NitroHydroRay's Minecraft Gallery

Things I've made in Minecraft and Blockbench

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One of my favorite things about the Late Cretaceous is that it’s when a lot of modern fishes begin to appear in their prototypical forms. One among these myriad lineages is the Tetraodontiformes, a group which I particularly love. Today a diverse assemblage including forms such as puffers, triggerfish, and the giant ocean sunfish, they make their first appearance in the Mesozoic Tethys.

These four fishes, Cretatriacanthus, Slovenitriacanthus, Plectocretacicus, and Protriacanthus, bear a number of key similarities to their extant relatives. Modern Tetraodontiformes lack pelvic fins, having either reduced them to spines or lost them entirely. This is a characteristic displayed in these early forms, with some of these fish having well-developed pelvic spines and others lacking them entirely. Likewise, an enlargement of the anterior spines of the dorsal fin is a characteristic shared between several extant lineages of Tetraodontiformes and their extinct relatives. In particular, Cretatriacanthus and Slovenitriacanthus, which together form the family Cretatriacanthidae, share a striking resemblance with the living triplespines, which also bear large dorsal and pelvic spines. The other two of these fish display a different notable characteristic of their extant cousins. One lineage of living Tetraodontiformes, the boxfishes, bear an internal carapace formed of hexagonal scutes. This condition also appears in the Cretaceous Plectocretacicus and Protriacanthus. 

Despite their resemblance to different lineages of extant Tetraodontiformes, these four genera are typically considered to form a monophyletic group known as the Plectrocretacicoidei, sister to their living relatives. This might imply a hypothetical ur-tetraodontiform bearing both enlarged dorsal and pelvic spines and an internal carapace, with various lineages losing one or both of these characters. Alternatively, these could simply be the result of convergences between different groups. In fact, some morphological analyses find weak support for the placement of these fish as stem-Tetraodontiformes at all, instead suggesting a placement outside of the anglerfish-tetraodontiform clade. Yes, you read that right, anglerfishes are indeed considered the closest living relatives of the Tetraodontiformes.

These fish are also absolutely minuscule, between 1.8 and 2.5 cm in length. This makes them among the smallest fish to be made for Prehistoric Nature, with their uniqueness and evolutionary notability carrying them across the line as a viable addition. Don’t worry, they’ll be a bit bigger in game. I hope you enjoy adding these tiny things to your Cretaceous reef enclosures!

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Mirasaura is a fascinating little reptile recently described from the Grès à Voltzia Formation of France. It is not only interesting in its own right, but also noteworthy for helping solve the long-standing mystery that is Longisquama. That animal, known from only one partial specimen, has remained contentious for over 50 years, with uncertain taxonomic position and unusual anatomy. In particular, the large, filamentous structures present in Longisquama have attracted a myriad of hypotheses, explaining them as everything from true feathers to unassociated plant fossils. The discovery of Mirasaura shows that those filaments are indeed a genuine anatomical feature of Longisquama and its close relatives. Not only that, but they appear to have been a novel integumentary structure of this clade, not homologous to scales or feathers. Mirasaura shows phylogenetic affinity to other Triassic weirdos such as Drepanosaurus, tying Longisquama into the drepanosauromorph clade. While such a relationship has been suggested before, this additional evidence from Mirasaura limits plausible alternatives, suggesting that Longisquama has finally found its home in the reptile family tree.

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Say hello to one of the cutest dinosaurs out there - the tiny and charismatic Mononykus. Described in 1993, it was originally interpreted as a flightless bird and dubbed Mononychus, a name preoccupied by a weevil. Perhaps the most striking characteristic of this dinosaur is the eponymous forelimbs. Though reduced in size, they were clearly strong, with a long olecranon process in the elbow to anchor muscles. These strange arms may have allowed Mononykus to break into wood and insect nests, and have been suggested as evidence of an insectivorous diet. Mononykus also had well-developed ears comparable to those of an owl, which would have helped this animal pinpoint prey. Mononykus is known from the Mongolian Nemegt Formation, a floodplain environment, where it lived alongside other famous dinosaurs including Deinocheirus, Therizinosaurus, and Alioramus.

