Xenopermian Hovasaur

You'll get more on the Xenopermian soon, but I wanted to throw this up to prove it's not dead. This is a derived hovasaur that doesn't have a name yet. I'll admit that the dorsal sails are inspired by Concavenator, but I think they work just fine here. This guy was actually pretty tough to get right--when you evolve a hovasaur, it starts looking like a mosasaur, so the challenge was to come up with something that was still feasible but different than, say, Platecarpus. I think I've done that here, although it still requires tweaking. I'm working on a skeletal now, and it's coming along pretty well.

Other Xenopermian critters on my backlog: More barbouronopsids, mainly, but also more work on the dicynodonts and a few other surprises.

Xenosuchus prognathus is an Archosaur

A note to the readers: this post deals with the "Alt-Permian" project that Will Baird and I have been working on for a few years. Perhaps you'll recall the Barbouronopsid and Neo-Dicynodonts from not too long ago. As a result, Xenosuchus prognathus is, sadly, not a real animal. But Will and I are having some fun with it.

Xenosuchus prognathus is a medium-sized crocodile-like archosaur from the Late Xenopermian of Ural region of Russia. It is thought to have occupied a freshwater niche that has not been filled by the giant marine hovasaurs. While its postcranial remains--what few there are--are largely uninformative, the excellent preservation of the skull bones allow much insight into the lifestyle and phylogenetic affinities of Xenosuchus. Its most remarkable feature is the fan-shaped expansion of the premaxilla in dorsal view.

The rostrums of Proterosuchus (left) and Xenosuchus (right). Not the fan-shaped expanion of the premaxilla, as well as the elongation of those bones toward greatly retracted external nares, in the latter.

The premaxilla is equiped with long spear-like teeth that lack serrations. The maxilla has small, subconical teeth running down its entire length. The fan-like shape of premaxilla, coupled with the specialized dentition, has been interpreted indicitive of a picsivorous diet. While very little of the mandible has been preserved, the anteriormost tip of the dentary is. Interestingly, the dentary is downturned, and the structure of the teeth match those of the premaxilla. However, the dentary is not laterally expanded, instead retaining a weak U-shaped symphesis. The tip of the dentary fits entirely within the premaxilla.

The smooth dorsal and ventral borders of a small antorbital fenestrae, probably triangular in shape, are preserved on the partial lacrimal and jugal bones. More interesting is the very small maxillary fenestrae which appears just caudoventrally to the external nares. Its smooth margins suggest that the fenestra is not an artifact of preservation, but whether it is the result of bone reabsorbtion or pathology is unknown at this time.

The orbit is small and divided into two parts by the intrusion of the postorbital, bringing to mind such an occurance in many rauisuchian-grade crurotarsians. The upper half is roughly D-shaped while the lower half is triangular. Bits and pieces of the sclerotic ring are preserved in the upper half of the orbit. The frontals are small but form a significant portion of the orbit's dorsal border. The postorbital is a large, plate-like bone that is one of the largest bones of the skull. It is matched in size by the jugal, which has a large ascending process that forms a significant portion of the temporal fenestra's cranial margin.

Most interestingly, the parietal bar is strongly reduced to a nub-like process while the squamosal bones are elongate and curve gently outward in dorsal view. The parietal does not articulate distally with the squamosals, and the skull's back half resembles a "W" in dorsal aspect. The temporal fenestrae are vertically elongate, bordered by the jugal, postorbital, squamosal, and quadrate. The posterior half of the articular is poorly preserved, but reveals a short postarticular process, indicating weak jaw-closing power.


A reconstruction of the skull of Xenosuchus prognathus. Rugose nasals restored on the basis of small rugose bone fragments found near the dorsal margin of the skull.

Though a basal member of the group, Xenosuchus is most assuredly an archosaur based on its socketed teeth and antorbital fenestrae. It most closely resembles Proterosuchus fergusi, another semi-aquatic form with a unique "hooked" premaxilla. The two genera are of comparible sizes as well: both are between two and three meters long.

Further Studies Into the Alt-Permian

Here we see a barbouronopsid (possibly Ursosmilus) chasing after a juvenile Dromaeosuchus in hopes of a quick afternoon snack. Like the semi-aquatic dicynodonts before them, the barbouronopsids and sprint-o-crocs are part of a much larger group of alternate Permian beasties. More will be revealed in May, but I thought you'd all get a kick out of this...

Old Castro Got it Wrong...

