Prehistoric Times Submissions

(Thanks Mike Fredericks for the image)

I am sure most of you know of the magazine Prehistoric Times,  the mag for dinosaur enthusiasts and collectors of palaeo merchandise.  For those who don't, the magazine also showcases the work of amateur and professional palaeo-artists, with each issue focusing on two specific prehistoric critters.  In fact, many of the artists seen here at ART Evolved have had their work published in Prehistoric Times!  The current issue features brachiosaurs and includes Nima's Brachiosaur Parade!

The next deadline for submissions for art to Prehistoric Times is December 10th, featuring Stegosaurus and Anomalocaris.  We at ART Evolved highly recommend submitting art - not only to be published but also for the opportunity to create discussion.

In fact, as Anomalocaris was featured in a previous ART Evolved gallery,  Craig and I were thinking of submitting some of our pieces together under an "ART Evolved banner."  What we were wondering is: does anyone want to join us in a joint submission?

Leave a comment below, or email us at artevolved at gmail.com and we'll work something out!
Here is Prehistoric Times' website.

The Anomalocaridid Gallery

It's time for...

One of the most unusual sets of animals to have ever existed on our planet, the Anomalocaridids. They were so bizarre in fact, that each of the various parts of them that were found in isolation were thought to be separate organisms.

Despite clearly being related to Arthropods, they are too different to be included in that group. Modern thinking places them in the phylum Lobopodia, the group from which all hard shelled Arthropods are believed to have evolved from.

They were the dominate predators of the early Cambrian, with remains known from this time period all across the world. Despite losing this apex position in the food chain the family group would survive 100 million years into the Devonian where they appear to have finally met with extinction.

So come now and meet, Stephen Gould's "bizarre wonders" of early complex life...

Silhouette of an Icon by Craig Dylke

Since I was retooling my Anomalocaris model for this gallery anyway, I thought I might as well retool my most popular image on the internet, with this anatomically improved version of the piece.

Deadly Stalkers of a Crystal Sea by Nima Sassani

A few hundred miles south of what would become the Burgess shale, two Anomalocaris saron are on the hunt for soft-bodied prey, ignoring an armored Helmetia, the trilobite Brachyaspidion, and several small arthropods. Also present are Sanctacaris and Hallucigenia, and I'll let everyone guess what everything else is :)

Hurdia & Aysheaia by Rachael Revelle

The First Great Predator by Craig Dylke

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An Anomalocaris plunges into a swarming school in the water high above the Burgess Shale. Despite its size advantage and the inherent speed this would grant it, the Anomalocaris still must work to snatch one of these active swimming creatures from the school. These other animals include the small enigmatic Nectocaris, common Canadaspis, and the large Odaraia.

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The inspiration for this piece was a desire to see an active depiction of Burgess life. Life in both senses, the organisms and how they lived their lives. Normally pictures of the Burgess Shale tend to show small numbers of these animals in relatively calm subdued interactions (sometimes due to philosophic beliefs about primitive life, as discussed by Gould in Wonderful Life, and others for visual simplicity to not overwhelm the viewer). I wanted something that felt like a still from a nature documentary, and also told a story.

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Sadly much of the detail is lost in the small version so please be sure to check out a larger version here.
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Anomalocaris and the Burgess Shale by Peter Bond

A predator on the hunt, amongst the rich diversity of the shallow Canadian Cambrian waters. This piece was created in one long 13-hour session on August 17th, and documented through live-blogging on Bond's Blog. For a behind-the-scenes look at it's creation, click here.

Anomalocarid Dress sketch (A work in progress) by Glendon Mellow

For a long while now I've had an idea to do a series of Precambrian-inspired clothing. Anomalocaris is supposed to be (in my mind) similar to the whole preying mantis/black widow/femme fatale aesthetic. I had a model pose for me, I especially wanted to capture the shoulders. Apparently, that is quite an uncomfortable combination of hip and neck tilts.

Terror of the Reef by Craig Dylke

A lone Anomalocaris lurks over a "forest" of sponges. Vauxia being the cactus like ones (anyone know the bowl shaped on is called again?).

I created this picture with the idea of shrinking Anomalocaris, by showing it in its environment. In most versions of the Burgess Shale as in books and the web, Anomalocaris is made out to be an unfathomable giant, which granted for its time it was in comparison, but yet no animal comes close to dwarfing its environment. I wanted a piece that showed the first super predator as the tiny thing it was...

Anomalocaris canadensis by Mo Hassan

A quick and simple felt-pen sketch of a single Anomalocaris canadensis in three different views.

Oddity of the Devonian by Peter Bond

A Schinderhannes, the surprising Devonian Anomalocarid, painted in water colour in the 30 minutes leading up to this gallery's posting.