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Oviraptorosaurs, though present in the Early Cretaceous, truly reached their apex during the Late Cretaceous. Discovered in 2005 and described in 2007, Gigantoraptor was an exceptionally large member of this lineage, around three times as long as the earlier known Citipati. It was around 3.5 meters at the hip and perhaps around 8 meters long. It is known from decent remains, including nearly complete forelimb and hindlimb material, most of the vertebral column, and a jaw.

Gigantoraptor was found in the Iren Dabasu Formation of the Erlian basin of Mongolia. This formation preserves a riverine floodplain which likely experienced seasonal aridity and humidity. The deep jaw of this animal suggests that it was likely a generalist feeder, and it probably consumed a wide variety of vegetation that grew alongside the river. Like other oviraptorosaurs, it may have been capable of omnivory, with occasional consumption of meat plausible.

The feathering of Gigantoraptor is unknown. Oviraptorosaurs would have been ancestrally feathered, but given the large size and hot climate that Gigantoraptor inhabited, it may have lost these. On the other hand, feathering could have remained for protection from the sun, as in modern ostriches.

This is one of the first 10 animals showcased for PN's Late Cretaceous! Come join the discord and check out the rest

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Are you interested in contributing to the largest Minecraft prehistoric life mod?

PN is looking for new devs! Anyone with experience modeling, texturing or animating in BlockBench is wanted, as well as anyone with experience in Java coding, sound design, or writing/editing.

If you are interested, please join the Prehistoric Nature discord and dm the head developer, aecht_rob.

We would also appreciate if you shared this with anyone you think might be interested!

I have included Rob's more extensive description of available positions below, if you wish to know more details.

Modellers: anyone who can model creatures. We model using BlockBench. You would need to be able to do your own research about animal skeletal structure, and be flexible and responsive to criticism and accuracy advice. You would need to be able to follow the in-house style and patterns used by PN. We would prefer hugely that you could also texture models in the PN style. We provide in-house concept art for assistance.

Model animators: people who can produce animations inside of the BlockBench programme. We use these for mob movement, nesting, laying, eating, attacks, etc, as well as for whatever interesting spontaneous behaviours anyone wants to come up with. You need to be able to work under guidance about what is plausible and possible in terms of scientific knowledge. We provide internal advice about these matters. You would be liasing with our sound designers and modellers and palaeo-advisors.

Sound designers: people who can produce sounds for our creatures. Typically a set of several sound-variants is given for each creature, involving ambient, hurt and death; plus any extra sounds as needed by custom AI. You will need to look at models in BlockBench to understand timings of their animations, and should be familiar with the use of Audacity. We assist internally with access to resources and ideas and advice. You will need to be quite imaginative and resourceful and have a basic grasp of sound-editing.

Palaeopedia editors: this could be a range of different people, doing different parts: to act as the go-to person for the mod's Palaeopedia in terms of content. You would collate the entries, gather information from your own research and from the internal mod team discussions of each creature, and write, in good English, the Palaeopedia articles concisely and accurately; test formatting on the page in-game, and report issues like missing images and advancements; and so on. We will teach you how the relevant bits of code work to get these into the mod itself, and you should be happy that it is sometimes slightly technical. This might well extend to designing and setting poses for Taxidermy models too!

A java coder who knows modern Minecraft modding and modern Minecraft game mechanics: Someone who has written even basic java mods in modern Minecraft would be welcome to help and speed port things up (not MCreator). We're looking for someone flexible and able to work in a team and under guidance about code architecture and approaches: it's not a standalone role and is hoped to be collaborative. They should have worked with Minecraft java game code and (broadly) understand it.

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Though the majority of oviraptorosaur diversity existed later in the Cretaceous, several more primitive genera are known from the Early Cretaceous. I have created four to join our roster for this epoch, illustrating the morphological diversity of these initial forms. 