My ongoing attempts to sculpt a reasonable likeness of Great Lord Cthulhu...um...go on. Here now, I present to you the "final version," which is not, in fact, the final version. This is merely one of two things: 1) The latest version I'm reasonably happy with; or 2) The base by which a true final draft will spring from. After the elephantine horror that came before, I borrowed a few Wayne Douglas Barlowe books from Scott, and became...what's the word? Oh yes, inspired. Barlowe's Expedition may be the best, if not the only illustrative tome to build a convincing alien world up from the ground up. These are not Earthen animals wedged into an awkward alien mold. The critters on Darwin IV would not evolve on Earth, and you have no idea have much I appreciate that. The only other alien monsters I've felt that about are the titular xenomorphs from Aliens, and even they were portrayed by guys in suits (most of the time).

Anyway, I took much from Barlowe's work, but Scott's wager demanded that my starspawn conform to the description put forth by Lovecraft through Old Castro in The Call of Cthulhu. Thus, a vaguely anthropoid outline, a head filled with writhing tentacles, and horrible demon wings were the order of the day. What's an artist to do?

After reading the story a few more times, I realized that Old Castro is, in fact, recalling heresay. He did witness the master of R'lyeh himself, but heard the story from the survivors of that terrible meeting. Additionally, these were terrified men telling the story, their psyches flumoxed by what they were seeing. In my humble opinion, the only concrete physical details of Cthulhu offered by the story are contained in the description of the soapstone relief. Those details are fairly good, but there's another problem to consider: Humanizing our gods. People tend to give their dieties human features, probably so we feel close to them. Geisha, for instance, may have an elephant's head, but it's got a human body...albeit one with too many arms. Finally, Cthulhu's followers were commanded to its will through psychic transmissions given off by the great traveler. Cthulhu may have implanted a false image of itself to calm his chosen. A more humanoid vistage would help to prevent insanity. Or perhaps Cthulhu's followers really did see the beast above but rationalized their god's horrible shape to fit more traditional Earthen imagery.

The underlying reason here is that I'm not doing this shit. Cthulhu is alien, not terran, dammit. I am also operating under the condition that Cthulhu is a real animal, and so must adhere to basic principles of life: it has to eat, sense its surroundings, and generally make a living without relying on magical powers. Cthulhu evolved somewhere.

So here's what Cthulhu is going to have:

1) A large central "trunk" tentacle for manipulating objects;
2) A pair of tentacles with olfactory sensors on their tips (the bulbous ones);
3) A pair of tentacles which are constantly moving, ending in a mass of feathery organs. These feathery organs sense vibration, temperature, and electromagnetic signals. Very handy for a blind creature.
4) A pair of modified feelers just behind the "head" which constantly stretch and retract, moving in all directions at all times, feeling the ground in front of, below, and around Cthulhu;
5) Two large, elephantine legs (the ankle spines will probably go away);
6) A massively fat tail that, from above, looks rather like a devil's tail. The tail is flat (and bright red) across its dorsal surface. Cthulhu stores fat in its tail, which is mobile at its base;
7) Two impressive "wings" which slide open and closed as a Poker player would flare his cards. The wingtips are basically gills, constantly fluttering as oxygen (or whatever Cthulhu breathes) is passed over the fine filaments extending from hundreds of slits on each tip's surface. Cthulhu isn't trying to take flight--he's just breathing;
8) A massive, bulbous "octopus head," which houses a large brain. The large brains size is not exclusively for the production of psychic phenomena testified to by his followers, but rather the mass of sensory information gathered by his armada of feelers and tentacles.

Expect a nicely Photoshopped final version later on, complete with...gasp...a background!

Proactive dicynodonts

Remember this guy? It's Odobenodon bairdi, a thought experiment designed to deduce what some Permian critters would have evolved into had the Permio-Triassic extinction not occurred. It's a project I'm working on with Will Baid of The Dragon's Tales. Anyway, this was my first pass at the "walrodont," as we're calling it, and it looks bad now. I'm continually reworking the animal's gross morphology. Skull doesn't make sense, limbs are too long, etc. But I do like the idea of a walrodont, though the more I think about it the less it makes sense.

Anyway, two new critters have popped up. Transitional forms between a walrodont and your average dog-sized dicynodont. First is the "hippodont," an animal not that different from your garden-variety Placerias, but bulkier. We haven't decided on a formal name yet, but I like him!

