Veles Paleoart

[velespaleo]

[velespaleo]

[bobnichollsart]

Here's my recent painting of the Gippsland Basin, Australia, during the early Aptian. It was the first of two artworks created for Vera Korasidis & Barbara Wagstaff, at The University of Melbourne. Palaeo-plants don't get much love on social media, but I consider these two paintings among my best. They both took weeks to create, for the paper "Cool-temperate riparian floras in the Early Cretaceous rift valley of Victoria, Australia" (Korasidis 2025: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03115518.2025.2489614#abstract). Please enjoy the details, they required a lot of work!

[velespaleo]

Tanystropheus hydroides - polymer clay sculpture

[velespaleo]

You take a deep breath and are suddenly hit with the chilly and crisp air of the early morning, followed up by a strong scent of decaying plant matter with a muddy undertone. The cool mist that swallows you whole gives a nice, refreshing sensation, much needed after the last few days of unrelenting heat.

You abruptly stop, realizing the sound of wet steps doesn't match your pace.

The fog rolls away, revealing a massive, armored Batrachotomus. It's taking a stroll, the same way you just were. To you, however, it pays no attention. This is an old, experienced individual. In it's long life it had seen things more interesting than you.

[herpsandbirds]

Rain Locust (Lobosceliana cinerascens), female, family Pamphagidae, Gorongosa National Park, Mosambique

Females in this family are wingless.

photograph by Piotr Naskrecki

[velespaleo]

Strange little specimen i found in a local museum's collections. Never seen anything like it before and INaturalist doesnt seem to recognise it either. Is anyone here a crustacean specialist?

[velespaleo]

[stavrosskundromichalis]

Dornraptor normani enjoying the sunshine in England during the Early Jurassic.

[velespaleo]

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

And here now the result of the Toolebuc formation #paleostream! This formation is the center of pterosaur diversity in Australia and after long back and fourth I decided to show a calm bay, with migrating protostegids being ambushed by a Kronosaurus.

Important note: this does not represent the depositional environment of this formation. The fossils were preserved in poor oxygenated waters with tons of specialized Inoceramus living on the substrate. However that doesn't really lend itself to an interesting composition.

As you can see in this size chart by B_Wither (modified by @petitepaleoartist and myself) the Toolebuc formation offers a host of predatory fish and marine reptiles. Interestingly ichthyosaurs and protostegids appear to be more common compared to older, colder formations.

Btw. the giant shark is present here as well, indirectly ;)

[velespaleo]

The smell of rain fills the air, though not a single drop has fallen. A huge Mosasaurus slowly swims through a warm, shallow sea, unbothered by the noisy pterosaurs.

The world seems half asleep.

Everything is gray.

[velespaleo]

Early Silurian of south western Poland

[velespaleo]

Diorama featuring a Diictodon hiding from two Lycosuchus in its unfinished burrow.

Made as a part of a collaboration with @tym-0n and others

[velespaleo]

Smok wawelski - Lisowice diorama

[kiabugboy]

Glancing at the poor ammonite boys from the animation project that's been put in the backburner (it's just too complicated to handle right now T~T there's too many of them and I got tired modelling everything)

[velespaleo]

My first entry for #LemuriaChallenge