An iconic dinosaur, well-known for its cartoonish front teeth, Incisivosaurus bears little resemblance to later oviraptorosaurs. The skull is elongate, crestless, and evidently toothed, in contrast to the more typical members of this clade. Incisivosaurus is among the most basal oviraptorosaurs and was important in illustrating that many of the group’s most bird-like features were the result of convergence. This animal was quite small and is known from a single 10 cm skull along with two referred juvenile specimens. It was likely a close relative of Protarchaeopteryx, with some researchers suggesting synonymy between the two genera. However, due to the crushed nature of the Protarchaeopteryx skull and the lack of an adult postcranial skeleton of Incisivosaurus, comparison remains difficult. Incisivosaurus possessed feathers, with the juvenile specimens exhibiting large tail fans similar to those known from its more derived relative, Caudipteryx. 

Caudipteryx is another small oviraptorosaur, best known for its immaculate preservation which helped to establish the presence of feathers in non-avian dinosaurs. Fossilized melanosomes suggest that Caudipteryx was a dark colored animal with striping in the wings and tail fan. It bears more resemblance to later, more derived Oviraptorosaurs than to Incisivosaurus, with reduced teeth, a shortened skull, and more bird-like proportions. However, these dinosaurs were contemporaries and were both discovered in China’s Yixian Formation. 

Yuanyanglong is a newly described dinosaur published in 2024. It had a comically small head and long legs. Ecologically, it may have been a wader. Two specimens are known, having been unearthed from the Miaogou Formation of northern China. While many Late Cretaceous oviraptorosaurs are described from localities in the Gobi desert, this is the first known from the Early Cretaceous in that region.  The species name “bainian” means "a hundred years,” and honors the 100th anniversary of the naming of Chirostenotes and Oviraptor, both described in 1924. 

Finally, Microvenator is a quite speculative inclusion. Known from only a single juvenile specimen, the identity of this animal remains uncertain. It was initially interpreted as a small predatory dinosaur, with Deinonychus teeth being attributed to it. Later study established that it was, in fact, an oviraptorosaur, the oldest known from North America. However, whether it is a primitive oviraptorosaur along the lines of Incisivosaurus, or a more derived oviraptorosaur remains uncertain. Recent phylogenies tend to find that it is the most basal Caenagnathid, meaning that it is more closely related to Anzu than to Oviraptor, and as such, quite derived. Thus, the appearance, as interpreted here, is more like the oviraptorosaurs of the Late Cretaceous than the more basal relatives otherwise known from the Early Cretaceous.

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Did you know that the lineage leading to geckos goes all the way back to the Jurassic? Geckos represent one of the oldest divergences of extant lizards, second only to the obscure Dibamids, with all other lizards (including snakes!) being more closely related to each other than to geckos. Fortunately for us, stem-geckos from the Mesozoic are well-represented in the fossil record. We likely already have one in-game, depending on your preferred taxonomic interpretation of the long-tailed lizard Schoenesmahl, which will be joined by an additional three: Ardeosaurus, Eichstaettisaurus, and Helioscopos.

Ardeosaurus is a small lizard known from the Late Jurassic of Germany. It has been found in the Altmühltal Formation, which represents the famous Solnhofen Archipelago environment, from which famous dinosaurs such as Compsognathus and Archaeopteryx hail. This would have been a tropical, insular setting, inhabited by many small reptiles such as this one. The taxonomic placement of Ardeosaurus and its nearest kin remains unsettled, with some papers placing it as a stem-skink, iguanian, or even a stem-squamate. However, it is most often recovered as a stem-gecko. Ardeosaurus is known from complete specimens and is around 20 cm long. 

Eichstaettisaurus was originally described as a species of Ardeosaurus, before being separated out later. Like Ardeosaurus, this lizard is known from the Altmühltal Formation, however, in contrast, it is also known from Early Cretaceous fossils in Italy. Both preserve similar marine lagoonal environments, suggesting comparable habitat preferences across this entire period of time. Eichstaettisaurus is generally recovered closer to extant geckos than Ardeosaurus, which likely represents a slightly older branch in gecko evolution. No specimen of this lizard preserves the entire tail, but comparisons of the larger specimen with Ardeosaurus suggests a length around 15-20 cm.  Helioscopos is an Ardeosaurid known from the other side of the world: the Morrison Formation of the western United States. It was described from a disarticulated skull near the end of 2023. The description of this taxon identified it as a stem-gecko and reinforced the identification of Ardeosaurus within this stem group as well. The presence of geckos in both Europe and North America is consistent with other shared fauna between these regions during this time. As a member of the Morrison fauna, it would have lived alongside many of the most famous dinosaurs, including Stegosaurus, Allosaurus, and Brachiosaurus. The name Helioscopos means “sun watcher,” a reference to the large pineal foramen, which likely indicates the presence of a parietal eye, a primitive light-sensing organ in the center of the skull. Assuming proportions similar to Ardeosaurus, Helioscopos was likely around 15 cm.