Forelimbs sprawl, hindlimbs are held erect. All I know about dicynodonts, I learned from Will Baird. They're very strange critters, totally unlike anything that's come before or since. The next up is the "desmodont," sort of a cross between a dicynodont and a desmostylan. I figured that the first tentative steps into a marine environment would be more like paddles, and desmostylans have been compared to paddling bears before (I don't have the citation right in front of me), so they seemed like a good model.

No formal name here, either. I can definately see this creature evolving into the walrodont at the top of the post, although the walrodont needs some major changes. In fact, I've since come up with a new walrodont, but I had it almost as much. Here it is for comparison's sake:

Oh, geezus, look away! The hindlimbs are all wrong, and the forelimbs are too...bulky! I'm starting to think that dicynodonts would go the way of sirenians--eliminate the hindlimbs entirely, but that makes landlubbing something of a problem. So the walrodont is tough for me. But like I said, dicynodonts are new to me. If anyone has helpful PDF's, especially any detailing their cranial anatomy or general skeletal build, that would be enormously helpful. Anyway, these are the "new" dicynodonts. What'cha'll think?

Happy New Year!

It's a whole new year! 2009, baby! Didn't think humanity would make it this far, did'ja? A few notes: First, I never make any resolutions, as I then feel bad when I break them. However, there are a few things I hope to accomplish this year. Among those things:

1) Hit 180 pounds and stay there for more than, like, three days;

2) At the very least, start work on a new art show;

3) Make significant headway in my gaming backlog (even Dreamcast stuff);

4) Publish something. Something that isn't a coloring book.

Above, for the curious, is a Cthulhu design I've been toying with. Overall, I think the head is too big, but you can definately tell what kind of animal provided the inspiration. I kind of like the elephantine look--it gets away from the octopus/squid vistage that the beast has been stuck with since Call of Cthulhu was published, but work will continue...Oh, by the way, that's the first picture I drew with my Wacom. It's not as bad as I thought it would be! One a final design is imagined, I shall make Cthulhu my first piece of digital art! Wish me luck!

Sketchbook Sampler

While rooting through some of my older artwork (approx. 2% of my total output is saved; the rest goes into the trash), I came across some gems that I don't think I've yet shared on this version of the blog. Old readers may recognize some of this art from WPF v.1. Let's hope the formatting doesn't go to hell...

The Band
Way back when Guitar Hero first hit the streets (couches?), I imagined my friends getting together in a virtual band. There's Marcus (El Diablo) on bass, Luke Nielson (Teh_Luke) on lead guitar, Erik (Erikardo) on drums, and Dan (The Man) on vocals. Don't ask me where the designs came from, because I don't have any idea, aside from a few key bits and pieces. I can totally see these guys playing Ted Nuget's "Strangelhold."

DinoNoir
I really like film noir. I think it's kind of a lost art form in movies--you never really see it anymore. The closest we've gotten for awhile was Sin City, which simultaneously honored and parodied true noir. Where do you go for good film noir? Oddly enough, many of the Batman: Animated episodes were heavily noir-influenced. Anyway, I wanted to do a noir comic with heavily stylized dinosaur characters. The star detective was going to be an ankylosaur and the villain was going to be a Tyrannosaurus rex that headed up a corrupt corporation in the black-hearted city of Fossiliferous. Spinosaurs worked the docks, our hero had a Stygimoloch sidekick, and it was going to kick ass. I had lots of plot twists in mind, like the villain's men discovering the skeleton of a real T.rex, implicating that "modern" dinosaur descended from more ferocious ancestors, or Eve (the first woman) walking into the detective's office one day, asking him to look for her missing husband. Sauropods were the only dinosaurs that did not evolve to such high ranks, and served as basically beasts of burden in Fossiliferous.

So yeah, lots of cool ideas, but none of it really came to fruition. Maybe some day...

TMNT
I love the Ninja Turtles. I thought the recent CG movie was a big step in the right direction, with the rivalry between Raphael and Leonardo finally coming to a head after just being implicated in the many comic iterations. The comic has gone through four "volumes" (the current volume is pretty much dead in the water), including many, spin-offs including Tales of the TMNT, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, and a show based on the new animated series. I don't think any comic has yet done the turtles justice save for two: The third volume of the canonical comic, which was published by Image (and subsequently de-canonized by Mirage) and the few storylines of the Archie Adventure Series which dealt with the turtles in the future. I've always pictures the TMNT as much darker then they're often portrayed. The Image series screwed them up pretty good--Raphael got half his face shot off, Leonardo had his left hand bitten off, and Donatello became a cyborg. A lot of fans balked at this radical change, but I think it energized the series. My own drawings of the Turtles follow the Image example. I wish that volume would have lasted longer, as it was canned (for various reasons) before wrapping up its story.

