensis, a newly described microraptorine dinosaur whose name translates from Chinese into “dancing dragon,” referencing the pose of the exquisitely preserved holotype.
The Wulong specimen was determined to have been a juvenile, which implies drastically different growth and maturation rates for dinosaurs than for their avian descendants. The juvenile Wulong had more or less mature feathers rather than the down or not-quite-flight feathers characteristic of adolescent birds.
We do not know the coloration of Wulong, but I decided to model it off its close relative, the shiny, crow-sized Microraptor. This was my first time experimenting with iridescence and I’m not quite sure how I did.