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Sapeornis made for the Prehistoric Nature mod.

Sapeornis is an anomalous Early Cretaceous bird known from the Yixian and Jiufotang formations of China. Its placement among the Aves remains unclear, as it bears a collection of primitive and derived avian traits and has no known relatives aside from the likely synonymous Omnivoropteryx. The skull is odd, bearing only a small collection of teeth near the tip of the beak, and a shape that has been compared to the Oviraptorosaurs, Scansoriopterygids, and the putative enantiornith Falcatakely. In contrast to many contemporary birds, it possessed a full fan of tail feathers like those in the more derived Euornithes. Perhaps the most striking feature, however, is the wingspan of approximately 1.4 meters, certainly among the greatest known of all Mesozoic birds. These wings would suggest adept aerial behavior, while the bones of the animal tell a different story. The shoulder girdle appears ill-suited to flapping, raising questions as to whether this bird could even fly. Some paleontologists have suggested that Sapeornis was adapted for soaring behavior, exploiting thermals in a similar manner to modern vultures. This would explain the utility of the immense wing surface in spite of poor adaptation for powered flight. The name is taken rather uncreatively from the acronym “SAPE,” for the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution.

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A couple of birds I modeled and textured for the Prehistoric Nature mod

Confuciusornis

Known from Yixian and the overlying Jiufotang Formation of China, this animal has been found in great abundance, numbering hundreds of specimens. Like many modern birds, Confuciusornis was likely sexually dimorphic, with distinct male and female forms. However, the exact nature of this dimorphism has long been controversial, with the big question being whether the tail streamers, known from only a fraction of preserved specimens, were present in both sexes. Fortunately, a 2024 study based on nearly 200 specimens found a statistically significant correlation between the presence of tail feathers, total body mass, and limb proportions, supporting the conclusion that the tailed form most likely represents the male sex. Also like modern birds, Confuciusornis completely lacked teeth, though this appears to have been a convergent innovation, as teeth were still present in several lineages closer to the Neoaves.

Enaliornis

Enaliornis is a genus of primitive Hesperornithiformes that lived from the Albian to Cenomanian in what was then the Tethys Sea. Despite being known from numerous individuals and three separate species, it is incredibly fragmentary, and any reconstruction is largely an exercise in speculation. It is unknown whether it was flightless like more derived Hesperornithiformes, as the forelimbs are not preserved. Like its later cousins, Enaliornis was a specialized foot-propelled diver, though it was likely still capable of upright terrestrial locomotion.

Check out the rest of our recent work on the Prehistoric Nature discord server!

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A couple of birds I modeled and textured for the Prehistoric Nature mod

Confuciusornis

Known from Yixian and the overlying Jiufotang Formation of China, this animal has been found in great abundance, numbering hundreds of specimens. Like many modern birds, Confuciusornis was likely sexually dimorphic, with distinct male and female forms. However, the exact nature of this dimorphism has long been controversial, with the big question being whether the tail streamers, known from only a fraction of preserved specimens, were present in both sexes. Fortunately, a 2024 study based on nearly 200 specimens found a statistically significant correlation between the presence of tail feathers, total body mass, and limb proportions, supporting the conclusion that the tailed form most likely represents the male sex. Also like modern birds, Confuciusornis completely lacked teeth, though this appears to have been a convergent innovation, as teeth were still present in several lineages closer to the Neoaves.

Enaliornis

Enaliornis is a genus of primitive Hesperornithiformes that lived from the Albian to Cenomanian in what was then the Tethys Sea. Despite being known from numerous individuals and three separate species, it is incredibly fragmentary, and any reconstruction is largely an exercise in speculation. It is unknown whether it was flightless like more derived Hesperornithiformes, as the forelimbs are not preserved. Like its later cousins, Enaliornis was a specialized foot-propelled diver, though it was likely still capable of upright terrestrial locomotion.

