SaritaPaleo

Side blog for my paleoart nonsense. Main/Other Art - @SaritaWolff Zoology Art - @SaritaZoo

[saritapaleo]

Can you believe it? One week left til #Archovember begins once again! Here is this year’s prompt list! I did decide to keep the list shuffled instead of chronological, but took some people’s suggestions on adding a key and notes on what era each animal comes from. It made the list a bit wordy (and thus I couldn’t add my usual fun graphics in the corner) but I think it added a bit to the educational value. 😅 I feel like keeping the list shuffled is best for letting each day feel unique, and helps me and whoever else is drawing along feel less burnt out as time goes on.

If you’re new here this is my “Draw Dinovember” prompt list which I expanded to include other archosauriforms. I started doing this a few years ago to challenge myself to draw species I’ve never drawn before and/or ones that don’t get a lot of attention. Feel free to join in!

🦖 You can draw the whole list, just the dinosaurs, just the pterosaurs, just the pseudosuchians, just the 3 oddballs, just your favorites, just ones you’ve never drawn before, pick one blindly, roll a D20 and a D10 and draw the sum of whichever numbers you get, etc.

🐊 You can draw the entries at any time, just make sure they’re posted on or after their specific day. If you would like me to reblog them, make sure you use either the tag #Archovember or #Archovember2025, as those are the tags I’ll be following.

🐦‍⬛ Be as detailed or as sketchy as you’d like! All skill levels, any amount of effort is welcome. Just remember, it has to be YOUR art, and it can’t be generative AI. I block people who use GenAI, and it would be a real bummer to miss out on all the fun because of it. This is a great way to practice doing art yourself!

🦕 Archovember is usually much bigger on Instagram (for whatever reason) so if you’d like to see more entries, check it out there (my paleoart account there is the same username as it is here). I’ll be leaving the story highlights from last year’s Archovember up until November 1st, if you’d like to see what people did last year.

🦤 As one last note: please try to be scientific. You don’t need to make the most plausibly accurate rendition ever, just remember that this is a paleoart challenge and not a Jurassic World or Ark fanart challenge! Be a little selective while looking for references. That being said, I am obligated to give this disclaimer every year: while looking for references for some of these species you WILL come across David Peters. Peters is well-known for dominating search results of lesser-known species with pseudoscientific images that look legit to the untrained eye. Do not trust any images from sites called “Reptile Evolution” or “The Pterosaur Heresies.” Peters unfortunately tends to mislead and trip up people who may be starting out and trying to get into the world of paleoart. If you’re drawing along and are having trouble finding legit references, send me a message and I can send you what I’m using!

🪶 Anyway, I believe that’s it! Most of all, remember to have fun, take breaks if you need to, and get ready to learn about archosaurs!

full typed list below the cut, in case it’s too hard to read in the image:

1. Dinosaur - Tawa hallae - Late Triassic, New Mexico USA

2. Other - Dinocephalosaurus orientalis - Middle Triassic, China

3. Pterosaur - Sinopterus dongi - Early Cretaceous, China

4. Pseudosuchian - Typothorax coccinarum - Late Triassic, North America

5. Dinosaur - Australovenator wintonensis - Late Cretaceous, Australia

6. Pterosaur - Keresdrakon vilsoni - Early Cretaceous, Brazil

7. Dinosaur - Spicomellus afer - Middle Jurassic, Morocco

8. Other - Trilophosaurus buettneri - Late Triassic, North America

9. Pseudosuchian - Yacarerani boliviensis - Late Cretaceous, Bolivia

10. Dinosaur - Brachytrachelopan mesai - Late Jurassic, Argentina

11. Pterosaur - Rhamphinion jenkinsi - Early Jurassic, Arizona, USA

12. Pseudosuchian - Saurosuchus galilei - Late Triassic, South America

13. Dinosaur - Sinoceratops zhuchengensis - Late Cretaceous, China

14. Pterosaur - Jeholopterus ninchengensis - Middle to Late Jurassic, China

15. Pseudosuchian - Litargosuchus leptorhynchus - Early Jurassic, South Africa

16. Pterosaur - Barbosania gracilirostris - Early Cretaceous, Brazil

17. Dinosaur - Tianyuraptor ostromi - Late Cretaceous, China

18. Other - Erythrosuchus africanus - Early to Middle Triassic, South Africa

19. Pterosaur - Pterorhynchus wellnhoferi - Middle Jurassic, China

20. Pseudosuchian - Knoetschkesuchus langenbergensis - Late Jurassic, Germany

21. Dinosaur - Xiongguanlong baimoensis - Early Cretaceous, China

22. Pterosaur - Mythunga camara - Early Cretaceous, Australia

23. Dinosaur - Palaelodus ambiguus - Late Paleogene, France/Germanya

24. Pseudosuchian - Laganosuchus thaumastos - Late Cretaceous, Niger and Morocco

25. Dinosaur - Brachylophosaurus canadensis - Late Cretaceous, North America

26. Pterosaur - Hamipterus tianshanensis - Early Cretaceous, China

27. Dinosaur - Kumimanu fordycei - Early Paleogene, New Zealand

28. Other - Smilosuchus gregorii - Late Triassic, North America

29. Dinosaur - Eotriceratops xerinsularis - Late Cretaceous, North America

30. Your Choice - Any Archosauromorph

[wayward-delver]

Lost Wilds is back with a new incredible trailer of Paleo accurate horror.

(Also pretty lady, but that's just a little perk.)

[barghest-land]

one of the flocking sketches - upper one is 20 min, second is +1h of rendering. the newly described Kank australis! it was good to join the flocking again :)

[usik-paleo-illust]

Koreaceratops

[dilong]

Going to keep posting some older art here so I can rebuild a bit of an art gallery, this time a portrait of Dearc sgiathanach. This one I managed to complete in around 24 hours, I need to work on completing work in a short amount of time and this was a good exercise.

[sorryitssmudged]

The elegant Cryolophosaurus ellioti

I thought I’d try something a little compositionally different this time (not my best work but I think it could have potential)

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

This weekend we started a new series on #Paleostream!

Pocket Prehistory is a project in which I draw small extinct critters as museum specimens, life sized, on post card formats.

I only do adults so don't expect a T. rex fetus or something ;)

We plan to sell these as postcards on Dinocon in Birmingham this year.

[dilong]

It’s been far far too long since I’ve shown my art publicly so here is an artwork that I am especially proud of, a paleo accurate reconstruction of a Yutyrannus hauli. I hope all of you like it too:)

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Well... the thing is out. Spinosaurus mirabilis, here we go again!

[herpsandbirds]

New 'scimitar-crested' Spinosaurus species discovered in the central Sahara

by University of Chicago Medical Center

A paper published in Science describes the discovery of Spinosaurus mirabilis, a new spinosaurid species found in Niger. A 20-person team led by Paul Sereno, Ph.D., Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago, unearthed the find at a remote locale in the central Sahara, adding important new fossil finds to the closing chapter of spinosaurid evolution...

Read more: https://phys.org/news/2026-02-scimitar-crested-spinosaurus-species-central.html

illustrations by Dani Navarro

[onion-souls]

Sorry, Millennials, but recent paleontologist findings and hyolaryngeal apparatus reconstructions no longer support the hypothesis that "rawr" means "I love you" in dinosaur.

[onion-souls]

I made you a bibliography but I eated it :(

[saritapaleo]

Hey, so this really depends on the dinosaur. There are around 12-13,000 species of known dinosaurs, if we include birds, and you’re only talking about one hyolaryngeal apparatus reconstruction. There’s no way we could reconstruct every non-avian dinosaurs larynx, so for now, there is no way to know that there wasn’t a single dinosaur species that didn’t say “rawr” to mean “I love you”.

Also, you can easily teach this dinosaur

to say “rawr” with love in his heart

[makairodonx]

Ladies and gentlemen….I present to you all…the first ever skeletal reconstruction of (former Zalmoxes species) Ferenceratops shqiperorum, the first dinosaur ever described in 2026!

Here’s the exciting new paper about the creature and a few photos of the skull of its closest relative Ajkaceratops:

A hidden diversity of ceratopsian dinosaurs in Late Cretaceous Europe - Nature

New results indicate that rhabdodontids and the previously described Ajkaceratops are actually distinctive European ceratopsians, a group&nb

[makairodonx]

A Ferencerstops shqiperorum ambles across a dried-up riverbed and into the cover of the bigger ferns as two Hatzegopteryx thambema arrive to snatch up smaller animals scurrying around in their path, 70 million years ago on Hateg Island in what is now the Densuș-Ciula Formation of Romania.

A hidden diversity of ceratopsian dinosaurs in Late Cretaceous Europe - Nature

New results indicate that rhabdodontids and the previously described Ajkaceratops are actually distinctive European ceratopsians, a group&nb

And we have also found news of Ammonites surviving the K-PG extinction and into the first 600,00 years or so of the Danian or earliest age of the Paleocene, too, in the form of fossils from the Cerithium Limestone Member at Stevns-Klint, Denmark!

