Birds. Dinosaurs. Bird-Dinosaurs.

Im not dead!! Unfortunately though due to technical difficulties and my inability to learn to use photoshop, things are gunna be a lot more analogue on here for a bit...

Finally got the inspiration to draw some more! art is hard. 

This Wayne Barlowe-esque creature is an alien species evolved to live in complete darkness within the crust. The planet has been experiencing a severe ice age for a huge period of time, locking some cave dwelling animals in farther latitudes inside their cavernous homes for hundreds of millions of years. Volcanic hot spots in the caves provide energy to sustain ecosystems below rock and ice without the need for light. 

In lieu of photoreceptive sense organs, the organisms in these caves use sound to navigate - they have “compound ears” and are able to distinguish the direction sound waves are coming from with expert ability as the waves reach each ear canal at a slightly different time. The stridulatory horn, usually placed at the front of the head, is used to produce the sound necessary for echolocation. Its hammer-shaped head shield serves to protect the vulnerable neck, but also has more ear canals at its apex to further enhance the directional sensitivity to incoming sound. 

The mouth of this liquivorous predator is a hollow spear (tipped with protective setae) that releases digestive enzymes into the prey, enabling the creature to suck up its meal, akin to spiders on Earth. Behind the mouth are a pair of raptorial hunting appendages; the primary means of prey capture for this particular cavern-dweller. Behind these sits a pair of tactile antennae. The gas exchange spiracles are hidden on the underside of the head shield. 

It is bipedal, although it will often use its hunting arms to traverse more difficult terrain, and has a large heavy tail for counterbalance. It is the closest an animal can come to a pursuit predator, and also one of the largest, in these cave ecosystems, and lives its adult life in only the most spacious of caverns. The young, however, are very differently proportioned and live in the smaller tunnels, allowing populations to spread through caves via routes the adults may typically be unable to take. This phenomenon is known as ontogenetic niche partitioning.

WIP of a bust of Champsosaurus natator, a convergently gharial-like choristodere that lived around 80 million years ago in south-east Canada. 

Tupandactylus imperator in the early evening sky.

Spiritual successor to this piece done back in September of 2015. The colour and integument of this restoration are based on an undescribed tapejarid cranium announced at EAVP last year - electron micrographs of the pycnofibers revealed rod-shaped, black-pigmented eumelanosomes, while micrographs of the crest showed an abundance of spherical, red-pigmented phaeomelanosomes. 

Tupandactylus hails from the Crato Formation of Brazil, and is named after the creator god of the Tupi and Guarani people.

2014 vs 2016

This handsome fellow is no ordinary tusked ungulate, but a hypothetical species native to Britain, millions of years in the future. “Cryptequoides suiniformis” is a descendant of feral horses and lives in marshy areas of far future England. It has tridactyl feet and a far squatter body than its ancestors, so probably won’t be winning any races anytime soon.