Once Upon a Claw by Craig Dylke

More than 90-95% (probably more like 98-99%, but I'm no expert) Anomalocaris fossils come in the form of shed, molted, or broken off pieces of them. Most of these being their large clawed tentacle like arms. With such an abundance of these being preserved in the fossils record, to me, this suggests they were quite a common occurrence on the sea floor of the Cambrian.

Since early life wasn't smothered to extinction in these discarded claws, it stands to reason that they must have served some sort of positive ecological role to Cambrian reefs. This piece is how I envision such claws being assimilated and utilized by Cambrian communities. A illustration to the powerful irony of nature, one day your the greatest killer around and the next your the greatest giver of life!

Please be sure to check out the larger version of this piece to see more of the detail.

Anomalocaris Regret by Peter Bond

The next morning, Mr. Anomalocaris wakes feeling regret as memories of the party celebrating Burgess Shale's Centenary the night before flood back to him...

 

 Amplectobelua symbrachiata by David Tana

Amplectobelua symbrachiata, a Cambrian anomalocaridid that despite being one of the smaller members of its clade, was still a giant compared to the animals it preyed upon.  

 Pencil on paper, scanned, colored in Adobe Photoshop

That wraps up our journey back to the deep past of the Cambrian. Be sure to join us in two months time for...


The Sauropods...
Remember to send in those submissions to our email artevolved@gmail.com (with any desired accompanying text blurb and your website or blog's link), and watch out for plenty of Sauropod discussion and "making of"s for this gallery's Anomalocarises.

Happy Birthday Burgess Shale

100 years ago, history was made.

100 years ago, Charles Walcott discovered something.

100 years ago - almost to the day - the first fossils from the Burgess Shale were found.

The Burgess Shale, one of the world's most famous fossil sites, was first discovered on August 30, 1909 by Charles Walcott on the flanks of Mt. Stephen, British Columbia. The creatures found amongst the shale have fundamentally changed our understanding of evolution and the history of early life on this Planet. For more informationon this amazing discovery, see here and here.

While most of us understand the significance of the Burgess Shale, there is another significance to the date, August 30. We are quickly approching the 100th year aniversary of Walcott's discovery of the first Burgess Shale fossil. Sunday, in fact. Sunday is the 100th Anniversary of the fossil site's discovery, and Tuesday is the opening of ART Evolved's Anomalocaridid Gallery Time Capsule. Neat, huh?

Photo credit: Yukio Sato. Cover of Simon Conway Morris' book The Crucible of Creation, minus the hat.

This lovely convergence of the space-time continuum allows us to celebrate Burgess Shale's centenary through the eyes of Anomalocaris and friends! Join us in the celebration by creating and sending in your birthday card, birthday cake, or drunk Burgess party photos!

Anomalocarids in Art

With the subject of September's upcoming Time Capsule being a little more obscure, I thought it'd be best to get their summary post up sooner then later.

These would of course be the Anomalocaridids. A group of enigmatic arthropod that were not only one of the most alien looking creatures to have ever lived on our planet, but were one of the first to do so!

I have tracked down as many pictures of these creatures as I could, as though well known within palaeo circles, it is virtually unknown to the public.

For anyone wanting to do research on Anomalcaridids, Sam Gon's website is an excellent source of non technical (and some technical) information. Also though 20 years old now, Stephen J. Gould's book on the Burgess Shale, Wonderful Life will certainly give you an excellent introduction to why these animals have had a big impact on palaeontological studies in the last 3 decades.

All the pieces included here are the most popular and accuarte depictions of Anomalocaridids currently on the web. I have tried to track down the artists of these pieces as best I could, however in many cases I could not find them. This is a sad case when websites use other peoples' work to enhance their own site without proper acknowledgement. A stance we here at ART Evolved do not endorese. Though we have used this art (without permission) we are attempting to remedy this lack of credit by tracking down all the "unknown artists" who have found the their work posted on the web.

If you know any of the "Unknown" creators of the pieces below please let me know. It is important that all art used on the internet be credited to its proper creator. If your work appears on this website, and you wish us to take it down, we will do so immediately. Email us at artevolved@gmail.com .

We at ART Evolved are working on collecting and documenting all these piece's creators for a definative virtual record! Please help us...

Before "Fame"

The Burgess Shale by Charles Knight.

This is the first popular reconstruction of the Burgess Shale environment by none other then Palaeo-Art legend Charles Knight. This painting and the ideas it manifests are a central argument in Gould's book Wonderful Life, and I can't recommend reading it enough (especially this month!).

Interestingly despite the fact that no Anomalocaris is clearly visible there are arguably 3 of them in there. Up until the 1970's Anomalocaris was not recognized as the large mega predator it is today. Various disarticulated bits and pieces of it had been found and misidentified as other types of animals. In this picture you see its arm reconstructed as the strange purple shrimp in the upper left hand corner and its mouth as 2 jellyfish in the top right.

