#rapetosaurus

[darknymfa-art]

Mayozoic day 5, Rapetosaurus krausei. Fighting for my life out here, trying to figure out poses for these sauropods that aren't all identical.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Was too tired yesterday to post it but here is finally the result of the Maevarano formation #paleostream! While not as full of species as other formations the diversity in fascinating, from small herbivores crocs over flying raptors and giant frogs to surprisingly large mammals.

The sediments of the upper part of this formation preserves the remains of a coastal, tidally influenced, semi arid wetland. That is a rare thing to encounter these days, so research into getting a good idea of the environment wasn't easy.

One thing I often do in these cases is put together a mood board with potential inspirations from similar modern day environments. One thing that I picked up was for examples the often times reddish color of coastal wetland plants and the little "plateaus" of plants and soil.

On top of that there appears to be quite a bit of plant material from here but very little is described yet, only thing we have a name on is Sapindipsis which is said to be very common.

I have to thank Discord member JW and @arminreindl for putting together this size chart as well as Discord member LiterallyMiguel for producing a brand new skeletal drawing of Mahajangasuchus!

[thatonegaycactus]

day 125 of DDD! The Rapetosaurus! While the name sounds alarming, it comes from "Rapeto" a malagasi deity instead of... ahem. When it was discovered, it was found with two skulls and a near complete juvenile. To this day, this dinosaur is still the most complete titanosaur known!

[justgoji]

Assorted critters

[mesozoicmarket]

A dinosaur tooth of a titanosaurian sauropod, likely a Rapetosaurus krausei or Vahiny depereti from the Maevarano Formation in the former Mahajanga Province of Madagascar. The dentition of the lesser known Vahiny is not yet clear.

[know-o-princess]

You may have noticed that I named several of Erud's landmasses after fictional "lost continents"; namely Atlantis, Lemuria, and Mu. I partly did this as a nod to Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age, which also had them as real (though lost by the time of the setting) places, and partly because I just find the idea of lost continents to be interesting even though all the racist pseudoscience and mysticism that has sprung up around them is total bullshit and will not be making any appearances here. (Well, there might be some supernatural stuff...this is a fantasy setting after all.)

So, because of that, I have decided that Erud's version of Madagascar is called Lemuria. And as Erud's version of Madagascar, it is home to animals that lived on Madagascar in the distant past. Animals like:

Masiakasaurus

Beelzebufo

Simosuchus

Majungasaurus

Rapetosaurus

Elephant birds

...And, of course, lemurs. In fact, the island is home to a species of lemur that has evolved humanlike intelligence and developed a stone age level culture. Though they mostly avoid the human settlers to the island there is some trade between the two groups, with the lemur-people especially keen on getting their hands on the humans' fancy iron tools and weapons. (They're mainly herbivores and not particularly aggressive, but you saw that Majungasaurus up there. They'd still want to defend themselves.)

[k-rayel]

i’m drawing a series of long-dead lads from madagascar, just for fun.

[skyradiant]

Life of our Prehistoric Planet: Rapetosaurus krausei.