Mesozoic Art: Dinosaurs and Other Ancient Animals in Art

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Ashby, J. 2022. Platypus Matters: the Extraordinary Story of Australian Mammals. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Cronch Cats, Beasts of Gévaudan, Dinosauroids, Mesozoic Art and Much More: TetZooMCon 2021 in Review, September 2021

Distribution of landmasses, mountainous regions, shallow seas, and deep ocean basins during Late Cretaceous time. Included in the paleogeographic reconstruction are cold and warm ocean currents. The present-day coastlines and tectonic boundaries of the configured continents are shown in the inset at the lower right. Fanti, F., Cau, A., Martinelli, A. & Contessi, M. 2014. Integrating palaeoecology and morphology in theropod diversity estimation: a case from the Aptian-Albian of Tunisia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 410, 39-57.Naish, D. 2021. Dinopedia: A Brief Compendium of Dinosaur Lore. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ. Fleischle, C. V., Wintrich, T. & Sander, P. M. 2018. Quantitative histological models suggest endothermy in plesiosaurs. PeerJ 6: e4955. Ibrahim, N., Sereno, P. C., Dal Sasso, C., Maganuco, S., Fabri, M., Martill, D. M., Zouhri, S., Myhrvold, N. & Lurino, D. A. 2014. Semiaquatic adaptations in a giant predatory dinosaur. Science 345, 1613-1616.

Samathi, A., Sander, P. M. & Chanthasit, P. 2021. A spinosaurid from Thailand (Sao Khua Formation, Early Cretaceous) and a reassessment of Camarillasaurus cirugedae from the Early Cretaceous of Spain. Historical Biology doi: 10.1080/08912963.2021.1874372 Sales, M. A. F. & Schultz, C. L. 2017. Spinosaur taxonomy and evolution of craniodental features: evidence from Brazil. PLoS ONE 12, e0187070 Storrs, G. W. & Taylor, M. A. 1996. Cranial anatomy of a new plesiosaur genus from the lowermost Lias (Rhaetian/Hettangian) of Street, Somerset, England. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 16, 403-420.In the years since 1997, other baryonychine bits and pieces have been reported from the Wealden. They’re mostly teeth too but they also include an interesting tall-spined dorsal vertebra from the Isle of Wight’s Wessex Formation, a subdivision of the Wealden that includes some of its youngest sediments. European baryonychine remains have also been reported from the Lower Cretaceous of Spain (Ruiz-Omeñaca et al. 1997, 2005, Viera & Torres 1995) and Portugal (Buffetaut 2007, Mateus et al. 2011). But when it comes to social behaviour, reproductive behaviour and so on, we have but brief snippets. A few fossils provide possible evidence for intraspecific combat in such groups as ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and mosasaurs, and limited evidence for social behaviour and maybe even group-living also exists for some (e.g., O’Keefe & Chiappe 2011). I was entranced by the work here…Darren and Steve's captions also provide an effective, insightful commentary…this is obviously a must-have book for anyone interested in palaeoart…More than that, this feels like a definitive summation of where we're up to in the world of palaeoart, committed to print to be perused for decades to come.” — Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs

Buffetaut, E. 1989. New remains of the enigmatic dinosaur Spinosaurus from the Cretaceous of Morocco and the affinities between Spinosaurus and Baryonyx. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Monatshefte 1989, 79-87. Charig, A. J. & Milner, A. C. 1997. Baryonyx walkeri, a fish-eating dinosaur from the Wealden of Surrey. Bulletin of the Natural History Museum 53, 11-70. Mind you, that’s surely a good sign – I was entranced by the work here, especially the fantastic pieces by the artists I was less familiar with (I must mention Emiliano Troco’s work again – just stunning). Darren and Steve’s captions also provide an effective, insightful commentary on what we’re looking at, so it’s not as if the reader is stranded in the Mesozoic (actual geological era may vary) without any context. Mesozoic Art presents twenty of the best artists working in this field, representing a broad spectrum of disciplines, from traditional painting to cutting-edge digital technology. Some provide the artwork for new scientific papers that demand high-end paleoart as part of their presentation to the world at large; they also work for the likes of National Geographic and provide art to museums around the world to illustrate their displays. Other artists are the new rising stars of paleoart in an ever-growing, ever-diversifying field. And 2021 isn’t over yet. Will more Wealden-themed dinosaur news appear before the year is through? Stay tuned….Alberti, M., Fürsich, F. T. & Andersen, N. 2019. First steps in reconstructing Early Jurassic sea water temperatures in the Andean Basin of northern Chile based on stable isotope analyses of oyster and brachiopod shells. Journal of Palaeogeography 8: 33.

Wintrich, T., Hayashi, S., Houssaye, A., Nakajima, Y., Sander P. M. 2017. Triassic plesiosaurian skeleton and bone histology inform on evolution of a unique body plan and survival of end-Triassic extinctions. Science Advances 3: e1701144. Korte, C., Hesselbo, S. P., Ullmann, C. V., Dietl, G., Ruhl, M., Schweigert, G. & Thibault, N. 2015. Jurassic climate mode governed by ocean gateway. Nature Communications 6 (10015). Liu, S., Smith, A. S., Gu, Y., Tan, J., Liu, C. K. &Turk, G. 2015. Computer simulations imply forelimb-dominated underwater flight in plesiosaurs. PLoS Computational Biology 11, e1004 . A widespread assumption has been that all of these remains can be assigned to Baryonyx, if not specifically to Baryonyx walkeri. While, in cases, this might be correct, there are reasons for thinking that it might very well be incorrect in some other cases. Some of these fossils are more than 10 million years older than the type specimen of Baryonyx walkeri. The rest of the Mesozoic record shows us that dinosaur species and genera generally lasted, at most, for one or two million years. Ergo, at least some of these animals almost certainly represent new taxa: not Baryonyx walkeri, and likely not Baryonyx at all. In addition, quite a few of these baryonychine fossils come from sedimentary settings and geographical locations distinct from the Upper Weald Clay Formation, with distinct dinosaur assemblages. I’ve therefore argued that baryonychine remains reported from outside the Upper Weald Clay Formation should be identified as cf. Baryonyx, Baryonyx sp. or Baryonyx cf. walkeri (Naish & Martill 2007, Naish 2011) (all of these designations mean slightly different things; let me know if you want elaboration). Furthermore, many of these fossils differ in detail from the remains of B. walkeri: many isolated teeth from the Wealden – including those labelled Suchosaurus – have flattened longitudinal strips on both of their sides, instead of just the lingual (inner) side, as is typical of the B. walkeri holotype.Here's your regular reminder that this blog relies on support via patreon, thank you to those providing support already. Steve White has been an editor, colourist, inker and artist for almost four decades, beginning his career at Marvel UK on the likes of Care Bears, Transformers and Thundercats in the late eighties before writing for 2000AD, editing for Titan Comics, and being an illustrator on numerous books and magazines. Steve has been contributing editor on several art books for Titan including Dinosaur Art and The Paleoart of Julius Csotonyi.