More Oligocene Oddities

Hyaenodon. Despite the name, this predator wasn't related to hyenas; instead, it belonged to an extinct group of meat-eating mammals called the creodonts ("flesh teeth").

Similarly, Eusmilus wasn't really a cat, though it belonged to closely-related group called the nimravids.

Horns: Then and Now

 

This is Titanoceratops, one of the largest ceratopsians and the land animal with the largest known head (nearly nine feet from break to frill top). A complete skeletal mount of this dinosaur stands at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History in Norman, Oklahoma; however, the skull on this mount has always looked too big for the rest of the body to carry it, so I based my sketch on the known bones of the animal. Since some paleontologists believe that this record-breaking dinosaur may have been a species of the better known Pentaceratops, I chose to depict Titanoceratops' frill as the Sam Noble mount does (with Pentaceratops horns) and base the colors on a marbled, orb-weaver spider.

 

Black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis)

Current Range: Southeastern Africa, from South Africa to Kenya

Conservation Status: Critically Endangered

Lately, I've neglected my endangered mammals project, but last Thursday night decided to tackle one of the best known imperiled species: The black rhino. Contrary to their names, both the black and white rhinos are brown or gray in color. The white rhino's name is said to come from a mistranslation of "wijd", the Dutch word for "wide", given to this species for its broad, square upper lip. In contrast, the black rhino has a pointed upper lip.

The most striking black rhino image I found was of a muddy individual feeding on flowers in Namibia's Etosha National Park. I thought the juxtaposition of the gray skin, the brown mud, and the yellow flowers would make for a great drawing, and was eager anyway to take a break from depicting endangered animals alongside their killers (like the quoll I drew last year, which shared space with a poisonous cane toad and a stalking cat).

The Real Littlefoot (Attempt 1)

Lately, I've attempted to draw on a larger scale (see last post). Here is the first result:

This my first attempt at baby Apatosaurus, based on a mount at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. The eventual downfall of this piece were the front feet, which in the mount were in an odd, splayed position that I disagreed with. In attempting to fix them, however, I failed to convey that the animal's right foot was just above the ground and about to cut into it with a crescent-shaped foot, rather than the padded, elephant one erroneously given to sauropods in a lot of art. 

It was also difficult to convey that this was a young Apatosaurus, since the proportions aren't all that different from the adults' and because I worried about making the eyes too large (even for a baby animal, whose eyes are generally larger than those of their parents). Yet when I showed this draft to one of my non-dinosaur savvy friends, she believed it was a young because it looked like it was fearfully calling to another animal, a factor I hadn't considered in drawing this dinosaur.

The Emperor Flesh Crocodile and His Subjects

The Elrhaz Formation, Niger, 121-112 million B.C.E.

After having had so much fun doing group drawings of the fish of the Niobrara Formation and the residents of Hațeg Island, I couldn't resist doing a third one: This time, the Elrhaz Formation, home to some of the strangest dinosaurs, as well as the terrifying, 40-foot-long Sarcosuchus, nicknamed SuperCroc by The National Geographic when covering the discovery of its complete remains in the late 1990s. Unfortunately, I think this drawing also highlighted an occasional criticism I've heard about my work: I draw too small. And while I'm quite happy with my color choices for most of these creatures, there are two glaring exceptions.

1) Suchomimus tenerensis
2) Eocarcharia dinops
3) Kryptops palaios
4) Ouranosaurus nigeriensis
5) Lurdusaurus arenatus
6) Nigersaurus taqueti
7) Elrhazosaurus nigeriensis
8) Sarcosuchus imperator

The spinosaurs, the carcharodontosaurs, and the abelisaurs were the southern continents' three dominant meat-eating dinosaurs during the Cretaceous, and a species from each family is present in the Elrhaz Formation. Suchomimus was named and described by Paul Sereno in 1998, while Eocarcharia and Kryptops debuted a decade later. Though they probably specialized in hunting different animals, they undoubted competed for food occasionally. To reflect this, I gave my Suchomimus a shark to dangle over its smaller rivals heads. 

I based my color choices for most of these dinosaurs on hues I gave to their relatives in earlier drawings: Since I was so pleased with my decision to give Spinosaurus an anaconda's colors and markings in a previous drawing, my Suchomimus gpt the skin of another spotted serpent, the harlequin snake. While I had drawn three carcharodontosaurs in detail prior to this drawing (see "Giganotosaurus vs. Mapusaurus" and "Hunchback of Las Hoyas" posts), I decided to give Eocarcharia a similarly stark crest but different hues, choosing green and yellow over red, orange, and black. What compelled me to make Kryptops magenta, however, I can't tell you. If I had colored it more lightly, it may have worked well with the yellow and light blue, but as it stands, I think it's something of an eye-sore.

The Elrhaz Formation's herbivores were just as weird: They included Ouranosaurus, a sail-backed iguanodont; Lurdusaurus, a long-necked iguanodont; Nigersaurus, a duck-billed sauropod; and Elrhazosaurus, a late dryosaur. 

I based the two iguanodonts' colors on the prehistoric dragon from Dragons: A Fantasy Made Real (an imaginative but goofy Discovery Channel mockumentary) and a striped lizard, and was very pleased with both choices. To highlight Nigersaurus' strangeness, I decided to experiment with purple, a color I using avoid in dinosaur drawings unless I'm using it for a head crest. Again, however, I faltered with the smallest animal in the group, Elrhazosaurus. Since I had given Dryosaurus a red head and spotted body in several drawings, I elected to give its African cousin a white head and a striped body. Had I looked more closely at a creature with one of these patterns (say, a quagga) and colored the dinosaur in lightly, the result may have been better. Again, however, heavy coloring hurt the final product.

Prehistoric crocodiles and crocodile relatives are always a trial to draw: You need to have the patience to recreate their armor plate-by-plate, and because they have a living point of reference in modern crocodilians, you can't make them as colorful as dinosaurs. I saved Sarcosuchus for last, and after I finished its scales, I opted to use an unobtrusive brown for most of its hide, with some spectacled caiman markings added in to make it more distinctive.

In summation, I enjoyed doing this drawing, and hope you can enjoy parts of it. In the future, I need to draw bigger, clearer, and with a more consistent use of light and heavy coloring.