The Saurocene

[Yutyrannus]

These Spinosaurids are very cool (and bizarre).

[ZoPteryx]

These Spinosaurids are very cool (and bizarre).

Thank you!

[Yutyrannus]

HaHA! Sweet!
These are cool and it's a cool idea. I  think it is a very awesome project.
Ever considered Allosaurs? Like Giganotosaurus and Megaraptor descendants.

I have actually.   I originally intended that Neovenatorids would survive as the top predators of Australia, but in the end I abandoned that idea because they would have very little large prey to hunt.  So both the Carcharodontosaurids and Neovenatorids are extinct in the Saurocene.  However, while I don't have any images to share, they do have any interesting evolutionary history!

Carcharadontosaurids:  These super predators did very well on all the southern (and a few northern) continents through the Paleocene and Eocene, but as the climate dried out later in Cenozoic, the big herbivores they relied on began to disappear, leading to their extinction everywhere, everywhere except South America.  Isolated, and still surrounded by their prefered prey (sauropods), they evolved into the most massive terrestrial predators Earth has ever seen, the Steroidosaurids.  As their name suggests, these titans resembled a version of their ancestors on steroids!  Massively robust skulls with jaw muscles so huge they stretched down the majority of the neck!  Giant, serrated, triangular teeth lined their jaws; leaving their tiny arms virtually useless.  The largest species grew to nearly 25 meters (75 feet) in length, about half of this was thick tail.  Despite their length, Steroidosaurs were relatively low slung with short robust legs and were probably quite slow.  Many species had a small sail over their hips, which may have helped strengthen their back and tail.  These monsters relied entirely upon the varied array of sauropods they shared their continent with for food.  During the American Faunal Exchange of the Pliocene, new varieties of herbivores arrived from the north and outcompeted most of the sauropods into extinction.  Without prey, the great Steroidosaurs soon followed suit.  The last species lived in central South America during the late Pliocene.

Neovenatorids:  While they never grew into giants, these predators led a similar evolutionary path to the Carcharadontosaurids.  Like them, they eventually became reduced to a single island continent, except that continent was Australia.  Here, they competed fiercely with the continents other relict group of therapods, the Spinosaurs.  During the dryer times, the Neovenatorids dominated; during wetter times, the Spinosaurs ruled.  As the Ice Ages approached and continent dried further, the Neovenatorids took over almost entirely, and then, in a span of only about 5 million years, they vanished.  Like the Carcharodontosaurids before them, it appears that a loss of their prefered large prey was the reason for their eventually extinction in the late Pleistocene.  Amazingly, the more varied diet of the Spinosaurs allowed them to surivive the climate changes.  During their reign, the Neovenatorids stayed relatively average-sized, generalist big-game predators.  A few short lived varieties specialized, such as the magnificently crested early Pliocene Hexalophosaurus.

Your Carcharodontosaurs sound a bit like the Teratotyrannids that I came up with for Spec. Also I wanted to ask if I could try to illustrate one of your Carcharodontosaurids and Neovenatorids since you haven't drawn them?

[ZoPteryx]

Go for it!

[Yutyrannus]

Go for it!

Thanks, also can I post them here since they are technically part of the Saurocene.

[Yutyrannus]

Here is Tyrannovenator huinculensis, my Steroidosaur. How is it?

[ZoPteryx]

Nice Yutyrannus!  Looks like a steroidosaur to me.

[FUTABA]

Very nice, I like themes of speculative evolution  .

Same. Great sketches. It's obvious a lot of work has gone into all of this, really interesting stuff.

[Yutyrannus]

When will this thread be updated? I can't wait to see more of these creatures!

[Balaur]

Me too! I actually want to contribute if that's okay?

[Yutyrannus]

Is this project still going?

[ZoPteryx]

Sorry for the huge delay!

I've got good news and bad news:

Bad news is that Imageshack has changed their policy toward trial accounts and now I can't upload new photos.

Good news is, I'm now on DeviantArt!!! http://zopteryx.deviantart.com/  That's where I'll be posting art related stuff in the future, including more of the Saurocene.  Nothing Saurocene related up yet (soon though), but there is some other paleoart you haven't seen.   If I can find a way to repost here as well, I will do that too.

[Yutyrannus]

Sorry for the huge delay!

I've got good news and bad news:

Bad news is that Imageshack has changed their policy toward trial accounts and now I can't upload new photos.

Good news is, I'm now on DeviantArt!!! http://zopteryx.deviantart.com/  That's where I'll be posting art related stuff in the future, including more of the Saurocene.  Nothing Saurocene related up yet (soon though), but there is some other paleoart you haven't seen.   If I can find a way to repost here as well, I will do that too.

Yes, I've actually favorited some of your art already . Can't wait to see mord of the Saurocene.

[ZoPteryx]

It's been a while, hasn't it? 

My imageshack account is more or less gone and it looks like it took all these photos with it.  I'm trying to put the new stuff from my dA account on here but it doesn't seem to be working.  I've got a trick up my sleeve though which may work so stand by! 

update:

fail...

update 2:

DRAT!  I was so sure that would work! 

[tyrantqueen]

That's a shame. I dunno if you're looking for recommendations, but both Photobucket and Google Picasa web albums are good image hosters. Both are free, although PB has a bandwidth limit that can be quite troublesome if you're a free user. Picasa has unlimited bandwidth but limits the amount of images you can upload at a time.

[ZoPteryx]

That's a shame. I dunno if you're looking for recommendations, but both Photobucket and Google Picasa web albums are good image hosters. Both are free, although PB has a bandwidth limit that can be quite troublesome if you're a free user. Picasa has unlimited bandwidth but limits the amount of images you can upload at a time.

Thanks TQ, I'll look into both of those.