#kileskus

Doomed after a long battle…

We are actively experimenting with brushes and finally touched on the theme of dinosaurs. We started with Kileskus

Heh... I drew dinosaurs... 😼

Today's animal of the day is Kileskus aristotocus!

Image credit: FinwalART (Sergey Meleshin)

This early member of the tyrannosauroid superfamily lived during the Middle Jurassic period in what is now Russia. Its genus name means "lizard" in the Khakas language, and it is known from somewhat fragmentary remains. Most of what paleontologists have of this dinosaur are some bits of the skull, hands, and feet. However, by comparing these fossils to other tyrannosauroids they were able to determine that Kileskus likely belonged to the proceratosauridae family.

Image credit: cisiopurple on Deviantart

Other members of this family, such as the namesake Proceratosaurus and Guanlong, possessed a crest on their heads, which was likely used for mating displays and was probably brightly colored. Paleontologists don't have any direct evidence that Kileskus also had a crest, but the bits of the skull that they do have seem to be angled in a way that suggests that it did. However, they're still not quite sure of the exact shape of this crest, so most reconstructions are based on Proceratosaurus.

Image credit: Mattel/Universal Studios

The tyrannosauroid Kileskus aristotocus eats a baby mamenchisaurid sauropod. The Middle Jurassic (Bathonian age) of the future Krasnoyarsk region, Russia.

I started this work as a sketch for a challenge with friends, but eventually made a detailed drawing imitating the style of a gel ink pen. I must say that it is more convenient to draw with a real gel pen. But still, this work gave me a good experience. :) Kileskus was a medium-sized theropod, close to the English Proceratosaurus and the Chinese Guanlong. It is known from a partial maxilla, a piece of the back of the jaw, and several postcranial fragments. Mamenchisaurid sauropods from the Berezovsk coal mine were described in 2019 from isolated teeth and tail vertebrae with characteristic features for this group (link.springer.com/article/10.1… -..). Due to the fragmentary nature of the material, a new taxon was not isolated, but the Krasnoyarsk region mamenchisaurid is important as the northernmost representative of its family.

Sharipovo, by Andrey Atuchin.