#drawdinovember2020

[saritawolff]

#Archovember Day 25 - Massospondylus carinatus

Massospondylus was an early sauropodomorph, and one of the first dinosaurs to be named, in 1854!

Early sauropodomorphs were bipedal, and some may have even been omnivorous. Not quite as tall as it’s sauropod descendants, Massospondylus was still pretty big, at about 13 to 20 feet long it would have been able to stretch its long neck into the trees of the Southern African desert. It had a long, sharp thumb claw on each arm that could have been used for combat, to strip bark from trees, or even to dig.

Since 1976, at least 10 Massospondylus egg clutches have been found, with up to 34 eggs per clutch. Some fossilized embryos of these little sauropods were able to be extracted and examined, and had short, stubby proportions, big heads, and large eyes. Based on hatchling footprints near a nest site and the forelimb anatomy of the embryos, it was determined that hatchlings would have walked on all fours until they could support themselves on their hind legs. These remain the oldest dinosaur embryos ever found.

[jef-jaxon]

#drawdinovemberday8 Moschops. Okay, it’s a therapsid, a member of synapsids like dimetroton, but is significant as it’s one of the first mammal-like animals living around 260 million years ago. It’s thick head is believed to have been used for head butting. To me its name would be a cute one for a modern day pet, nick name ‘Chops’. #drawdinovember2020 #moschops #therapsid #synapsid #headbutt #thickskull #paleoart #artistsoninstagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CHVe3ljjKWf/?igshid=f287zwtybkpr

[saritawolff]

#Archovember Day 7 - Vegavis iaai

Listen. I know what you’re thinking. “But... Sarita, this is just a goose.”

Here is what’s special about this goose. First of all it’s not a goose, but a close relative. We don’t have a skull, but we do have a syrinx that shows it was capable of honking. But here’s the most special part: it lived in Antarctica... during the late Cretaceous.

This means it lived at the same time as ankylosaurs, hadrosaurs, ceratopsians, dromaeosaurs, and tyrannosaurs: some of the most famous dinosaurs!

Among many other bird species from this era, Vegavis shows us that at this point birds were already in the diverse groups they are today. T. rex could have hunted waterfowl, small birds could have pecked at Spinosaurus’ teeth to clean them, the giant Quetzalcoatlus would have shared the skies with these small, agile dinosaurs.

Vegavis serves to remind us that we are very lucky to have this huge diverse group of dinosaurs still sharing this planet with us today.

So next time you get chased by an angry goose, remember that that angry goose’s ancestors probably had to chase raptors away from their nests... and those angry geese probably won. And just look at which lineage survived extinction...

[saritawolff]

#Archovember Day 8 - Geosternbergia sternbergi

Since I did Pterodactylus, I wanted to also include a Pteranodon, as those two pterosaurs seem to be the only ones the average layperson knows about. However, Geosternbergia has a cooler crest, in my opinion, and it’s close enough (it could be considered to either be a species of Pteranodon, or its direct ancestor.)

Geosternbergia was one of the largest pterosaurs. On all fours, an adult male could have stood as tall as a human, and in flight could have had a wingspan of up to 19.7 ft! They were extremely sexually dimorphic, with the males being twice as large as the females, and with bigger crests.

[saritawolff]

#Archovember Day 30 - Spinosaurus aegyptiacus

Our final entry for Archovember is Spinosaurus! Spinosaurus got a lot of attention this year after some exciting discoveries were released.

But first, to give some background: Spinosaurus was discovered in 1912 in Egypt, and then described in 1915. Of the remains found, there were pieces of jaw, teeth, some vertebrae, ribs, neural spines, and the gastralia. At this time Spinosaurus was usually depicted as a typical theropod, long-legged with a short snout, due to there being no limbs and the rest of its skull discovered. This original specimen was lost during WWI, when the British bombed the museum it was stored in. Nothing remains of this original specimen but detailed drawings and descriptions, and two photographs that were donated in 1995.

Since the 90s, more fragmentary remains were uncovered throughout Africa, including more pieces of skull and, in 2008 (but published in 2014), a more complete skeleton that showed the hind limbs were much shorter than we’d thought.

For many years Spinosaurus was assumed to be semi-aquatic, but there wasn’t much to prove this other than its teeth and jaws being adapted for eating fish. Until April 2020. As the 2008 skeleton continued to be excavated, scientists discovered a tail. This Spinosaurus’ sail seemed to continue down the length of its body, giving it a paddle-shaped, yet highly flexible tail!

With fish-eating jaws, short but powerful hind legs, and a newt-like paddle tail, it was clear that Spinosaurus would have likely spent all or most of its time in the water. It was definitely a much stranger animal than we could have imagined, and I hope for many more discoveries to be revealed!

The one in this drawing has come out to sun itself and is perhaps guarding a nest. I imagine it to have had a lifestyle like a loon; doing most everything in the water except nesting, looking absolutely ridiculous trying to get around on land, and looking ridiculously graceful in the water.

And thus ends Archovember! I hope you enjoyed my renditions of popular and lesser known dinosaurs, pterosaurs, pseudosuchians, and other archosauromorphs. And thank you to those who participated as well! I hope you enjoyed learning about these amazing creatures as much as I did. I already have my list made up for next year. 😅

[saritawolff]

#Archovember Day 12 - Incisivosaurus gauthieri

The oddly toothed little nerd of the dinosaurs, Incisivosaurus is a small, primitive Oviraptorosaur.

Incisivosaurus’ well-preserved skull displays rodent-like buck teeth, which display wear that indicates a herbivorous, or omnivorous diet.

We also have two specimens of Incisivosaurus with preserved feather impressions! A younger specimen with shorter primary (“wing”) feathers, and an older specimen with both primary and secondary feathers, as long as their tail feathers! This may show that the arm feathers grew larger with age and younger oviraptorosaurs would not have needed them. However, it is also argued that the younger specimen may have been in the process of molting when it died, and that’s why the feathers seem smaller and fluffier!

[saritawolff]

Just for fun, I made some size charts of all the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, pseudosuchians, and other archosauromorphs I’ve drawn for Dinovember both this year and last year. I did not realize I’ve drawn so many dinosaurs. 😬

(Please keep in mind this is not meant to be scientific; I merely eyeballed other size charts and made my estimates from there as I’m terrible with numbers)

[saritawolff]

#Archovember Day 19 - Austroraptor cabazai

Yes, I did in fact remember to include a raptor this year. 😅

Austroraptor is one of the largest dromeosaurs known, and the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, standing about as tall as a human and about 16 feet from head to tail. It had some unique proportions, with shorter arms than the average dromeosaur, and conical rather than serrated teeth. It’s suggested that, due to its long legs, Austroraptor was a pursuit predator, chasing down small, fast animals in Cretaceous Argentina.