Ammonite survival across the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary confirmed by new data from Denmark - Scientific Reports

We provide a reassessment of the hypothesis of ammonite survival across the Cretaceous–Paleogene (Maastrichtian–Danian) boundary, based on n

[lu333ci]

shhh... a girl needs her covered in mud moment sometimes and we dont judge around here!!!

[saritapaleo]

Archovember 2025 Day 30

My Choice: Dinosaur Nanotyrannus lethaeus, from Late Cretaceous, USA!

I was originally going to do some sort of stegosaur for my choice this year, since I unfortunately didn’t have room to include one on the list, but with the recent news about Nanotyrannus I realized I simply had to join the hype.

Nanotyrannus lancensis was first described in 1946 as a species of Gorgosaurus based on a single skull fossil, then re-examined and renamed in 1988 as its own species, Nanotyrannus. For years, the species was intensely controversial. As the skull belonged to (what was thought to be a) juvenile, many paleontologists (and paleofans) debated that Nanotyrannus was merely the juvenile of a Tyrannosaurus rex, not its own species. This debate was finally settled this year, when a new paper was published describing an adult specimen of Nanotyrannus lancensis. Exquisitely preserved, this animal had fewer vertebrae and more teeth than an adult T. rex, along with other anatomical differences that would make Nanotyrannus being a juvenile T. rex impossible. Not only that, but the discovery also shed light on another fossil, the “Jane” specimen, previously argued to be a Nanotyrannus but also thought to be a subadult T. rex. Jane was reassigned as a new species of subadult Nanotyrannus, N. lethaeus. Having been denied species-ship for so long, Nanotyrannus is now up to two.

Of the two species, N. lethaeus was larger, and mature individuals may have reached a body mass of about 1,200 kg (2,600 lb), while N. lancensis may have weighed nearly 704 kg (1,552 lb). They were mid-sized tyrannosauroids, combining characteristics of more basal Appalachian tyrannosauroids and more derived Laramidian tyrannosaurids. It was slender, with longer legs than other predatory theropods of the time, suggesting the niche of a pursuit predator. They would have been significantly faster than T. rex, with an estimated maximum running speed of 45.3–49.8 km/h (28.1–30.9 mph), nearly twice higher than that of adult T. rex with an estimated maximum running speed of 20.9–29.1 km/h (13.0–18.1 mph). Their arms and hands were also proportionally longer and larger than T. rex, suggesting they may have used them to manipulate prey more often than their giant, distant relatives. Jane’s skull has healed puncture wounds, likely the result of another Nanotyrannus bite, which seemed to have been common in larger theropods.

Both Nanotyrannus species lived in the Hell Creek Formation, which spans parts of modern-day Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wyoming, USA. It would have lived alongside its larger relative Tyrannosaurus, as a mesopredator, being preyed on by adult rexes but also ironically preying on juvenile rexes itself. Nanotyrannus’ long legs would have been very helpful for allowing it to escape this apex predator. In Hell Creek, Nanotyrannus would have lived alongside many of the most famous North American dinosaurs. These included other theropods like the dromaeosaurs Acheroraptor and (possibly) Dakotaraptor, the ornithomimids Struthiomimus and Ornithomimus, the alvarezsaur Trierarchuncus, the caenagnathids Anzu and Eoneophron, and the avialans Avisaurus, Brodavis, Magnusavis, and Potamornis. The most common dinosaur of this formation was of course Triceratops, with two species, but other ceratopsians lived here as well, including Torosaurus, Tatankaceratops, and Leptoceratops. Other ornithischians Nanotyrannus could have come across include the giant hadrosaur Edmontosaurus annectens, the small Thescelosaurus, the pachycephalosaurs Pachycephalosaurus, Platytholus, and Sphaerotholus, and the ankylosaurs Ankylosaurus and Denversaurus. Other animals would have included the crocodylomorphs Borealosuchus, Brachychampsa, and Thoracosaurus, turtles like Axestemys, Aspideretoides, and Neurankylus, the choristodere Champsosaurus, and a variety of mammals. Nanotyrannus lethaeus was collected alongside the vertebrae of the azhdarchid Infernodrakon (which would have been just the right size for the mid-size tyrannosauroid to grab at neck height).

(This is N. lancensis)

This art may be used for educational purposes, with credit, but please contact me first for permission before using my art. I would like to know where and how it is being used. If you don’t have something to add that was not already addressed in this caption, please do not repost this art. Thank you!

[saritapaleo]

Archovember 2025 Day 29

Dinosaur Eotriceratops xerinsularis, of Late Cretaceous, Canada!

