Sauropods the largest animals that ever lived on land. They may also have had in their ranks the longest creatures to have evolved! They are among the most famous of Dinosaurs, and despite being strictly plant eaters themselves were the close relatives of the meat eating Dinosaurs! Evolving relatively early in the history of Dinosaurs, the Sauropods would endure till the end of the Mesozoic making them one of the most successful Dinosaur groups of all. They came in all shapes and sizes, and lived on every continent.
So join us now to this effort to bring this giants of the past back to life in art form...
[If you are still working on a piece, it is not too late! We have just discovered an html trick that negates our previous formatting issue with uploading new pictures. So we will add them as they come in]
[To all our contributors, we apologize in advance if any small formatting issues surrounding your specific piece. Due to the sheer number of entries into this gallery we have been scrambling to get this gallery posted in time. If there are any errors or text omissions from your piece please just let us know in the comment section or via an email to artevolved@gmail.com and we will fix it as soon as we can!]
First off, this is a hopeless w.i.p. - so much to do (scales, normal map, artefact removal, illustration in scene)! Just didn't want to miss out. I laid out my diplodocus inspired by Nima. (Yes, I know this is cheating.) Anyway, that's a 2m measure there in black and white.
I thought I'd list some of the assumptions I've integrated into this guy, and some of the questions that have come up during the artEvolved challenge:
- the scutes at the tail are inspired by the whip-crack communication theory, just instead of whipping (and possibly breaking) the tail, it whistles. Also gets in the face of predators.
- neck posture... not quite as extreme as MarkWitton's, but I think this would be a standard position... could go higher
- gait; I think this would be about the extreme gait. Tried to base this with trackway images, but didn't have enough time to be very diligent about it.
- teeth/lips/cheek; I tried to create a bite that would shear while closed while respecting that weird skeleton. 3D is really helpful here because it keeps you from cheating. Rotation point respects (I hope) the skull reference
- nasal; I just followed the latest research here... tried to artistically make it look plausible but have no idea really.
- coloring; even though this is a quick hack, I want a largely monotonous coloring with just a hint of patterns from earlier, smaller times. This is too brownish. I'll make it more grey in the next version
This is an pen-and-ink reconstruction based on this photo, of the new Berlin Museum für Naturkunde Giraffatitan mount (previously Brachiosaurus). This beast held a special place in my heart when I visited it in 2002. Now, I have to go back and see the new updated mount.
Fourteen brachiosaurs with the largest known T. rex for scale. From left to right: Volkheimeria, Lapparentosaurus, Daanosaurus, Bothriospondylus, Lusotitan, Brachiosaurus (Giraffatitan) brancai, "the Archbishop", Pelorosaurus, Pleurocoelus, Cedarosaurus, Sonorasaurus, Sauropodeidon, Breviparopus, Europasaurus.
Cetiosaur herds roamed the mudflats of Oxfordshire in England in the late Jurassic. Strange to think of these 18 metre long creatures wandering an area now covered in equally majestic academic architecture.
Bonaparte & Coria, 1993. Family incertae sedis; most likely a titanosaur. Visit The Disillusioned Taxonomist to see many more Sauropods.
Argyrosaurus by Nima Sassani
Argyrosaurus superbus - finally after over a century since its discovery, this is the first and ONLY hi-fi restoration of this giant sauropod, one of seven known colossal titanosaur species in the 100-foot range. Shown with forelimb scaled up slightly from crushed holotype, blue-shaded bones represent missing material.
A pair of Giraffatitan adults squabble amongst their herd.
In this piece I am trying show a brief snapshot of Sauropod behaviour that is rarely depicted. Typically Sauropods are shown as gentle giants, but I don't believe they would have been in reality.
For starters they are so close to Theropods in lineage, the two no doubt shared some inherent instincts. We know Theropods often fought with each other in social settings, why not Sauropods too? More importantly Sauropods had such a small brain size compared to their body mass, I find it unlikely they had the mental capacity for complex social behaviour that would displace violence as an efficient conflict resolver.
Granted at the same time I'm not suggesting they were not constantly trying to kill each other. Simply there was likely little more fire and passion to them then the lumbering docile titans we often picture them as...
I've decided to color the tail club aposematically, because that way, it could be used to warn predators of the danger, and also be used for intraspecific communication.
Late Middle Jurassic of China: A Scansoriopteryx is in danger of being swallowed by a hungry Omeisaurus. I've had the idea to draw something like this for years, but I just now got around to doing it.
Hudiesaurus by Nima Sassani
The gigantic mamenchisaur Hudiesaurus sinojapanorum - mother and teenager. Work still in progress.
Inspired by the incredible mount at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, I decided to recreate it, giving it a touch of lovely Vancouver weather. A barosaur is rearing up to protect it's baby from a menacing allosaur. This piece was created live on Bond's Blog during the ART Evolved liveblogging challenge.
Created during ARTevolved's live blog weekend and my first experience for many years of having to work in a very short time span at a constant rate. Not easy, but a useful exercise in discipline and motivation. The work can be seen in it's progressive stages at http://drawnintime.blogspot.com/2009/09/cetiosaurus-oxoniensis.html
Sereno et al., 1999. Family incertae sedis, Eusauropoda
I've decided to be conservative with the neck elevation. Personally, I think the neck was maintained in al pa horizontosture mainly, but the elevation was indeed in its range of motion, so, let's go with a 45º neck this time.
Puertasaurus by Nima SassaniPuertasaurus reuili: the first hi-fi restoration ever done of the NEW "biggest" dinosaur. It likely exceeds Argentinosaurus in both length and mass. Triple axial view, all published fossil material is re-figured fully restored and uncrushed.
Europasaurus holgeri by David Tana
Europasaurus holgeri, a derived, island dwelling, dwarf macronarian from the Late Jurassic of Germany. Pen and color pencil on paper
With that we come to the end of yet another Time Capsule...
In just over a month's time, on January. 7th 2010 we launch our next gallery on Palaeo-Environments. The details are here, but this is a nearly free for all gallery and will be accepting nearly any palaeo-art content you send.
Please send those submissions to artevolved@gmail.com (with any desired accompanying text blurb and your website or blog's link), and see you back hopefully no later then just after the New Year...