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Wednesday, May 9, 2012

The Dan Varner Tribute Gallery

Welcome to our first tribute gallery in honour of an amazing paleoartist...


The world lost one of its greatest paleoartists on the 1st of January 2012, and we at ART Evolved wanted to honour Dan Varner's memory and work with a gallery dedicated to the subject matter he held close - prehistoric marine reptiles and ocean critters.
Not knowing him personally, we direct you to read a tribute to Dan Varner by his friend Bruce Schumaker on Oceans of Kansas here.
We hope this gallery will serve to honour the life and work of Dan Varner, and to inspire others to follow in his footsteps.  If you would like to participate in this gallery, send your work to artevolved@gmail.com, and we will post it here.

Click on the pictures to enlarge them!
We hope you enjoy this tribute to Dan Varner!

Terminonatator, the last swimmer by Yul Altolaguirre Zancajo

This elasmosaurid was perhaps the last one of the whole elasmosauridae family.




High Plains Drifters: Cretaceous Critters of the Western Interior Seaway by Christopher Hutson



Deadly Splash by Santino Mazzei



Mosasaur by Peter Bond


The True Marine Dinosaur by Craig Dylke

A Hesperonisid, a toothed bird of the Cretaceous. Being a toothed bird it can be said this is still a non-avian Dinosaur, but only just (if you do consider this correct).

Note the big nasty salmon ancestor Enchodus also attacking the smaller fish swarm.
For the full story behind this piece of work, click here.





Cretaceous Shellfish Dinner by Craig Dylke
For the full story behind this piece of work, click here.





Stormy Cretaceous Sea by Craig Dylke

Heavily inspired by this photo by Stefano Unterthiner 


 For the full story behind this piece of work, click here.



Squalodon by Craig Dylke


For the full story behind this piece of work, click here.






Squalodon Orca of the Oligocene by Craig Dylke


For the full story behind this piece of work, click here.




Taniwhasaurus by Craig Dylke

For the full story behind this piece of work, click here.





A Rare Marine Treat by Craig Dylke
For the full story behind this piece of work, click here.





Xinpusaurus by Anthony Contoleon

Xinpusaurus, because the Triassic really did produce some singular fauna, marine and otherwise.





Acanthostega, an early amphibian from the Devonian by Sarah Snell-Pym

The plants are not based on Devonian fossils as I did not have access to any literature on them so they are made up - however I was basing the picture on the concept that the development of the "legs" was for pulling itself along weed chocked shallow waterways rather than walking on land.  They had concealed gills like fished and were probably amphibious in order to get enough oxygen in the organic rich water.  They had eight digits on the front limbs with webbing between, the number of digits on the back limbs is unknown - they were very fin like and unlikely to have been able to be weight bearing for walking on land.


Tug-of-War by Connor "C-Rex" Ross





Wide Load by Connor "C-Rex" Ross



Globidens Feeding on Clams by Tommy Leung




 The Reversal: The Evolution of the Humpback Whale Phylopic by Mike Keesey




Thank you for checking out this tribute gallery.  We are certain Dan Varner would be honoured by the wonderful work inspired be his talents.   
Hopefully you've been inspired to dive underwater and create your own Varner-style work.  

If you wold like to add to this gallery, send your submissions to artevolved@gmail.com.


The next gallery is a return to awesomeness with our Second Pop Culture Gallery!  
Get your Dinorider and Flinstones pics in before September 1st 2012 to artevolved@gmail.com.  

A summer of paleoart fun!