#xiphactinus

here's this week's #Paleostream flocking sketches!!

this week we sketched Yoshi, Tylosaurus (most of us drew Tylosaurus rex), Xianshou (mine is inside a speculative Weltrichia sp.), and Argyrolagus

Sketches of a few Niobrara Chalk Fauna, from bottom to top: Xiphactinus, Hesperornis, Dolicorhynchops, Pteranodon, Archelon, Elasmosaurus and Tylosaurus proriger

Hesperornis and Co.

My 25 years of palaeoart chronology…

My Mesozoic is Teal!

Zuul crurivastitor - Plesiosaurus - Ampelosaurus

Xiphactinus - Saurophaganax - Morganucodon

Dakotaraptor - Pterodaustro - Atlascopcosaurus

Ichthyovenator - Oviraptor - Rugops

It’s Fossil Friday! Let’s swim back in time about 85 million years to the Late Cretaceous Period to meet Xiphactinus, a gigantic predatory fish. This species could reach lengths of 17 ft (5.2 m) and was capable of swallowing a 6-ft- (2-m-) long fish whole!

The Museum’s Xiphactinus fossils come from Logan County, Kansas, which is home to 70-ft- (21.3 m-) tall sedimentary formations. Though that might not sound like an ideal home for an ocean-dweller, the entire area was covered by a vast inland sea during the Cretaceous.