Prehistoric Wierdness
This first picture is Psittacosaurus, and I drew it after first reading that awesome paper describing "quilled" parrot lizards. I stayed relatively conservative, and went a little nuts with the coloration. It's clearly an unfinished sketch (where's the jugal horn?) but I like the energy this guy has. The second picture is just something I made up. It looks like some kind of ape-armed dicynodont, doesn't it? The upper jaw is very narrow, and the dentary has some bizarre upwardly-directed flanges for reasons I'm unsure of now. It's an example of speculative evolution--I like drawing animals that do NOT, but COULD, exist.

Meanwhile, back at R'lyeh...

A long, long time ago, I promised my own artisitic interpretation of Great Lord Cthulhu, the best-known of H. P. Lovecraft's morbious Great Old Ones. That promise was not made in vain--in fact, I have been tirelessly attempting a reconstruction ever since. Cthulhu is terribly difficult to draw. The goal is always to capture the raw horror of Lovecraftian lore, while avoiding Earthly analogues as much as possible. Now, granted, Cthulhu is described as having various anthropomorphic features, but it was my goal to steer away from that. You see far too many bat-winged, claw-handed squidy demigods in Lovecraft art. But alas, those pieces have their grounding in the literature. From the titular Call of Cthulhu:


"...simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature.... A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings. Another, recovered by police from a raid on a murderous cult, "represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind."

In all of Lovecraft's descriptions of the beast, the octopus head and narrow wings persist. As for the anthropoid outline, perhaps this is a case where man sees himself in all things. Merely having a head and two arms might give Cthulhu his hominoid characters according to the madmen describing him in the literature. Claws on the hind and fore feet? How about claws instead of hind and fore feet? The octopus head is more suggestive of a boneless, muscular body. Perhaps Cthulhu is more mollusc than tetrapod? Perhaps Great Lord Cthulhu looked something like this:



Here, the arms end in horrible tentacles, the lower body is a sort of hellish caterpiller, and the wings are not wings at all, but elongate spineous processes. Bear in mind this is only a DRAFT. It's the first Cthulhu drawing I've done that I didn't absolutely hate. Let me know what you think! Lovecraftian beasties are terribly hard to get "right." And remember, I've drawn one other: Dagon, from the story of the same name.

Odobenodon, or, the Walrodont

This is a part of a little project that Will Baird and I are cooking up. Scott Elyard might also lend a hand. What you're looking at is Odobenodon bairdii, a large member of the Odobenodontidae, which itself nests in the larger Phocicheiria. Our idea is that, had the Permio-Triassic extinction simply failed to occur, non-mammalian synapsids might have evolved in strange and unique ways. The Phocicheiria seems to be an offshoot of the dicynodonts.

But perhaps I've said too much. This project is Will's baby, after all. Look for more at The Dragon's Tales in the coming days! Life restorations, skeletal details, and should the Lords of Kobal grant it, a beach scene.

Hellasaur Friday Teaser

Neil is in China for a little while, so the next Triassic Hellasaur post might be a little late, but I thought I'd give you good readers a teaser as to the subject of the next edition. Not quite as cool as Hupehsuchus, but these buggers were a lot more diverse in terms of toothiness.

Moloch 'n' Phrynosoma: Freaky spiny lizards!

When I think of prehistoric animals, I'm always fascinated by how much more "exotic" they look in comparison to modern fauna. Dinosaurs look infinately cooler than mammals, for instance, what with their horns, spikes, frills, plates, and armor. Birds, I'll admit, look much more baddass today than they did in the Mesozoic, although some Cenozoic birds were pretty awesome--Teratornis, Diatryma, and South American terror birds? I'll take those any day over albatrosses and emus. But there are two modern lizards who look absolutely prehistoric, and I love them both. I doubt they'd make good pets, but dammit if I wouldn't try if given the chance. Moloch horridus, from Australia, and the various species of Phrynosoma, from the American southwest, are among my very favorite modern animals.

You lookin' at me, punk?

