Newt's paleoart

[Newt]

Thank you very much, @Halichoeres , @Concavenator , and @Libraraptor !

Some notes on reconstructions, in case anyone is wondering: 
- I chose to give Edaphosaurus a thick sail, based on suggestions by Romer and Price that the crossbars on its neural spines were embedded in connective tissue. 
- Zatrachys and its fellow zatrachydid (or zatracheid - both spellings occur in the literature) temnospondyls have a tremendous opening in the top of the snout of unknown function. I have depicted it here as the home of an inflatable sac for amplifying calls, but this is total speculation on my part.
-Trimerorhachis is shown here with larval conspecifics near its mouth. This is based on a fossil described by Olson that preserved clumps of tiny Trimerorhachis bones on either side of the head of an adult, near where its gill chambers would have been. Olson speculated that this might be an indication of mouth-brooding habits in this aquatic temnospondyl. I aimed to depict the moment of time when the mature larvae are moving out of mom's mouth and into the cruel cruel world.
-pectoral appendage bones of the lungfish Gnathorhiza are unknown despite abundant remains of the taxon, leading authors to speculate it had tentacular pectoral appendages similar to extant lepidosirenids.

[irimali]

Beautiful paintings!  I really love the mouth-brooding Trimerorhachis.  It's great to see temnospondyls depicted with interesting behaviors/adaptations.

[Newt]

Thank you @irimali , much appreciated!

[JohannesB]

What lovely paintings!

[Newt]

Thank you, @JohannesB! Sorry for the late response, I missed this somehow.

[Mamasaurus]

The paintings are beautiful! It's always good to see depictions of other time periods. It's very reminiscent of Zdenek Burian, perhaps because of a combination of the oil medium and the way the animals are depicted.

I also really like the tiny sculpture, and it's very interesting to see your process.

[Newt]

Thank you, @Mamasaurus! I have a long way to go before I'm in Burian's league, but the comparison is much appreciated.

I have plans for many more paleo-sculptures. Hopefully I will find the time and motivation to work on them this winter.

[Newt]

Another year, another painting. This one is based on a Late Devonian (Frasnian) lagerstatte in Quebec, Canada.

Miguasha


At center, the tristichopterid fish-grade tetrapodomorph Eusthenopteron foordi pursues some hapless acanthodians, Homalacanthus concinnus. Two armored antiarch placoderms, Bothriolepis canadensis, graze on undisturbed. A gaggle of juvenile lungfishes, Scaumenacia curta, forage for microcrustaceans on and around a fallen branch of the progymnosperm tree Archaeopteris halliana. One of the Scaumenacia has fallen afoul of a lurking early actinopterygian fish, Cheirolepis canadensis.

I had planned to include the fishapod Elpistostege watsoni as well, but couldn't find a satisfactory way to include it in the picture.

[Halichoeres]

I love it! Inventive but ecologically plausible color schemes. It almost looks like the work of someone who has taken underwater photographs in Tennessee.

[Saarlooswolfhound]

All of this is amazing... truly great work! I love that edaphosaurus and your most recent painting.

[Newt]

Thank you, @Saarlooswolfhound !

Thanks, @Halichoeres ! I'm glad the colorations seem plausible, that's what I was going for. Except the juvenile Scaumenacia, which really should be drab or cryptic, but I thought they would look better in red livery.

I'm a bit ashamed that I fell into the old trope of making the Bothriolepis' armor a completely different color from its unarmored parts. I painted them unicolorous at first, but I just didn't like the way it looked.

[Halichoeres]

I was gonna say maybe the Scaumenacia are eating lots of chironomids, but those didn't show up for another hundred million years...

[Newt]

Maybe it's aposematic, and they're chockfull of tetraodotoxins or something. Yeah, that's the ticket!

[Halichoeres]

I read that in Jon Lovitz's voice, as I am sure you intended.

[Newt]

Indubitably!

I'm enjoying making these lagerstatten-based paintings (not that you can tell by my productivity level) and I'd like to make some more. Some candidates on my list so far:

Agate Springs
Solnhofen
Fossil Lake
Dry Mesa
Gogo
Bear Gulch
Ghost Ranch
Messel
Love Bone Bed
Crato/Santana
Ischigualusto
Monte San Giorgio
Jehol
Burgess Shale
Urumaco
Bertie Waterlime/Fiddlers Green
Bromacker

Suggestions welcome!

[Halichoeres]

I mean, I'm always gonna vote Bear Gulch.

[Newt]

It's a sensible choice! My biggest hurdle with Bear Gulch so far is the near-total lack of information I can find on its most abundant animal, the reef-building sponge Arborispongia. So if anybody has papers on it or knows of good resources, please pass them on.

I started a new sculpture yesterday. Photos coming soon.