More of my favorite eudromaeosaur artworks

[HD-man]

I originally posted the following (which was originally several posts, starting w/this 1: https://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=10177.msg352671#msg352671 ) at deviantART ( https://www.deviantart.com/jd-man/journal/SD-More-of-my-favorite-eudromaeosaur-artworks-1105931597 ).

This journal entry is the sequel to "SD: My favorite artworks of Velociraptor" ( https://www.deviantart.com/jd-man/journal/SD-My-favorite-artworks-of-Velociraptor-956554734 ) in honor of National Raptor Month ( https://www.mystateline.com/news/national-raptor-month-hoo-haven-in-durand-illinois-showcases-birds-of-prey/ ). 1 more thing of note: Happy Birthday to me! "I'm[...now officially...]not old" (See 10:10: https://archive.org/details/holy-grail-interlaced/Holy+Grail+24fps.mkv )😉

Deinonychus & Velociraptor from most to least favorite

Kuzim's "Low Poly Deinonychus reunion" ( https://www.deviantart.com/kuzim/art/Low-Poly-Deinonychus-reunion-932907392 ) & Sitara Systems' "animation of Deinonychus" ( https://web.archive.org/web/20240416211834/https://twitter.com/armanafzadeh/status/1758501699709190508 ): From the start, I knew I loved SS's animation b/c of how smooth & realistic it is. However, I later realized that I also loved it b/c it reminds me of Kuzim's "young female" (hence the cover image). Besides Kuzim's uniquely pleasing art style, I especially like that his Deino's "colours and behavours are[...]especially inspireed by tawny eagles (Aquila rapax)". Not only has "larger prey[...]been recorded" taken by pairs ( https://archive.ph/Z2Bxd ), but also, as in goshawks & shikras, "female is usually darker than male" ( https://africawild-forum.com/viewtopic.php?p=45626#p45626 ). I was so pleasantly surprised by this that I googled it & found out that the same goes for "many buteos and other raptors" ( https://leicabirding.blogspot.com/2011/ ), which further reinforces my personal head-canon (Yay!).

Mossa's "Deinonychus (Over The Years)" ( https://www.reddit.com/r/Dinosaurs/comments/16641ag/deinonychus_over_the_years/ ): I love how it seemingly combines "Retro vs Modern #21: Deinonychus antirrhopus" w/CoolioArt's "Jurassic Park With Scientifically Accurate Raptors" 😍

White's "DINOSAUR WRESTLING: VELOCIRAPTOR V. PROTOCERATOPS" (#1: http://web.archive.org/web/20210911004340/https://www.deviantart.com/sharkeytrike/art/DINOSAUR-WRESTLING-VELOCIRAPTOR-V-PROTOCERATOPS-302059940 ) & Nicholls's cover for Lomax's "Locked in Time: Animal Behavior Unearthed in 50 Extraordinary Fossils" (#2: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/711+nyW6CcL.jpg ):
-Besides loving White's art style for reasons discussed elsewhere ( https://www.deviantart.com/jd-man/journal/SD-My-dino-media-wishlist-901438371 ), I love how detailed & dynamic #1 is: For 1, the Velociraptor is on top as if having just pounced on the Protoceratops; For another, the Protoceratops is kicking up sand as it slides down the dune.
-As you may remember, Nicholls's paleoart is especially life-like ( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4960975366 ). #2 is an especially good example of that (which is partly why it's 1 of my favorite dino book covers):* For 1, the dirtiness/bloodiness of the fight reminds me of "Passerine birds fight dirty, a la Velociraptor" ( http://web.archive.org/web/20130501010744/http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2009/03/31/passerine-birds-fight-dirty/ ); For another, the coloring/patterning of the Velociraptor reminds me of "Ask a Velociraptor" ( https://archive.ph/hoAIZ ).