The First Iconic Image

This is the first correct popular rendition of an Anomalocaridid to circulate. As it was the first such picture of the entire bizarre creature together, it has been very influential on many of the reconstructions that were to follow.

Drawn by Marianne Collins for Gould's Wonderful Life, the only major flaw with it is despite being labelled as an Anomalocaris, this is a different genus of Anomalocaridid called Laggania. It was an innocent enough mistake at the time, and neither Collins or Gould should be held accountable for it. Laggania was only recognized as a seperate animal many years after Gould's book.

However sadly this mistake has been carried on in recreations ever since (especially on the internet) mistakenly labelling Laggania as Anomalocaris. A simple correction in current reprints of Gould's book would do wonders to fix this. That and our gallery could be a first step to trying to spread the word on this mix up.

Laggania

A very rare Anomalocaridid from the Burgess Shale, British Columbia Canada. Only one or two specimens have been thus far been discovered.

It is quite unique among Anomalocaridids due to its triangular head shape and lack of tail fans.

Also compared to others in the group Laggania had very short arm tentacles lined with very long bristle like spines. These are thought to have been used for passive filtration feeding on very tiny creatures, as opposed to traditional active predator of larger prey normally associated with Anomalocaridids. Supporting the more passive feeding strategy Laggania's eyes are set much further back on the head then other Anomalocarids. It has been compared to the baleen whale of the Cambrian.

A close up on Laggania from the famous Burgess Shale reconstruction in Time Magazine by John Sibbick. Based heavily on the era of Gould's popularization of the Shale, this Laggania is incorrectly labelled Anomalocaris, and here depictacted being an active predator. Which is most likely incorrect, but again forgivable at the time of the pieces creation as it was thought to simply be a variant of Anomalocaris.



Lagginia by Karren Carr
Laggania by an Unknown Artist, but this is unacceptable. They deserve credit for this great piece of work. If you know the artist behind this piece please email us at artevolved@gmail.com

Underside of Laggania by Sam Gon


Side Profile of Laggania by Sam Gon



A comparison of the head structures and anatomy of Laggania (on the left) to Anomalocaris (on the right) by Marianne Collins

Anomalocaris

The most iconic and famous of the Anomalocaridids. Found not only in Canada at the Burgess Shale but also in China, America, and Australia. Making it the most widespread and common of Anomalocaridids so far found.

Different species occur in these different regions. The most pronounced differences between those so far described being the Chinese Anomalocaris saron having 2 pronounced thread like tail fins where the Canadian species Anomalocaris canadensis did not.

Anomalocaris canadensis by Yukio Sato. Cover of Simon Conway Morris' book
The Crucible of Creation, his counter to Gould's book Wonderful Life. Though I personal disagree with Morris' ideas, his cover art is second to none.


Anomalocaris canadensis by an Unknown Artist, but this is unacceptable. They deserve credit for this great piece of work. If you know the artist behind this piece please email us at artevolved@gmail.com


Anomalocaris canadensis by Sam Gon .



Anomalocaris canadensis by an Unknown Artist, but this is unacceptable. They deserve credit for this great piece of work. If you know the artist behind this piece please email us at artevolved@gmail.com






Anomalocaris canadensis by Nuko

Anomalocaris canadensis by an Unknown Artist, but this is unacceptable. They deserve credit for this great piece of work. If you know the artist behind this piece please email us at artevolved@gmail.com

Anomalocaris canadensis by an Unknown Artist, but this is unacceptable. They deserve credit for this great piece of work. If you know the artist behind this piece please email us at artevolved@gmail.com


Anomalocaris canadensis by Sam Gon .

An Anomalocaris canadensis menaces the Burgess Shale by uncredited artist at http://www.naturalhistoryexplorer.com/ . They deserve credit for this great piece of work. If you know the artist behind this piece please email us at artevolved@gmail.com

Burgess Shale ecosystem by an Unknown Artist, but this is unacceptable. They deserve credit for this great piece of work. If you know the artist behind this piece please email us at artevolved@gmail.com

With an Anomalocaris canadensis about to menace its small contemporaries.

You'll also note how the far Anomalocaris is depicted here having proper body segments, where the majority of the other restorations in this post lack these. This is an interesting topic, and one I plan on touching upon in another post soon.

This image of the Anomalocaris overshadowing the rest of life in the Cambrian was so strong it was recreated in Anomalocaris' only Television appearance...

Anomalocaris saron by Impossible Pictures from Walking with Prehistoric Monsters.


Anomalocaris saron by uncredited artist at http://www.naturalhistoryexplorer.com/. Unknown Artist, but this is unacceptable. They deserve credit for this great piece of work. If you know the artist behind this piece please email us at artevolved@gmail.com

Note the Chinese species tail fins in the following pictures versus the lacking Canadian species in the previous pictures.