Check out the rest of our recent work on the Prehistoric Nature discord server!

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After almost a year of work, Vanilladendron 3.0 is here, focusing on bringing the vanilla style to the last of the Carboniferous and Permian plants in Prehistoric Nature v.59. You can check it out at Curse Forge here: https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/texture-packs/vanilladendron

Go show some love to the original mod (the devs are great people!) and feel free to share and give feedback on the resource pack - it means a lot.

Thanks, and enjoy a look at what Vanilladendron brings to the table!

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Here's the full list of every animal currently in the Prehistoric Nature mod: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Da-ev8mIkL7B_iiRGC2Z6fVicAKKuJgmvC2VsQhJVpo/edit?usp=sharing

I feel like making a cute little zoo/aquarium exhibit. Pick one of these - any of them (Preferably something small that won't take forever to make an enclosure for) and let me know what you'd like to see from me!

There's a lot in this mod, so if you've got a favorite Paleozoic creature, it's almost certainly here.

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Over 250 millions years ago, during the Permian period, the world was very different from today. While giant lycophyte scale trees and enormous horsetails, holdovers from the earlier Carboniferous period, decreased in dominance, seed-bearing trees began to take their place as the primary component of the forest canopy. Among these trees were the Glossopteridales, which dominated the cool temperate forests of southern Pangaea.

The most well-known among these plants (and the eponymous member of the group) is Glossopteris. Glossopteris, meaning “tongue fern,” is a form genus, and as such, technically only refers to the leaf of the plant. These leaves are characteristically elongated, widened towards the tip, and commonly described as “tongue-shaped.”

Today, fossils of Glossopteris have a rather disparate distribution, found in parts of what are now widely separated continents. However, during the Permian, these would have formed one contiguous range. The distribution of Glossopteris fossils is among the pieces of evidence that have been used to better understand the movement of continents over geologic time. 

Glossopteris, along with the related Gangamopteris, are among the many prehistoric plants represented in the Prehistoric Nature mod, where they make up the Glossopteris Forest biomes. I have recently completed retexturing these plants for my Vanilladendron resource pack, which seeks to better integrate the look of Prehistoric Nature with vanilla Minecraft. To follow the progress of both projects, join us on Discord here: https://discord.gg/snzaYpu. 

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For my prehistoric life loving followers:

What do you view as the most important/influential/otherwise notable classical paleoart? I'm working on a series of pixel art paintings based on them and am trying to include some that aren't just Charles R. Knight.

So far, I've made one for Knight's "Leaping Laelaps"

I also have plans to do Knight's Agathaumas, Tyrannosaurus, and Henry De la Beche's "Duria Antiquior." I also may do "The Great Sea Dragons as They Lived," but I'm not sure how well it will work at low resolution.

Please let me know what you think and whether you have any additional suggestions for paintings!

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My retexture for "wild olive" wood, a generic tree representing the family Oleaceae, for the Prehistoric Nature mod.

It's kinda funny how much of my art has just been wooden doors.

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Dunkleosteus Minecraft Aquarium

Request by @wjbminecraft

Dunkleosteus! A great choice, but also one of the largest animals currently in the mod. Thus, it took me quite some time to create an adequate exhibit. Now that it’s made, I’ll discuss it here, going over some palaeontology, aquarium science, and Minecraft build tips!

Dunkleosteus is an incredibly famous animal, best known for its immense armored skull - the only part of the body preserved in fossils. I would argue that aside from megalodon, it is easily the most famous extinct fish of all time. It lived in the Late Devonian, about 360 million years ago, and is easily the largest animal known from this time. It was an active pelagic predator, comparable to many sharks today. 

Dunkleosteus belongs to a group of fish we call the Placoderms, a group united by the armored plates that cover their heads. Though the earliest placoderms were jawless, the lineage which led to Dunkleosteus developed jaws. Though the placoderms were once considered an extinct, primitive group of fish, we now know that they were ancestral to all jawed vertebrates. That means that you, yes you, are a living placoderm!

