Qiupanykus, yet another new alvarezsaur

[Halichoeres]

They're coming out of the woodwork! This one is from the Late Cretaceous of China.

Holotype:


Reconstruction by Zhao Chuang:


Probably increases the odds of a PNSO mini of this guy down the line.

Paper is open access: http://chinageology.cgs.cn/article/id/5b2ca616-1998-40f5-a320-5309ae7e30d1?pageType=en

[Sim]

Zhao Chuang having done the initial reconstruction might increase the odds of a PNSO figure, but then he's previously done the initial reconstructions for quite a number of other dinosaurs that haven't been made at all by PNSO, including ones known from much more complete remains than Qiupanykus, e.g.:
Daliansaurus: http://novataxa.blogspot.com/2017/06/daliansaurus.html
Liaoningvenator: http://novataxa.blogspot.com/2017/06/liaoningvenator.html
Zhenyuanlong: https://novataxa.blogspot.com/2015/07/zhenyuanlong.html

I can't say I wish he had made them for PNSO though, because I don't trust he would get the wing anatomy right, and as his reconstruction of Qiupanykus shows, he's still shrink-wrapping the snouts of these dinosaurs to the extent that:
1. The skin over the antorbital fenestra has a different colour.
2. The attachment point for the brow that extends over the eye is being repurposed as a small crest/horn before the eye.  I get that this has been a mistake many good palaeoartists have made, but I don't understand why those who keep making it don't look at the skulls of extant birds or reptiles which have the same structure and realise the mistake.

It's disappointing, because there's a lot to like in his work otherwise.  For example, I like the feathers in his reconstructions of Qiupanykus, Daliansaurus and Liaoningvenator.

Also, if there's a choice for which alvarezsaur to make into a figure, I think it should be Shuvuuia or Haplocheirus.  All the others are, as far as I'm aware, too incomplete to be worth making.

Regarding this paper's suggestion that alvarezsaurids are egg-eaters that used their large claw to pierce eggs, as has been said in the following Theropoda blog post, and comments on it, that idea is not well-supported.  Also, the irony of seeing the egg of an oviraptorosaur being eaten by another type of dinosaur is really funny!  http://theropoda.blogspot.com/2018/09/la-leggenda-di-oviraptoraptor.html

[Halichoeres]

Sure, any alvarezsaur figure is really going to be a Shuvuiia figure, regardless of what they call it, just like the BotM Mononykus. And Zhao has made a lot art, so yeah, maybe not all of them will get figures. But if he's done the reconstruction you can at least bet it's on their radar. Me, I'd like to see them do all the pterosaurs and marine reptiles from their books.

I also don't find the egg-piercing function for alvarezsaur claws terribly plausible. I'm not sure how much guidance Zhao gets from paleontologists when he's doing these reconstructions, but it should probably be more. I think that's true for most paleoartists who are artists first (as opposed to the likes of Mark Witton).