#thoracosaurus

Polarized fishing glasses are an essential part of any Hell Creek fieldworker's equipment, for two very good reasons:

(Borealosuchus by Chris Masna, Brachychampsa by tyranttr)

Borealosuchus and Brachychampsa are two crocs (well, a eusuchian and an alligatoroid, respectively) found throughout Hell Creek's waterways. Borealosuchus, being larger and more generalized in its diet is considered more potentially dangerous than the smaller turtle specialist Brachychampsa, though considering the latter could still fuck someone up should it feel obligated people try to keep their distance from both of them.

Seeing as the colony was built well inland from the shore of the Western Interior Seaway, they rarely encounter Hell Creek's largest crocodylomorph, the giant marine Thoracosaurus:

(Image by Jacob Baardse. I'm really not trying to use so many Saurian-related images here, but they've kind of produced the only decent art of these guys that I can find.)

(The bracket color names are just for thematic organization and are NOT representative of the candidates!)

Propaganda (if any) under the cut! Please be civil, and feel free to reblog!

"Laelaps aquilunguis [Dryptosaurus] occupies the foreground on a promontory, where his progress is interrupted by the earliest protest of an Elasmosaurus. Mosasaurus watches at a distance with much curiosity and little good will, while Osteopygis views at a safe distance the unwonted spectacle. On the distant shore a pair of the huge Hadrosauri browse on the vegetation, squatting on their haunches and limbs as on a tripod. Thoracosaurus crawls up the banks with a fish, and is ready to disappear in the thicket."

From 'The Fossil Reptiles of New Jersey (Continued)' by Edward Drinker Cope, The American Naturalist, Vol. 3, No. 2 (April 1869), pp. 84-91

(The bracket color names are just for thematic organization and are NOT representative of the candidates!)

Propaganda (if any) under the cut! Please be civil, and feel free to reblog!

My friend Evan won the prestigious National Geographic-Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Lanzendorf PaleoArt Award for Digital Modeling and Animation.