When I say "Therapod" what pops into your mind? A sharp-toothed, fleet-footed, flesh-eating monster of a dinosaur, right? Tyrannosaurs, spinosaurs, raptors... But what about a squat, tiny-headed, long-necked, plant-eater? These plant-eating therapods are known to the world as Therizinosaurs - named 'scythe lizard' on account of their abnormally large claws on their hands.
This family of dinosaurs (Therizinosauridae), previously know as Segnosaurs, has a strange and convoluted history of discovery, with palaeontologists at times calling them "turtle-like lizards," prosauropods, and carnivorous reptiles. It wasn't until the discovery of similar genus' in the 80's and 90's, that Therizinosaurs were finally classified as advanced herviborous maniraptorian theropods.
Recreating an animal so recently reinterpreted takes skill, research, and time. The wonderful results from this process are collected below - a Time Capsule full of Therizinosaurs, recreated in glorious pencil, paint, and pixels! To participate in this and future Time Capsules, all you need to do is send your image to artevolved@gmail.com. It's not too late to join in the fun!
So without further ado, welcome to ART Evolved's Therizinosaur Gallery! Click to enlarge them!
A Brief Look at Therizinosaur Reconstructions through the Years by Tricia Arnold
Alxasaurus by Luis Perez
Beipiaosaurus by Luis Perez
Erliansaurus by Luis Perez
Erlikosaurus by Luis Perez
Falcarius by Luis Perez
Nanshiungosaurus by Luis Perez
Segnosaurus by Luis Perez
Nothronychus by Luis Perez
Nothronychus mckinleyi in graphite pencil by Mo Hassan
Therizinosaurus by Brett Booth
Therizinosaurus by Luis Perez
Therizinosaurus by Luis Perez
Therizinosaur (aka Chickenosaur!) by Rachael Revelle
A4 lino print - Produced as a live blog and documented on my blogsite 'Drawn In Time'.
Therizinosaurus: a creature from Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal by Sarah Snell-Pym
The creature seems to have had an identity crisis in the world of palaeontology but the most recent stuff I found suggested feathers and stiff hair type structures so that's what I went with. My actual aim was to build an evolution of Therizinosaurs in palaeontology of which this would be one of the end members!
Therizinosaur by Anthony Contoleon
Therizinosaurus 2000 by David Tana
An early attempt at reconstructing Therizinosaurus (Late Cretaceous Period, China), using only pencil and paper.
Therizinosaurus cheloniformis 2010 by David Tana
Reconstruction of Therizinosaurus cheloniformis from the Late Cretaceous Period of Mongolia, China. Digital scan of pencil on paper.
Therizinosaur by Craig Dylke
An early attempt at reconstructing Therizinosaurus (Late Cretaceous Period, China), using only pencil and paper.
Reconstruction of Therizinosaurus cheloniformis from the Late Cretaceous Period of Mongolia, China. Digital scan of pencil on paper.
Giant Claw by Matthew Tames
Here is a scene of a pair of Therizinosaurs protecting their nest.
Therizinosaurus cheloniformis Feeding on Ginkgo by John Meszaros
The geometrical stone structures in the background is a columnar basalt formation such as can be found at the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland or the Devil's Postpile in California.
A Slap in the Face by Peter Bond
A Therizinosaurus cheloniformis repells an attack by a passing Alioramus remotus on a floodplain in Mongolia, 70-65 million years ago. I wanted to illustrate one of the less-shown uses of those giant claws. Hopefully the Alioramus can afford the facial reconstruction surgery!
Therizinosaurine! by Peter Bond
Maniraptors: Therizinosauria by Albertonykus
(From shortest to longest: Beipiaosaurus inexpecticus, Falcarius utahensis, and Therizinosaurus cheloniformis.) The therizinosaurs were a group of strange-looking maniraptors. This caused a lot of confusion in the past. For example, some therizinosaurs (then known as segnosaurs) were thought to be prosauropods (basically all the sauropodomorphs besides the giant four-legged sauropods). It was a while before the segnosaurs and therizinosaurs were recognized as the same group within maniraptor theropods. Therizinosaurs had gigantic claws, but their tiny heads and teeth suggest they were plant eaters. To be fair, they aren't the only plant-eating theropods ([link]), but few other theropods show such extreme herbivory.
Therizinosaurus by Jared Needle
From a 13 (or 12) inch square of double MC tissue paper, violet/orange.
Still in progress after two months. It has literally been standing like that for a month straight before I photographed it today.
It's obviously missing a head. I've gone through at least a dozen attempts over the last month, and still have yet to design a satisfactory head. (I also haven't had time to work on it.) I am extremely happy with the rest of it. It came out perfect. It just needs a good head.
We hope you enjoyed that look at all things Therizinosaurs! Great job, everyone! The new poll is up on the right sidebar, so be sure to vote for July's Time Capsule (wouldn't you just LOVE to draw ferns?! Erm...)
As for the next Gallery, the winner of that poll is ... ICHTHYOSAURS!
So be sure to submit your Ichthyosaur by May 1st 2010! To participate in an ART Evolved Gallery, send your art along with a title and a small description to artevolved@gmail.com. We accept art from anybody and everybody!