Experiments in Shrink-Wrapping
There was some recent discussion on the Palaeoblr Discord server about the ridiculous amounts of “shrink-wrapping” that a lot of prehistoric animals get in palaeoart.
For those of you who don’t know, shrink-wrapping is a word used in palaeoart to refer to a reconstruction where the skin of an animal is shown basically clinging to the skull or the skeleton, as if it has been shrink-wrapped onto the animal. Here’s a good example of shrink-wrapping in modern palaeoart:
Although this is a fairly tame example, the shrink-wrapping is still visible. See how the skin traces around every hole and dimple in the skull, the teeth are exposed and you can see the outlines of the shoulderblade, backbone and hips? That’s shrink-wrapping. In real life, these bones were probably covered in muscle and fat, like in most modern animals.
So, in the light of this rampant shrink-wrapping epidemic, fellow palaeoblr artist @cheetahtrout decided to take suggestions for animals to “un-shrink-wrap”, restoring them with a proper amount of muscle and fat. I joined in, and we both drew the same animal, then compared the results.
First up, we drew Titanophoneus, a large predatory synapsid, based on this skeletal diagram. I gave it a big, thick neck and some powerful jaw muscles, filling out the shape of the head. I also covered up the teeth with some nice thick lips, to protect them from drying out. If you look, you’ll notice that most modern mammals have lips covering their teeth, even animals like hippos and baboons, which have enormous teeth for their size.
The other challenge was the gorgonopsid Sauroctonus. The reference was this skeletal diagram. Gorgonopsids are very often shrinkwrapped in palaeoart, usually to make them appear more menacing, as they were the apex predators of their time. The shrinkwrapped example I showed at the start of this post is also a gorgonopsid. @ridiculouslyphotogenicsinosaurus joined in on this one.
And here it is! Compare this Sauroctonus to the gorgonopsid at the start, and you should be able to see some key differences. This guy has a lot more bulk to him, since in modern animals the shape of the skeleton is often covered up with muscle, skin, and fat. Gorgonopsids were most likely built for power rather than speed, so they would have been quite thick and muscular.
The other main difference is in the mouth. I’ve drawn an open mouth for this guy as well to make it easier to tell what’s going on. The lips droop down and cover the teeth when the mouth is closed, and when it’s open you can see that the actual mouth does not go all the way back to the edge of the jaw like it does in many shrink-wrapped restorations.
After all that I though I should try taking the idea of ‘anti-shrink-wrapping’ to its extreme. And so, I proudly present to you … the Bullet Man
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