#hadrocodium

Two Hadrocodium who have made their nest in a patch of moss on a tree are rudely disturbed by a curious snakefly. Meanwhile a Tatisaurus has developed a sudden craving for moss.

Instead of doing inktober this time, I’ve been doodling Sciartober prompts. Not all of them, and I started on day 11, got carried away with one of them, and I have no idea when I’m going to finish it, but here’s what I’ve done so far. So, day 11 - fish. Or in my case, a happy Castorocauda trotting home with a nice, big, juicy one. Day 17 - invisible. Hoplophoneus trying to dissapear from view. Day 18 - in the ocean. Basilosaurus, because of course it is . Day 19 - mammal. Fruitafossor, probably the earliest known relative of therian mammals. Day 20 - tiny. Hadrocodium, cause it tiny. It was an early Jurassic mammaliaform that was pretty cloe to crown group mammals. I kind of screwed up the thumb, and for some reason the shading looks much worse than it does in person. I also made two versions of this, but I decided to go with this one, because while I prefer the hand in the first on, it had really stark, dramatic light and shadow that detracted from the Hadrocodium. I should have predicted that drawing in a room lit only by small desk lamp will do that. I also managed to kill my back and left arm drawing these. Because of course I did.

Hadrocodium wui is an extinct Mammaliaform from the lower Jurrasic of China. At a mere 1.35 inches (3.2 cm), it is one of the smallest "mammals" to have ever existed. Hadrocodium was an important discovery with interesting implications. It had evolved features that were though to define true mammals from their mammal-like ancestors. Relatively speaking, it had a large brain. It also had an advanced jaw structure and middle ear (the three tiny bones of which evolved from reptilian jaw bones). This shows that these features appeared a full 45 million years earlier than previously thought. It was also probably a warm-blooded, nocturnal insectivore.