Ichthyovenator laosensis - "Swamp Dragon"

#10oclockart - Finished my ichthyovenator painting for the #ArchosaursandAutomata art show in record time!

Swamp Dragon © 2012 Raven Amos

Ichthyovenator laosensis - the fish-eating hunter of Laos, known only from a single type specimen found in the Aptian age Grès supérieurs Formation. Siamamia, a Cretaceous cousin of the North American bowfin fish, is known from similarly aged rocks in the Sakon Nakhon Province of Northeastern Thailand.

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References:

Cavin, L., V. Suteethorn, E. Buffetaut, J. Claude, G. Cuny, J. Le Loeuff, and H. Tong (2007), "The first sinamiid fish (Holostei, Halecomorpha) from Southeast Asia (Early Cretaceous of Thailand)", Journal Of Vertebrate Paleontology, v. 27(4), pp. 827-837.

Switek, Brian. "Ichthyovenator: The Sail-Backed Fish Hunter of Laos." Dinosaur Tracking - Smithsonian Magazine Blogs (2012), n. page. Web.

"Ichthyovenator." Prehistoric Wildlife. (http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/i/ichthyovenator.html), n.d. Web. 02 December 2012.

Siamamia Has A Bad Day

#10colockart (the "it's 10 somewhere" edition) - Closeup of facial details of Ichthyovenator and the work done on the Siamamia in its jaws.

Dino Zodiac/Archosaurs & Automata

#10oclockart Ichthyovenator/Pisces. I just might be able to finish this in time for the show!

A somewhat fanciful (see, Zach? I called it "fanciful"!) representation of the spinosauroid from Laos, known only from a pelvic girdle and a few bits of vertebrae. The fossil shows a strange, dual-hump configuration, with flat, paddle-like neural spines that abruptly reduce in size at the joining of the hips with the trunk of the body.

Conchoraptor gracilis - "Nemegt Sunrise"

#10oclockart PM edition - It's FINALLY finished! Sorta.

Nemegt Sunrise © 2012 Raven Amos

This is the "finished" version of Conchoraptor that is going in the upcoming Archosaurs and Automata art show. Eventually I will return to this and add in the missing elements to the painting to bring it back in line with the "Dino Zodiac" project.

The crab in its claws is purely speculative, given there is no fossil evidence of hermit crabs found in the Nemegt Formation. The shell that it inhabits, a species of Viviparus, is known from the neighboring Dohoin Usu fossil beds to the north, which are of a similar age to the Nemegt formation (Late Cretaceous).

Special thanks to Jamie Headden for the pointers on oviraptor anatomy, and to Scott Elyard for helping to keep me sane.

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References:

Ping, Chi; Granger, Walter. (1930). "Two new Cretaceous fresh-water gastropods from Mongolia". American Museum Novitates; No. 437.

Nemegt Sunrise

P.M. entry for #10oclockart - sunrise over the Nemegt River Delta of Cretaceous Mongolia.

Flora from the Maastrichtian era Nemegt Formation is spotty at best, but existing fossil evidence shows that there was some form of forest cover in the form of Pseudolarix conifers, with some hypothetical Baikalophyllum cycads and reedy plants thrown in the mix (known from similar localities in China and Russia).

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References:

Pott, C., McLoughlin, S., Lindström, A., Wu Shunqing, & Friis, E.M., 2012. "Baikalophyllum lobatum and Rehezamites anisolobus: two seed plants with “cycadophyte” foliage from the Early Cretaceous of eastern Asia." International Journal of Plant Sciences 173, 192–208.

Gradzinski, Ryszard. 1969. "SEDIMENTATION OF DINOSAUR-BEARING UPPER CRETACEOUS DEPOSITS OF THE NEMEGT BASIN, GOBI DESERT." Palaeontologia Polonica, No. 21, 148-223.

Okada, H. Cretaceous Environments of Asia (Developments in Palaeontology and Stratigraphy). Mateer, N.J. Elsevier Science, April 2000.

Geminiraptor and IndieGoGo Updates

#10oclockart PM edition - Some quick updates.

Geminiraptor progress...

Geminiraptor: As you may have noticed, I've been taken prisoner by the curly feathers on the neck. I think I used a French curve once or twice, but mostly the curves are all done freehand. I also worked on my proportions. Since Geminiraptor is estimated to be among the largest and oldest of the North American Troodon species, I gave it a more robust body style than some of its more derived cousins. I also added a more realistic moon and tried cambering it to look like the moon in Utah's sky.

...and a mechanical archosaur for the
Indiegogo campaign. Art by Scott Elyard.

Archosaurs & Automata IndieGoGo Campaign - Wow! We're nearly a quarter of the way there, and it's been less than a week. Scott Elyard has been working on a mascot and t-shirt design for the show, called "Clockwork Carnivore". It's a mechanical Euparkeria and it's stone-cold awesome. You can see a rough draft of it on the campaign website.

Conchoraptor Close to Completion!

#10oclockart PM edition - well, at least the main part of the image is almost complete.

Blocked in the baby and the crab the mother Conchoraptor is holding. Finished the sky and background, but I still have a ton of work to do - all of the Dinosaur Zodiac images will be placed in an art nouveau style "inset", complete with flourishes and the Zodiac sign and dates.