I Liek Dinosaurs - Paleoart, interesting reading, etc.

[Angry Canadian]

One of my favourite clades is Spinosauridae. Most people are familiar with Spinosaurus aegyptiacus because of Jurassic Park, but most people don't know that Baryonyx and oxalaia quilombensis are also spinosaurids.

Spinosaurus​

If dinosaurs were still alive, and if we managed to evolve alongside them, Spinosaurus would definitely have at least one thread on the farms for being the biggest lolcow of the theropods. As a pure conjecture, I believe that (unlike practically all of it's theropodia relatives) spinosaurus was an obligate quadruped on land and only ever left the swamps of North Africa to lay eggs. He's a doofy boii.

Suchomimus​

A concentrated array of neurovascular foramina open on the anterior end of the snout and appear similar to foramina in crocodilians that house pressure receptors that detect water movement (8, 16) (Fig. 2B and fig. S6). The enlarged, procumbent, interlocking anterior teeth are well adapted for snaring fish..

Sci-Hub | Semiaquatic adaptations in a giant predatory dinosaur. Science, 345(6204), 1613–1616 | 10.1126/science.1258750

Suchomimus was another spinosaurid that occupied a similar niche to Spinosaurus and lived around 125 million years ago in the area that is now Niger, during the Aptian to early Albian stages of the Early Cretaceous period.
I like how the adaptations of Spinosaurus and Suchomimus can be explained almost entirely by Suchomimus occupying West Africa, and Spinosaurus occupying North Africa given that they both lived around the same time.

 

[Knight of the Rope]

I'm a fan of the nigersaurus myself.

 

[Mal0]

That just reminded me of a kid I knew in church that watched dinosaur AMV's. Apparently they are a thing

 

[Just A Butt]

How do you guys feel about trains tho?

 

[Creep3r]

How do you guys feel about trains tho?

Gasp! You mean the legendary trainosaurus?! Scourge of the Cretaceous railroads?!

 

[Angry Canadian]

How do you guys feel about trains tho?

Trains are cool, but this thread is for dinosaurs.

Get a load of this T H I C C boii.

Udanoceratops lived approximately 75-85 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous. Remains of this animal are found in the Djadochta formation near Bayanzag (The same range where velociraptor remains are found).
These little guys were pretty neat. They're part of the Leptoceratopsidae family, more closely related to triceratops than to Pachycephalosaurus (part of the other branch of ceratopsia)

I like his big dumb fuckoff face.

 

[The Last Stand]

When I go to the toy store, I'll pick you up a toy dinosaur and some coloring supplies.

 

[Maskull]

I was endlessly fascinated by this find when I was a child.

 

[Jaded Optimist]

I've always liked water creatures, so naturally my favorite dinosaurs are Plesiosauria.

 

[Taylor Swift's Ghostwrite]

I enjoy the reimagined art of dinosaurs with feathers:

Velociraptors in particular being effectively giant murder turkeys makes me laugh for some reason.

 

[Jaded Optimist]

Fun fact, velociraptors were made twice as big in Jurassic Park.

 

[Angry Canadian]

View attachment 2610714
I was endlessly fascinated by this find when I was a child.

That's a really interesting fossil actually, there's a lot of conjecture still about how exactly it happened.
Barsbold suggests that the dislocation of the velociraptor's shoulder could have been due to other protoceratops trying to save the protoceratops that was sinking in the mud with the likely long dead velociraptor. Which is heartbreaking (and total speculation)

Sci-Hub | “The Fighting Dinosaurs”: The position of their bodies before and after death. Paleontological Journal, 50(12), 1412–1417 | 10.1134/S0031030116120042

I enjoy the reimagined art of dinosaurs with feathers:

Velociraptors in particular being effectively giant murder turkeys makes me laugh for some reason.

The phylogeny of velociraptor strongly suggests that they would have had some feathers because earlier dromaeosaurids are absolutely known to have had feathers. The way a lot of paleontology works is comparing what is known about closely related species and inferring similarities between those species. As far as I know, there are some fossilized skin impressions that suggest velociraptor had some feathering, as well as knobs on their forearm bones similar to modern birds, quill knobs, where feathers would have anchored to the bone.

It's really actually pretty interesting, I think there have been complete fossils since the 20s, and most of what is known about velociraptor mongoliansis has been known for quite a long time, I really like that they've kind of become the post dinosaur renascence mascot for what dinosaurs probably looked like, or at least what a lot of theropods/dromaeosaurids looked like

 

[AprilRains]

When I go to the toy store, I'll pick you up a toy dinosaur and some coloring supplies.

mommy needs some smokes too

 

[mr.moon1488]

I'm a fan of the nigersaurus myself.
View attachment 2610349

He wuz a good dino and he dindu nothin

 

[Jaded Optimist]

Not the mama!

I'm the baby, gotta love me!

 

[Angry Canadian]

This is a pretty interesting video about Utahraptor, one of my favourite animals in the Dromaeosauridae clade.

 

[Angry Canadian]

If anyone actually likes dinosaurs as much as I do, this is a 50 or 60 dollar paper that I found on libgen that's really worth reading.
Sauropods Habits and Habitats. (Coombs1975.pdf), the rest are just assorted studies and papers on Sauropods. The Nigersarus that Knight posted, the nigger of the cretaceous, is part of the genus "Rebbachisauridae" and shares it's sub-family with Demandasaurus [named for Sierra de la Demanda on the Iberian peninsula] and both make up the "Nigersaurinae" family.

A Nigersarus skeleton.

Paleoart of Demandasaurus

Nigersaurus was found in the Elrhaz Formation along side several other species. What's interesting is that it can be inferred that this region was more likely a very polarizing region of the world, much of the coastal region would be quite rugged, as much of the coast of Africa was made up of immense estuaries where brackish water would kill most of the vegetation, which would give way to swamp and wetland areas upstream where Nigersaurus likely lived.

Paleoart of suchomimus stalking a herd of nigersaurus

Also found in the Elrhaz Formation are several theropods, suchomimus being one of them, as well as Krytops palaios, and Eocarcharia dinops

An interesting inference that can be made from the size of these carnivorous theropods (as well as the size of nigersaurus) is that, while successful, these theropods were likely not the apex predators in the region.
That title likely goes to a crocodyliform (not a dinosaur)

It's very likely that Sarcosuchus prayed on herbivore and carnivore alike,

an Ouranosaurus being eaten by Sarcosuchus

The moral of the story is that life is hard for a niggasaurus, especially when ecological niche partitioning keeps you from growing to the gargantuan sizes of your North and South American counterparts like Argentinosaurus and Giraffatitan and other Late Cretaceous - Jurassic sauropods.

 

[BlueArmedDevil]

 

[Maskull]

I regret allowing family to kill my interest in the subject at such a young age. Are there any recently published primers worth a damn that won’t cost me a leg?

 

[Angry Canadian]

I regret allowing family to kill my interest in the subject at such a young age. Are there any recently published primers worth a damn that won’t cost me a leg?

Plenty! What was your favourite genera as a kid? I'll found you some stuff through LibGen