Here's a series of commissioned illustrations I made for one of my patrons. They all depict fauna from the Urumaco formation of Venezuela, an assemblage mostly composed of Miocene fossils.
1. A group of Xenastrapotherium - astrapotheres were a peculiar group of superficially tapir-like mammals from South America and Antarctica. They often sported tusks and small "trunks", and are thought to have been partially amphibious.
2. A dead megalodon has washed ashore and attracts the attention of the giant caiman Purussaurus, along with other smaller crocodilians and relatives of modern Jabiru storks. The coastal waters of Venezuela are thought to have been a nursery for baby megalodon and possibly the only place where these two giant predators could have met.
3. Mourasuchus was a very large caiman with a distinctly flat head and numerous small teeth which it could have used to filter-feed. It coexisted with river dolphins and mata-mata turtles in the rivers of Miocene Venezuela.
4. Stupendemys was a giant side-necked turtle that may have rivaled the seafaring Archelon for the title of largest turtle to have ever lived. It inhabited northern South America during the Miocene and Pliocene, and its closest living relative is the much smaller Arrau turtle from the Amazon region.
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