The armored head plates of the early placoderms developed with time into our modern skulls, but the degree to which this armor was internal vs external is hotly debated. Most depictions of Dunkleosteus restore it with a fully external skull, though this is unlikely. The Prehistoric Nature mod takes a very different route, depicting the armor as fully internal, completely covered by thick soft tissue such that it is indistinguishable from the rest of the body. Perhaps something in the middle is more likely, such as what is seen in armored catfish today. Additionally, the mod depicts Dunkleosteus with a shark-like body as opposed to the eel-like body it is often depicted with. This makes sense. The eel-like depiction is based on a preserved impression of the related genus Coccosteus, which is not ecologically similar to Dunkleosteus and is much smaller. It makes sense for an open-water predator like Dunkleosteus to be more shark-like in form.

Fig 1. The depiction in this mod may make Dunkleosteus difficult to recognize, until it opens its mouth.

In designing an enclosure for this immense fish, what should we consider? Well, for one, this is a large, open-water species, and likely a very active swimmer. In reality, this would likely make it impossible to house for long periods in captivity. For comparison, great white sharks have proved difficult to house in captivity, as their active motion results in injury as they swim into the edges of their tank. However, other sharks, including the even-bigger whale sharks, have been successfully exhibited. With some suspension of disbelief, we move forward. Firstly, a tank built to house Dunkleosteus would need to be immense. While the tank I have built is large, in real life, it would probably need to be even bigger than this. I also incorporated another common feature of tanks built to house active fish such as sharks: rounded corners. These decrease the chance of the fish running into edges of the tank. Together, these features came together to form the basis of the shape of the tank. 

Fig 2. The tank from above. Note the curved edges. 

The next important piece of this exhibit is the viewing area. Like many aquariums, I chose to make the room darkened, lit from the tank itself. However, because Minecraft has a rather simple lighting engine, this was done through the use of a dark color scheme for blocks rather than through lighting itself. In vanilla Minecraft, I often use concrete and terracotta alone for this purpose, but the mod also adds black sandstone which works beautifully in this setting. The viewing gallery itself is multileveled, allowing for the accommodation of a large number of people while reducing obstruction of the exhibit. Railings separate these levels, but are made of glass such that they do not obscure the view. I also provide some stadium-style seating for people that want to sit around and watch the animals.

Fig 3. The viewing gallery. Note how the use of black concrete in the ceiling gives it an almost abyssal look, allowing it to fade from perception.

Fig 4. View from the gallery. Glass railings do not obstruct the view.

Fig. 5. View of the gallery from the water.

I hope you enjoyed reading this! Feel free to request more animals to do exhibits/posts on!!

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I updated this exhibit to add a staff area!

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This is an updated version of a post I made several years ago, expanded to include all living things in Minecraft, not just the mobs.

Have any questions about why I placed something where I did? Please check out my explanatory post here before you ask about it:

Why are slimes placed as an early branch off of the kingdom Animalia? Slimes are enigmatic. Taken at face value, they could fit anywhere or

Anything marked as “confirmed” is either a real evolutionary relationship as we currently understand them, or a relationship that is easily intuited. For example, goats and sheep are actually closely related, while spiders and cave spiders can be easily intuited to be related. 

If the lines are solid, please check Google before you try to correct me - real life evolution is sometimes unintuitive! Yes, birds really are reptiles, pandas are carnivorans (which is not the same thing as a carnivore), dolphins are ungulates, and kelp isn’t a plant.

Yes, I know zombie horses exist. No, I didn’t include them because they don’t spawn naturally.  

I’ll include the same disclaimer that I included in my last post: This tree is a mixture of actual biology and my personal headcanons, and so far as I know there is nothing objectively wrong with where I placed specific mobs, but there could be a lot subjectively wrong if you were to interpret the mobs differently than I did. In other words, the biology should be correct, but don’t take this as a statement of the actual canon within the game. I should also note that this tree makes the assumption that all life originated in the overworld, rather than evolving separately in each dimension. I also included non-mob blocks and items that would likely be considered animals, or evidence of animals existing.