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#Paleostream 16/05/2026

here's this week's #Paleostream flocking sketches (im late because i was swamped with uni work)

this week we sketched Sharovipteryx, Sinopterus, Pachycrocuta, and Ptolemaia

A remake of the sapient pterosaur I made a while ago

#speculative biology #speculative evolution #speculative zoology #spec bio #spec evo #pterosaur #tapejarid

Ghost torukjara pterosaur. His name is Asher

#my art #pterosaur #torukjara #tapejarid

Spec-Dinovember Day 2: Dovakiin, a creature specialized in hunting pterosaurs

During the mid-Cretaceous Brazil was a hotspot of pterosaur diversity. This local abundance of potential prey drove one predator to fill the niche. A spinosaur related to Irritator and Angaturama began to specialize in hunting pterosaurs rather than fishing. This behavior was only opportunistic at first, but within a few million years notable adaptations have emerged. The animal is smaller and lighter than it's ancestors and its hindlimbs are proportionally longer and more cursorially adapted. These allow it to explosively chase and leap at pterosaurs while they are still attempting to launch. The neck and jaws are longer to reach further up during a leap, letting it catch pterosaurs even further off the ground. The arms are proportionally shorter, as they were less useful for prey capture than the jaws. The shoulders are more mobile than their ancestors', allowing the arms more range of motion to balance during a leap. The preferred prey of this specialized spinosaur are Tapejarids and Anhanguerids. The former because they are terrestrially competent and initially run to escape, only reluctantly resorting to flight to escape. The latter because their proportions, while great at crossing the sea, make them awkward and slower to takeoff from a grounded position. During lean seasons these adaptations are also useful at capturing small terrestrial game when pterosaurs are migrating or otherwise absent

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Initially my thought of this prompt was to make a pterosaur version of a falcon, but I kind of hit a wall with which clade would most likely produce such an animal. Maybe Dsungaripterids because they're already pretty heavily built for a pterosaur, but their terrestrial adaptations would make them middling fliers and probably not the acrobats that lifestyle demands, plus I couldn't figure a convincing path from shell-cracking durophage to aerial hunter. Ornithocheirids seemed a decent choice, as they could follow a path from kleptoparasite like a frigate-bird, to something like a skua, then to actual predation of other pterosaurs. But I settled on a spinosaur because there is evidence of them occasionally feeding on pterosaurs and the image of one of those long-faced goofy dudes doing caracal style jumps sounded neat!

#spec-dinovember #2025 #art #digital art #krita #dinosaurs #speculative biology #speculative evolution #spinosaur #pterosaur #tapejarid #gondwana #brazil #dovahkiin

#weird #there is a dog #weird dog #strange #why is it blue #???#waiting for the tags to be long enough so we don’t see this but #->#Tupandactylus #Tupandactylus imperator #pterosaur #paleontology #ornithodira #avemetatarsalia #tapejarid

Archovember 2025 Day 3

Pterosaur Sinopterus dongi, of Early Cretaceous, China!

Our next archosauromorph, and our first pterosaur of Archovember is Sinopterus dongi. Sinopterus dongi is a small tapejarid from Early Cretaceous, China, known for being one of the first pterosaurs with direct evidence pointing to it being a herbivore, or at most an omnivore, based on the remains of plant matter and gizzard stones found in its gut. Like other tapejarids, Sinopterus had a large Toucan-like skull filled with air pockets that would have made it lightweight. It is known from several specimens at various stages of growth, which has allowed scientists to study the changes these animals went through during their lifespan. Based on wing proportions and bone strength/flexibility, Sinopterus flaplings seemed to be capable of powered flight very shortly after hatching. Juveniles also seem to have been more adapted to flight in closed environments, like dense forests, compared to adults. Juveniles therefore probably occupied different ecological niches than adults, transitioning between different niches as they grew.

Sinopterus dongi lived in the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Chaoyang, Liaoning, China. It shared this forested environment with the famous dromaeosaur Microraptor, as well as other slightly less famous theropods like Sinotyrannus, Jeholornis, Wulong, Similicaudipteryx, Sapeornis, Omnivoropteryx, Neimengornis, Kompsornis, Cratonavis, Confuciusornis, Chongmingia, Zhongjianornis, Yixianornis, Yanornis, Songlingornis, Shuilingornis, Similiyanornis, Imparavis, Musivavis, and more. While the forest may have seemed dominated by birds, there were still plenty of other pterosaurs as well, including Chaoyangopterus, Eoazhdarcho, Forfexopterus, Guidraco, Hongshanopterus, Huaxiadraco, Ikrandraco, Liaoningopterus, Liaoxipterus, Linlongopterus, Meilifeilong, Nemicolopterus, Nurhachius, Pangupterus, and Shenzhoupterus. The forest environment of the Jiufotang was mainly suited for the small, feathery, and the fluffy, but a few larger Ornithischians lived here as well, including the ankylosaurs Chuanqilong and Liaoningosaurus, and the Psittacosaurus’ P. meileyingensis and P. mongoliensis, and evidence of at least one large titanosaur is present in the formation.

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!