Cretaceous-Paleocene Cartography

To help the reader appreciate the prehistoric world (and to make sure that I've chosen too many species from North America), each chapter of my book will open with a mollewide (oblong) world map, with the featured species numbered. My main source are Dr. Ron Blakey's paleomaps, which can be found at www2.nau.edu/rcb7/RCB.html. Here are the first five:

1) Mid-Cretaceous 

(Cenomanian to mid-Turonian epochs, 100-90 MYA)

2) Early Late Cretaceous

(mid-Turonian to Campanian epochs, 89-81 MYA)

3) Middle Late Cretaceous

(early to late Campanian epoch, 80-73 MYA)

4) Latest Cretaceous

(Maastrichtian epoch, 72-66 MYA)

5) Paleocene epoch (65-56 MYA)

I won't reveal which species each number denotes, since they are subject to change as I go through each chapter. I will admit, however, that deliberately chose a certain color for each map's continents (or in the case of the second map, its oceans): 

Map 1 is a light, dull green, alluding to our hazy understanding of its creatures, at least up until the mid-1990s. 

Map 2 is dominated by bright blue oceans, since all but one of the chapter's featured species lived in or near the ocean. 

Map 3 is a deep green, given the overwhelming number of dinosaurs and other species known from the Campanian (and as a contrast to Map 1).

Map 4 is a dark gray, depicting a scorched Earth during the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous. The red blotch in India represents the Deccan Traps, while the red ring in the Gulf of Mexico is the Chicxulub crater, where the fatal meteor (or was it an asteroid?) struck around 66 million years ago.

Map 5 is bright green, since the planet was a hothouse jungle during the Paleocene.

Elephant Ancestors

More book sketches. This time, from the iPad:

Phosphatherium

Phiomia

Gomphotherium

Procreating

As an early birthday present, my parents very generously got me a new iPad and digital stylus. I was recently convinced that to make my paleo-art marketable, I would need to transition into digital illustration, so I purchased the program Procreate, which I have been playing with for the past few weeks. I've been working largely on mock-ups for a book that I have been working on for a year. Naturally, the topic of this book will be dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures, but I will keep the format and details of it mum for now. Enjoy!

Icebergs and Ichthyosaurs

 Xiphactinus