*In reference to partly, I also love the transition from living animal to fossil preservation. My favorites also include his covers for Naish/Barrett's "Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved" ( https://tetzoo.com/blog/2024/2/13/third-edition-of-naish-and-barretts-dhtle ), which remind me of the National Geographic Photo Ark (I.e. "The backgrounds are black and white, with no distractions, and all animals are the same size, so a mouse is every bit as glorious as a polar bear[...]The format allows for eye contact. As primates, that's how we communicate with other species. When we look another animal in the eye, it touches us. It moves us to remember it. The animals are posing, just like you would pose. They're intelligent and beautiful, happy and sad, malicious and playful — not that different from people": https://nexusmedianews.com/a-photo-ark-for-exotic-animals-e78d3fe438b8/ ).

Other eudromaeosaurs in no particular order

Skrepnick's "Bambiraptor feinbergi" ( https://futureoftruth.uconn.edu/seeing-truth/instigator-objects/bambiraptor-model/ ): As you may remember, "I love Skrepnick's art style" ( https://www.deviantart.com/jd-man/journal/SD-My-favorite-artworks-of-Deinonychus-948529444 ). I especially love his use of acrylics & would argue that it makes for some of the best dino book covers. This painting (which covers Currie et al.'s "Feathered Dragons: Studies on the Transition from Dinosaurs to Birds": https://archive.org/details/feathereddragons0000unse ) is my favorite b/c of how well it holds up in terms of hawkiness. More specifically, there's the striking-yet-naturalistic coloring/patterning, the not-too-shrink-wrapped body, & of course, the death stare at the reader 😉

Csotonyi's "Acheroraptor beats T. rex to a fresh carcass" (The eyeball version: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/paleoart-julius-csotonyi-illustrations_n_5226787 ): The mammal version seems to be more popular ( https://www.sci.news/paleontology/science-acheroraptor-temertyorum-dinosaur-montana-01630.html ) & I get why, but I MUCH prefer this version: For 1, it uses the "Eyeball-Plucking Birds" trope ( https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EyeballPluckingBirds ) "to champion the birdiness of dinosaurs" ( http://web.archive.org/web/20160312163740/https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/the-tet-zoo-manifesto/ ); For another, said trope reminds me of "Finally: big cat kills uncensored and uncut" (See the Naish quote), but better b/c dinos; For yet another, the inclusion of T. rex reminds me of a scene from "The Ultimate Guide: Tyrannosaurus rex" (See 41:10: https://archive.org/details/UltimateGuideTrex ), but MUCH more up-to-date.

Filipović's "Acheroraptor vs Didelphodon" ( https://archive.ph/wlE35 ): Remember what I said about Chuang's illustrations (See reason #2: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4820220402 )? The same goes for these models, but even more so: For 1, they're both 3D & life size; For another, they're facing off in an "Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny" sort of way that reminds me of "Alien vs. Predator" ( https://archive.ph/NnBn5 ) & "Godzilla vs. Kong" ( https://archive.ph/CEgcN ).

Atuchin's cover for Brusatte's "The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World" ( https://doka-mk.ru/800/600/https/cv9.litres.ru/pub/c/cover/43676597.jpg ): Remember what I said about Skrepnick? The same goes for Atuchin, but w/digital instead of acrylic. Likewise, I'd argue that Atuchin's use of digital graphics also makes for some of the best dino book covers. This painting is my favorite next to his cover for Brusatte's "The Age of Dinosaurs":* On the 1 hand, I love the latter's darker green background/yellow text combo; On the other hand, I can't get over how much the former's dinos remind me of PhP's in terms of coloring/patterning, especially the very Pectinodon-like troodontid & Velociraptor-like Acheroraptor.

PhP's Dromaeosaurus ( https://www.artstation.com/artwork/qQwbK2 ): For 1, to quote Naish/Barrett, "while fox-sized Dromaeosaurus is the namesake member of Dromaeosauridae, it's far from the most familiar member of its group", so it's nice to see PhP give it more attention w/their depiction; For another, aesthetically, said depiction reminds me of "Bonadonna's female Deinonychus", but less ground hornbill-ish & more holarctic magpie-ish (which makes sense, given their respective environments); For yet another, behaviorally, said depiction reminds me of Harris's hawks (I.e. After hunting small game alone all winter, they greet each other & go hunting big game together; See the Stevens quote).

