r-dart-art - Tumblr blog

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Notiolofos was a sheep-sized ungulate from the Eocene (53 MYA) and are know from a few fossil teeth. They lived in Antarctica which was connected to S. America by a land bridge. Even though the climate was much warmer than today, they would have had to endure long dark winters.

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Florissantia is an iconic plant fossil placed in Malvaceae subfamily Sterculioideae. It is found in the Northwest of N. America and lived from the Eocene (50 Ma) to the Oligocene (30 Ma). The bird is along the lines of a Zygodactylus eating a Palaeovespa. The "flowers" are actually sepals, so more leaf-like and persistent, there is a hypothesis that they aided in wind dispersal for the seeds. There is quite a bit of speculation here on the morphology of the Florissantia, I went with a more tree/shrub type based on extant Tilia.

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The Ice Age wasn't always so icy. There were warmer periods and about 50,000 ya this Camelops (Camel face) roamed the Northern Yukon. The plants represented were inspired by a tweet from the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre which listed the many seeds found in the nest of an Ice Age ground squirrel.

[r-dart-art]

Today is the December solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, marking the official beginning of Winter. Here to guide us through the longest night of the year is the spirit of Candiacervus, a deer from Pleistocene Crete that due to insular dwarfism was only about 40 cm at the shoulders.

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These were some of my more popular Dinovembers from Instagram and the bird app.

[r-dart-art]

Hello! Starting up a new Tumblr account ( the old one is buried too deep for me find) and I'll be posting primarily paleo art and other musings.