Anomalocaris saron by Craig Dylke, which is yes me. I do not include my own piece out of ego, but due to the fact it (or an alternate version) appear within the first 1-5 pages of google image searches using the terms "Anomalocaris", "Burgess Shale Anomalocaris", or "Anomalocaris Burgess Shale".

Anomalocaris saron by Impossible Pictures

Anomalocaris saron by Impossible Pictures

Anomalocaris saron by Sam Gon .

Hurdia

The most recently described (but not technically discovered) Anomalocaridid. Though first recognized from a complete specimen from the Burgess Shale, incomplete specimens of this genus are known from the United States, China, and Europe.

The most remarkable and unique feature of this genus is the giant spiked hollow shell on the front of the head. Otherwise the head configuration behind this shell was very similar to Anomalocaris, though Hurdia's tentacles were slightly reduced, and it is believed this genus was a scavenger or hunted weaker prey then Anomalocaris.

Hurdia by Marianne Collins

Amplectobelua

A rather small Anomalocaridid, compared to its relatives, but was still quite large for a Cambrian animal. Amplectobelua is so far only known from the Maotianshan Shale (often referred to incorrectly as the Chengjiang Shale) of China.

Amplectobelua is for all intents and purposes a compact version of Anomalocaris saron, most notable for restorations sake smaller arms and body.



Amplectobelua by uncredited artist at http://www.naturalhistoryexplorer.com/. Unknown Artist, but this is unacceptable. They deserve credit for this great piece of work. If you know the artist behind this piece please email us at artevolved@gmail.com






Amplectobelua by Sam Gon







Amplectobelua by Sam Gon




Amplectobelua by Sam Gon

Parapeytoia

One of the strangest Anomalocaridids by far, if it was a true Anomalocaridid. Animals such as Parapeytoia and Kerygmachela (the next animal included in this post) challenge the defination of the Anomalocaridids (which has not been updated since the recognition of Anomalocaris in 1985) and require workers in the field to come up with a more precise and definable criteria for the group.

Calling into question just how closely related Parapeytoia was to the Anomalocaridids, was the fact it had legs underneath the traditional Anomalocaridid fin lobes. Additionally its feeding tentacles branched off into 4 spikes (very similar to the strange yet-not Anomalocarid arthopod Yohoia).


Parapeytoia by Sam Gon


Parapeytoia by Sam Gon


Parapeytoia by Sam Gon

Parapeytoia by an Unknown Artist, but this is unacceptable. They deserve credit for this great piece of work. If you know the artist behind this piece please email us at artevolved@gmail.com

Kerygmachela

Another uncertain relative of the Anomalocaridids. Despite being blind, having much finer tentacles arms, and its ring like mouth in the front of the face as opposed to below it Kerygmachela shares a huge number of anatomical similarities to the Anomalocaridids. It is from the unique Cambrian era Sirius Passet Lagerstätte of Greenland.




Kerygmachela by Sam Gon





Kerygmachela by Sam Gon

Schinderhannes

A HUGE discovery this year (which is saying something considering some of the fossils described in 2009), Schinderhannes was an Anomalocaridid from the Devonian! Up until this genus the group had only been known from the Cambrian. This extended their reign for an impressive 100 million years. It has seriously challenged the Anomalocaridid's place in the Arthropod family tree and calls into question the theory Stephen J. Gould presents Anomalocaris as the linch-pin for in Wonderful Life (but again it is very much worth the read!).

For an Anomalocaridid Schinderhannes had very large eyes, small feeding tentacles, and a pair of strange ridgid fins behind the head. Additionally its fin lobes were underneath the body as opposed to sticking out the sides.

The pictures that accompanied the formal paper, with a restoration by an Unknown Artist, but this is unacceptable. They deserve credit for this great piece of work. If you know the artist behind this piece please email us at artevolved@gmail.com

Random Pictures

Not all the pictures I encountered were of, shall we say, scientific quality, but I thought warranted some attention. Afterall here at ART Evolved we're not just about scientific accuracy.

Interesting head configuration Anomalocarid by an Unknown Artist, but this is unacceptable. They deserve credit for this great piece of work. If you know the artist behind this piece please email us at artevolved@gmail.com

Anomalocaris by Ray Troll

Fossils

Lastly for those of you who like to reference the remains of the animals themselves here are some snap shots of various specimens I stole off Sam Gon's website.

Anomalocaris canadensis.

Pay attention to this specimen's "neck" closely. I'll be doing a post on how this fossil seems to counter nearly every restoration of Anomalocaris seen in this post.

Anomalocaris canadensis

Anomalocaris canadensis

Anomalocaris canadensis