#conchoraptor

[destinationsjourney]

Dinosaurs: Surviving Extinction exhibition at Newcastle Museum

Dinosaurs: Surviving Extinction exhibition at Newcastle Museum

[tropinui]

Conchoraptor

(KONK-oh-RAP-tor)(Late Cretaceous period)

Styled after Lesser Flamingos.

This piece is part of a project that fell through, the "ABC of Dinosaurs", where I illustrated a selection of extinct animals, some famous, others less well known in fanciful depictions. I do not claim full realism, only giving my take on one of my greatest passions in life.

Please enjoy.

[saritapaleo]

Conchoraptor gracilis means “gracile mussel plunderer” and it stands as a reference to an interesting theory on what oviraptorosaurs were doing with their sharp beaks and strong bite-forces. Described in 1986 by renowned paleontologist Rinchen Barsbold, the name Conchoraptor reflects Barsbold’s hypothesis that oviraptorosaurs may have been specialized in cracking open the shells of mollusks. However, Conchoraptor lived in an arid desert environment filled with sand dunes and only intermittent streams. If there were mussels here, there were not enough to feed a population of specialized mollusk-hunters. Conchoraptor was probably more likely to feed on tough vegetation and perhaps small animals, like other oviraptorosaurs. Though if it could find a mussel in the desert, I’m sure it would have had no trouble cracking it open.

Due to its lack of crest, Conchoraptor was originally thought to be a juvenile Oviraptor. However, it had differing anatomy from Oviraptor, especially in its hands. Since then, two dozen specimens of Conchoraptor, including large adults also without crests, have been found. It did seem to have adaptations within its skull for hearing low-frequency sounds, so perhaps it had no need of the crest.

Conchoraptor is known from both the Barun Goyot and the Nemegt Formations of Late Cretaceous Mongolia. In the Barun Goyot, it would have lived alongside fellow oviraptorid Heyuannia, as well as dromaeosaurids like Kuru, Shri, Hulsanpes, and Natovenator, birds like Gobipteryx and Hollanda, alvarezsaurs like Ceratonykus and Parvicursor, and indeterminate sauropods. Ornithischians included the pachycephalosaur Tylocephale, the protoceratopsids Bagaceratops and Breviceratops, and the ankylosaurids Saichania, Tarchia, and Zaraapelta.

A million or so years later, Conchoraptors in the Nemegt Formation would have lived alongside fellow oviraptorid Oksoso, as well as birds like Teviornis and Gurilynia, the ornithomimid Gallimimus, the pachycephalosaur Prenocephale, the hadrosaur Saurolophus, indeterminate therizinosaurids and sauropods, and the tyrannosaur Tarbosaurus.

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!

[that-dinopunk-guy]

While putting off going to bed, I stumbled upon a folder on one of my hard drives containing some more of my old paleoart from 2002-2003.

[bakk0]

[goregutz-moved]

a Conchoraptor model i’ve been working on

i currently cant texture it or color it bc my computer inverts

[goregutz-moved]

ZOOP

[goldenchocobo]

Dinovember day 23- Oviraptosaurid- Conchoraptor

I said to myself “I don’t feel like doing a scene, I’ll do something simple”

then not 10 minutes later “I better detail it a lot more to compensate it’s lack of scene” and here we have the chicken-parrot that is Conchoraptor

I chose this oviraptorsaurid because its skull looks SO similar to modern parrots- just... squashed

If they didn’t have similar diets I’ll eat my hat