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.

Ginger Sketch

#10oclockart for tonight - Ginger (Zingiber officinale) leaf and flower studies.