Phrynosoma is better known as the horny toad. Aside from being the reptilian equivalent of a porcupine, Phrynosoma is famous for its ability to burst its own capilaries and shoot an impressive stream of blood from the corners of its eyes. This is not only a shocking display, but the blood apparently tastes quite bad to mammalian predators. Birds don't seem to mind the red stuff, though, and when attacked by one of its larger dinosaurian cousins, the horny toad will thrash its head around, attempting to injure its attacker with its impressive cranial horns. Thankfully, horny toads are quite small, and will often fit comfortably in the palm of one's hand. Given their ridiculously fat bodies and short little legs, horny toads are not terribly difficult to capture, although its body spines (which are merely modified scales) can be quite prickly, especially in older individuals.

Look at me! I'm scary!

Moloch horridus is, perhaps, the most decorated lizard on the planet, or at the very least, in Australia. Despite its fearsome appearance, Moloch is actually quite small, slow-moving, and docile. When confronted with predators, M. horridus is more often than not tuck its head down and prey that its attacker bites off the enlarged "false head" spine that erupts from the back of its neck. Moloch runs with a jerky, robotic gait, and will often stop mid-stride, with one or two feet off the ground. The "thorny devil" is a specialized ant eater, and will eat several thousand in one sitting. As eating ants nonestop requires a lot of time, the devil has special hydroscopic grooves in its skin and between its spines which guide water directly to its mouth. The lizards "gulp air" to move the water toward the gaping maw. Despite its namesake, though, Moloch horridus does not have a thorny skeleton. It's spines are entirely external.

Phrynosoma (top) vs. Moloch (bottom)

The CAT-scan image above, taken from here, illustrates this oddity. Moloch has some textured bone where its giant cranial spines originate, but there is no underlying bony structure to its horns. In stark contrast, Phrynosoma's cranial horns all have bony cores. In fact, its skull is just as spikey as a pachycephalosaur! I was surprised to see a lack of bony horn cores on Moloch, and there are implications here for paleoart. If large, impressive spines and growths don't always have bony cores, then just imagine how wrong we could be about some prehistoric animals. Paleontologists are always musing on how duckbill dinosaurs protected themselves from predators. Odor? Herding? Tail whacking? What if they had huge external, epidermal spines? That would disuade predation! Even Phrynosoma, whose head is the only part of the body with bony horn cores, has largish epidermal spines all over its body. The function of these structures is obviously for protection (there is no marked sexual dimorphism between males and females of these lizards).

It's also interesting that Phrynosoma is, like Moloch, an ant-eater. It does not have the complex hydroscopic system that Moloch has, but one wonders whether ant-eating lends itself to a spikey body type, at least among lizards.

I bring these animals up today to prepare you readers for a bizarre creature I'll be restoring for Will at The Dragons Tales on Saturday. It's a creature you're probably at least aware of, but restored in a way that's not necessarily "normal." Also, Phrynosoma and Moloch are awesome!

The Chili's Bodangle

I was recently at Chili's, helping Erik celebrate his last final at UAA. During the ensuing meal, my friend asked for a form to sign up for the Chili's hockey team. Upon asking a fellow named Jorian what the team was to be titled, the server responded with "the Bodanglers." He casually mentioned that somebody has to come up with a mascot for the uniform, and Erik pointed directly to me. I shouldn't be surprised--I was responsible for the kick-ass West High Eagles swim team mascot (a picture I'll get around to posting once I find the original drawing). Erik and I came up with the concept of a "hockey-playing Pokemon" with hockey sticks for arms and skates for feet. The original drawing, which I threw out, looked terrible. The next night, at an event at the Performing Arts Center where one of my favorite humor authors, David Sedaris, read several of his pieces onstage (read his books!), I decided to abandon the hockey-stick arms and go with something a little more massive.

See, when I think of a hockey player, I think about the goalie. What defines the goalie? Padding. So the Chili's Bodangle had to be armored, at least on the arms. And he had to be quick and mean and ready to lay down the smack, because 50% of all hockey games consist of brawls. The name "Bodangle," of course derived from "bojangle," probably inspired the cat-like face (Mr. Bojangles from Austin Powers), but the satyr-like hooves are for getting around quickly on ice. The tail is there because everything has to have a tail. I'm considering adding a Ratchet-esque tuft at the end, but that's up in the air right now. Previous drawing had the Bodangle adopting a far more reserved, regal air, but such an attitude is the antithesis to the typical hockey bravado--hence, the scowl.

And you can't see it in this picture, but the front of the Bodangle's massive arms are covered in largish stoney scutes, all the better to bat pucks away with. People at Chili's have liked the Bodangle so far, but I'm expecting changes to be made (although I love this design) as time goes on. I'll report back with how the Bodangle is accepted, and I'll try and find that West Eagle, which is one of the more awesome things I've drawn.