While Triceratops is often held as the largest ceratopsian, there are few that are even bigger. One of, if not the largest, of these is Eotriceratops xerinsularis, with a skull length alone of around 3 m (9.8 ft) and an estimated body length of 8.5–9 metres (28–30 ft) and weight of 11 metric tons (12 short tons). It was a close relative of Triceratops, Nedoceratops, and Torosaurus, and looked similar, aside from several anatomical differences in its skull morphology, and of course its massive size. It was also older than the three, and was in fact basal to them, their possible ancestor. The fossil of Eotriceratops was actually first noted by paleontologist Barum Brown in 1910, during an expedition on Dry Island Provincial Park, but it was neglected because he was more interested in finding the Albertosaurus specimens in the area (everybody always seems to care more about the theropods). The fossil sat there and eroded and chipped away until a Royal Tyrrell Museum exhibition in 2001, when it was rediscovered by the group’s cook, Glen Guthrie, by accident.

Eotriceratops xerinsularis is known from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation of Alberta, Canada. It would have lived alongside other ceratopsians like Anchiceratops, Montanoceratops, and Pachyrhinosaurus canadensis, hadrosaurs like Edmontosaurus regalis and Saurolophus osborni, ankylosaurs like Anodontosaurus lambei, pachycephalosaurs like Sphaerotholus edmontonense, alvarezsaurids like Albertonykus, dromaeosaurs like Atrociraptor, and ornithomimids like Dromiceiomimus, Ornithomimus, and Struthiomimus. The apex predator of this formation was the aforementioned Albertosaurus, but it was highly unlikely it could have taken on a healthy adult Eotriceratops, and possibly only sick, injured, and young Eotriceratops would have had to fear the tyrannosaurid. Possible additional Eotriceratops specimens, which have been variously included in the species Ojoceratops fowleri and Torosaurus (as T. utahensis), are also known from the same time period, in New Mexico’s Ojo Alamo Formation and Utah’s North Horn Formation (respectively) and may actually belong to Eotriceratops.

This art may be used for educational purposes, with credit, but please contact me first for permission before using my art. I would like to know where and how it is being used. If you don’t have something to add that was not already addressed in this caption, please do not repost this art. Thank you!

[saritapaleo]

Archovember 2025 Day 28

Phytosaur Smilosuchus gregorii, of Late Triassic, USA!

While the pseudosuchians were still figuring things out in the Triassic, trying out diverse body types, the entirely unrelated phytosaurs had already perfected the semi-aquatic reptilian predator bodyplan. Phytosaurs are known from many different morphologies, specifically with vastly different skull forms, though they can be told apart from pseudosuchians by the position of their nostrils close to their eyes on their snout. One of the largest phytosaurs was the North American Smilosuchus. There are three known species of Smilosuchus, each with different skull morphologies. Smilosuchus gregorii, seen here, had a robust skull, less long and slender than its relatives. Like other phytosaurs, it had heterodont teeth; with large tusks at the front of its mouth for impaling prey, and smaller, blade-like teeth near the back for slicing flesh. It had powerful jaw muscles, and was likely able to hunt large prey, perhaps ambushing the giant dicynodonts and even aetosaurs of the time.

Smilosuchus gregorii was found in the Late Triassic Chinle Formation of Arizona, USA. It would have lived alongside its Smilosuchus relatives, S. adamanensis and S. lithodendrorum, and other phytosaurs like Leptosuchus, Machaeroprosopus, Pravusuchus, and Protome. Pseudosuchians lived here too, though they had the land colonized while the phytosaurs dominated the waters. These included the aetosauriformes Acaenasuchus and Revueltosaurus, the true aetosaurs Adamanasuchus, Calyptosuchus, Desmatosuchus, Kryphioparma, Paratypothorax, Rioarribasuchus, Scutarx, Typothorax, and Tecovasuchus, the small, cat-like Hesperosuchus and Parrishia, the bipedal, theropod-like predator Poposaurus, and the giant land predator Postosuchus. Other archosaurimorphs Smilosuchus would have come across would have been the tanystropheid Akidostropheus, doswelliids like Doswellia and Vancleavea, allokotosaurs like Puercosuchus and Trilophosaurus, and others like Syntomiprosopus. Other animals that lived here (and could have been preyed on by Smilosuchus) included the enigmatic Acallosuchus, drepanosaurs like Ancistronychus, Fabanychus, and Skybalonyx, cynodonts like Kataigidodon, the dicynodont Placerias (thought to be Smilosuchus’ preferred prey), and temnospondyl amphibians like Anaschisma.

This art may be used for educational purposes, with credit, but please contact me first for permission before using my art. I would like to know where and how it is being used. If you don’t have something to add that was not already addressed in this caption, please do not repost this art. Thank you!