#tapejarid

[ppaleoartistgallery]

#Paleostream 22/03/2025

here's today's #Paleostream sketches!!!

today we sketched Sauroposeidon, Thescelosaurus, Vespersaurus, and Knoetschkesuchus

[nimbosaur]

Ghost torukjara pterosaur. His name is Asher

[he-who-needs-to-be-silenced]

[claypigeonpottery]

this was an art trade with fishfriend (who I don’t think has a tumblr)

he’s a great potter but I traded for a bunch of his patches. his cave art style horses and goat patches were just too tempting to pass up.

here’s what he sent me (also a couple stickers which are already on my desk!)

and he takes commissions for pottery, stamps, patches and shirts! here’s an example of one of his ceramic pieces

and some of his shirts

[preventthetoast]

giraffe-like, flightless tapejarid

[saritawolff]

#Archovember Day 3 - Tupandactylus navigans

There were at least two species of the Tapejarid pterosaur Tupandactylus: T. imperator (who I’ve drawn previously) and T. navigans. Of the two, T. navigans is smaller, with a straighter, more upright crest. (A 2021 study suggests that the two species could actually represent sexually dimorphic members of the same species, but more detailed study is required to support this.) Either way, Tupandactylus is known for its huge keratinous crest, and T. navigans especially for its sharp shark-fin profile. This large crest likely limited T. navigans’ flight ability, relegating it to spending most of its time on the ground, only taking short flights to evade predators.

In 2022, A specimen of Tupandactylus imperator was discovered to have very complex branching pycnofibers (feather-like filaments unique to pterosaurs) that were much closer to true feathers than previously thought possible in pterosaurs. This could be further evidence that feathers are a basal trait to Avemetatarsalians. Also, similar to Anchiornis, Tupandactylus has been found with preserved melanosomes. However, paleontologists did not attempt to infer the color of the animal, but merely noted that the melanosomes were varied between the skin of the crest and the pycnofibers on its skull, probably providing some sort of contrast for the head ornamentation. No doubt imperator’s smaller cousin navigans was similar.

Living in Early Cretaceous Brazil, Tupandactylus navigans had a diverse array of frogs, lizards, and invertebrates to prey on, including moths, lacewings, mayflies, scorpions, and solifugids. T. navigans could have also preyed on small dinosaurs and their eggs, such as Enantiornithine birds and the compsognathid Ubirajara. T. navigans would have shared its environment with many other pterosaur species, such as its cousin T. imperator, Arthurdactylus, Aymberedactylus, Brasileodactylus, Lacusovagus, and Ludodactylus.

(As I’ve drawn T. imperator previously, but not with its own size chart, I’ve chosen to include it as a bonus here so the two species can be compared. I’ve also updated my imperator design a bit, as it was drawn before the 2022 study.)

[filurig]

me but if i was some kind of tapejarid

[fabrizio-art]

I should not forget they're tapejarids, you're right.

Maybe I can draw different ones soon.

Not Impressed- Thalassodromeus

Adult male Thalassodromeus shows off their impressive crest while strolling.

A smaller and less colorful individual (maybe a female or juvenile) does not really care, and keeps sunbathing on the shoreline instead.

Once again I realize that the heads came out smaller than they could/should because the instinct to "rationalize" the proportions of pterosaurs struck again.

[tadpoles-yay]

The last book I read (idk if you can call it reading but still) as a 13 year old. Today is my birthday and I’ve had this book since Easter, and here’s my favorite drawing

I really like the colors, all the details in the background, I also really like tapejarids

[fishsfailureson]

Tapejara

[artapir]

Extrasolar wetlands patrol suit variants, apparently fabricated in imitation of native megafaunal pterosaur x pelican spider hybrids.

Midjourney 6.1 direct image editor

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

All the dragons from the HTTYD stream. Detailed images below.

The designs from the original movie are basically perfect, which is why I didn't really dare to touch them... until a certain trailer dropped recently.

I'm a spiteful creature.

Anyway. Some ground rules. I tried to make these creatures overall a little bit more realistic and grounded without robbing them of the inherent whimsy that the originals had. All of them are tetrapods, so only 4 limbs max.

Nightfury

These guys have no more functional limbs to move on the ground. They are living stealth bombers. Silent fast fliers.

On the ground they flop around similar to seals, forming small colonies on top of tall cliffs.

Red Death

At a certain size it becomes unfeasible to fly for even a dragon. The Red Death stays on the ground using it's heavy armor and enormous size when raiding other dragon nesting colonies. it'as wings are more like spurs, to injure rivals in combat.

Gronkle

The original had a hummingbird style in flying , something that doesn't work for an animal of this size. My compromise is to make the wings rather stout and being able to be folded a lot.

Nadder

Easiest design, take a unfeathered theropod and combine it with a bearded dragon.

Shellfire

This was the last one I made on stream, it is one of the (in my eyes) worst designs from the shows, so a nice challenge to make it work a little better.

This guy is now a filter feeder, using its large horns to funnel water into its mouth.

Zippleback

Multi-headed dragons are really tricky. In my design I made one of the heads a parasitic male, similar to angler fish, that hitches a ride on the back of the larger female.

Monstrous Nightmare

One of the most classic dragons from the original movie. Lots of crocodilian influence here. The osteoderms on its back have pores from which it produces flammable secretions.

Razorwhip

A fast an agile dragon, but the original doesn't really show that in the head shape and all these spines don't help. I put some tapejarid influence into it.

Rumblehorn

The massive neck of this dragon doesn't work well in terms of aerodynamics, unless it's an inflatable display structure ;)

Whispering Death

The giant maw of this dragon is an even greater challenge, but when you give it the gular pouch of a pelican eel and turn these eyes into eye-spots, it works quite well.

And of course the Terrible Terror!

As you can see it's in my case a close relative of the nadder.

[he-who-needs-to-be-silenced]

Have le skrunkly

[ildarotyrannus]

First two (sadly low res) sketches in Paint 3D on my new computer! These are velociraptorine dromaeosaurid (without references) and...

...tapejarid Torukjara bandeirae from the Early Cretaceous of Brazil, whose description was published this year. Initially, its remains were assigned to the related Caiuajara dobruskii, but later separated into a separate genus due to differences in the anatomy of the skull. The animal was named after Thor, the flying creature from the movie Avatar.

Paint 3D, 2024.

[harpagornis]

Most ornithocheirids are traditionally interpreted as piscivores for good reasons. However, a few have been found by studies to have had more terrestrially-based diets, notably the largest Tropeognathus. It would have been like skuas, sea eagles and giant petrels in supplimenting aquatic prey with terrestrial prey, in this case a tapejarid. By Dave Garcia

[sortahawkward]

I'm fucked up right now and also delighted

Pterosaurs may have been actually feathered???? Feathers might be early triassic???? we might figure out what color a pterosaur is???

So fucking cool i love paleontology

Dinosaurs and ancient reptiles keep getting weirder and fuzzier and i love it. Woolly tricerotipsids! Armor-plated sauropods. Now feathered pterosaurs :D