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i dont blame the trex i know i loo9k big and tasty lol

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This albino dino character does not belong to me! I drew him for artfight this year and got permission to post him :3

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Sketches I worked on over the weekenddd. They are Azdarchids!

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Back in 1939, fossil collector Louis Grauvogel discovered a couple of reptile fossils in Middle Triassic-aged deposits (~247 million years old) in eastern France. A large preserved structure was noted above the animal's back, but for many years it was interpreted as an unrelated fish fin, insect wing, or plant frond.

It was only when the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart acquired the specimens in 2019 that they were recognized as representing something very special: a long-sought-after relative of the bizarre and enigmatic Longisquama!

Mirasaura grauvogeli grew to around 30cm long (~1') and was, if anything, even stranger than its relative. It had humped shoulders, grasping limbs, and a bird-like head with large forward-facing eyes and a long pointed snout that was toothless at the front, probably used to probe for small invertebrates in cracks and crevices.

But most strikingly it had up to 20 tall structures overlapping along its back to form a sail-like crest. Although they were superficially feather-like in shape with preserved melanosomes that resemble those of birds, structurally they weren't feathers at all – but they also weren't modified scales. Instead these appear to have been an entirely novel type of skin appendage, made up of continuous sheets with a midline shaft and a corrugated texture.

The crest was probably used for visual display, and 80 additional fossils of isolated crest structures suggest they were regularly shed and regrown.

Along with Longisquama, Mirasaura appears to have been an early member of the drepanosaur lineage – a group of wonderfully weird tamandua-like reptiles whose evolutionary relationships are still disputed, with different studies currently recovering them as either a unique early offshoot of the diapsids or as archosauromorphs.

(Interestingly, a specimen of Drepanosaurus reportedly preserves some soft tissue on its back that may also be one of these strange new crest structures. Drepanosaurs just keep on getting weirder and weirder and I love them.)

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References:

Renesto, Silvo, et al. The taxonomy and paleobiology of the Late Triassic (Carnian-Norian: Adamanian-Apachean) drepnosaurs (Diapsida: Archosauromorpha: Drepanosauromorpha): Bulletin 46. Vol. 46. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, 2010. https://nmdigital.unm.edu/digital/collection/bulletins/id/1261/

Spiekman, Stephan NF, et al. "Triassic diapsid shows early diversification of skin appendages in reptiles." Nature (2025): 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09167-9

Wikipedia contributors. “Mirasaura” Wikipedia, 27 Jul. 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirasaura

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Ancient Sea Creature Diorama - Acutiramus (Silurian Period).

古代海洋生物ジオラマ - アクチラムス（ウミサソリ）。

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Dsungaripterus art ive made recently

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if there’s talk about favorite underrated dinosaurs you’ll definitely hear me screaming concavenator somewhere at the back

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ArtFight attack!

I always revenge, and I’ve got nothing to revenge rn if you were hoping to get one last piece this AF 🤗 user is WillowCross

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My 25 years of palaeoart chronology...

In 2024 I designed the Ice Age Giants coin series, for the The Royal Mint and the Natural History Museum, London. The Third coin to be released featured Megaloceros, the giant deer ("Irish Elk").

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The Tyrant Lizard

I like dinosaurs

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PREHISTORIC PLANET SEASON 3 IS COMING

AND ITS IN THE PLEISTOCENE YA’LL

Apple TV just shared these shots from the new season of Prehistoric Planet coming out on November 26th!!

It’s titled Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age!!!!!

I’m so ready

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Artfight 2025 Attack #14 - A headshot of RedtheGoat's character Gold, who is a raptor!

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This albino dino character does not belong to me! I drew him for artfight this year and got permission to post him :3

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Sussie the magpie as a dromaeosaur

I used a fellow redditor's art that is known by u/Dinosaur__Doggo_ on reddit as a reference for the drawing base idea for the drawing ✏️ 💡. I also used various of other pictures of sussie the magpie as a reference for the drawing base.

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was very excited to show y’all my mirasaura grauvogeli. unfortunately, excited enough to drop & shatter him while i was trying to paint

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Silly little Spino in his silly little swamp!

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The high seas!