Witton's "Utahraptor" (#1: https://www.reddit.com/r/Naturewasmetal/comments/ig068a/utahraptor_by_mark_witton/ ) & Lanzas's "Cretaceous Cruise" (#2: https://www.reddit.com/r/Naturewasmetal/comments/14orjc5/cretaceous_cruise_the_main_castcreatures_of_wwd/ ):
-Besides loving Witton's art style for reasons discussed elsewhere ( https://www.deviantart.com/jd-man/journal/SD-Good-Semi-good-and-Bad-Dino-Sources-4-800236863 ), I love how awesome-yet-scary #1 is. It feels like being approached by a grizzly (or better yet, a grizzly-sized "bird of prey gone wrong": http://web.archive.org/web/20180809090943/http://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/velociraptor-facts.html ).
-I love the WWD aesthetic, partly b/c of nostalgia, & partly b/c the leopard-like camouflage makes sense for Utahraptor's semi-arid environment (See "5.4.2. Weathering", page 12: https://sci-hub.ru/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018209002132 ). #2 is my favorite example, partly b/c of Lanzas's art style ( https://archive.ph/9WqUO ), & partly b/c the ostrich-like feathering makes sense for Utahraptor's semi-arid environment.
-On a related note, Lanzas's "VELOCIRAPTOR. Jurassic Park and other relatives" ( https://www.deviantart.com/mariolanzas/art/VELOCIRAPTOR-Jurassic-Park-and-other-relatives-945855334 ) deserves an honorable mention, given how much the feather colors/patterns/distributions remind me of my favorite female Deinonychus & Velociraptor (Bonadonna's & PhP's, respectively).

*For those who don't know, I reviewed both Brusatte books ( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4708284320 ).

Quoting Naish ( https://darrennaish.blogspot.com/2006/07/finally-big-cat-kills-uncensored-and.html ): "As a spin-off for the digital channel BBC Three, the BBC has also been broadcasting Big Cat Week Uncut, with each episode being shown immediately after that day's Big Cat Week episode. And uncut it truly was. One of things that has always bugged me about nature documentaries is that full acts of predation are almost never shown: you get to see a bit of the chase, then the predators catching their prey, and then a bit of the predators eating the deceased victim. This goes for predation behaviour in lions, hunting dogs, spotted hyaenas, wolves and killer whales.
Why are kills edited? Basically because they are often far more gory than most people expect – kills are often not clean and simple, but may involve the prey animal getting eaten when still alive. Sure, experienced individuals belonging to species that practise precision bites, such as large cats, may well execute a fairly tidy, bloodless killing, but this does not always happen, plus some species – notably hyaenas and hunting dogs – seem to ordinarily take chunks out of the prey while it's still very much alive. In some cases the prey dies from the resulting trauma and blood-loss, and not from tidy bites to its throat or vital organs. Let me add, by the way, that I'm basing these bold assertions on what I've read in books and seen on TV: I have no field experience whatsoever as goes African megafauna. I also want to add that I'm interested in this area, not because I have a love of gore and violence, but because I find macropredation behaviour a fascinating part of the evolutionary biology of the species that practise it."

Quoting Stevens ( https://web.archive.org/web/20170611181659/http://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/19/science/rabbits-beware-some-birds-of-prey-hunt-in-packs.html ): "Raptors may use coordinated tactics only when solitary hunting does not provide enough food or is too difficult. Harris's hawks, for instance, use them only in winter, when a shortage of smaller quarry like small birds forces them to go after bigger game like jack rabbits, which are several times the size of a hawk.
Dr. Ellis and his colleagues speculate that when raptors hunt alone, they will not even try to capture prey that they know can be captured only through teamwork; it is not worth the expenditure of energy. But bigger game or the quicker capture resulting from group efforts can make the expenditure worthwhile."