Halichoeres's drawings

[Bokisaurus]

Very nice, it somewhat reminds me of a tetra😃

[Halichoeres]

Very nice, it somewhat reminds me of a tetra😃

Thank you! The body shape is somewhat like a tetra, now that you mention it, like an extra-large Brycinus or Rhoadsia.

[ceratopsian]

I'm enjoying your vibrant coloured fish drawings very much.  Thank you for sharing.

[Avian]

I really appreciate your work. In most paleoart, fish seem to be equivalent to decorations, and are never really the true focus of the work. Your drawings really bring justice to the prehistoric fishes, and show them in a new light, where they can hold their own against the T-Rexes of paleoart.

[Halichoeres]

Thank you both! Today's entry isn't quite as vibrant.


Dongfangaspis qujingensis, a galeaspid (jawless fish) from the Lower Devonian. Its mouth, as I understand it, was underneath, like that of a ray. This anterior opening is frequently restored as just a gaping hole. I figured if it's hiding from predators or lying in wait for prey by burying itself in sediment, it might want a soft-tissue valve-like structure to occlude the opening if it needed to. So I gave it one, and it makes it look a little more like a ray spiracle than a jet engine intake. The grooves on the dorsal surface probably housed electrosensory equipment and pressure sensors.

[Libraraptor]

I am very impressed by your skills!

[Shonisaurus]

Magnificent paleoartistic representation of one of the first prehistoric fish that traveled the world's oceans. I congratulate you Halichoeres for your art that leaves no one indifferent.

[Halichoeres]

Thank you both. This week I've gone for a little more levity.


Vitruvian Bothriolepis, based on da Vinci's diagram


And as a bonus, my Griphognathus from a few months back meets The Rommelpot Player

[Shonisaurus]

You have been very clever. As I have seen over the years, you are in love with marine life, particularly fish. Going to the point, magnificent drawing! I congratulate you!

[Halichoeres]

Thanks, Shoni, very kind.

[Libraraptor]

Very interesting interpretation of da Vinci´s diagram.

[Stegotyranno420]

Thank you both. This week I've gone for a little more levity.


Vitruvian Bothriolepis, based on da Vinci's diagram


And as a bonus, my Griphognathus from a few months back meets The Rommelpot Player

It looks like something you would find on a lithograph from an alien race, but its more closely related to us than most life on earth

[Halichoeres]

Four years ago @SBell asked me to draw him a Serenoichthys, one of the surprisingly few fossil bichir taxa known. Because of grad school stuff, I never finished. Serenoichthys was described in 1999 based on most of the dermal armor, but no head. Most people were reconstructing it with a narrow, Polypterus-like head, but that seemed wrong to me, so I got this far before other things got in the way:



And man, I wish I'd finished, because as part of the big Kem Kem monograph, Ibrahim et al. published the first photo I'm aware of of a Serenoichthys specimen with a head:



I feel like I got pretty close! I'll have to do an updated version soon.

[SBell]

That was a pretty good interpretation of Serenoichthys. Looking at the whole body, it does make sense.

[Shonisaurus]

@Halichoeres Now you can safely draw the Serenoichthys its complete fossil is already known. Your old interpretation is quite close to the fish whose remains have been found recently.

[Halichoeres]

Updated Onchopristis. It didn't look that much like a modern sawfish.



• The rostral (snout) teeth were barbed, rather than conical, and replaceable, so they varied in size.
• The rostrum was more tapered (my drawing actually still shows it too square and straight)
• The dorsal fins were way in the back, and the pelvic fins were right behind the pectorals
• The back bore denticles (toothlike structures) like a thornback ray which would have done some damage to anything attacking from above.

[Shonisaurus]

I really like the drawing of the onchopristis it looks phenomenal. By the way, Halichoeres, how much do you think that very rare prehistoric fish could have measured at most?

[Halichoeres]

I really like the drawing of the onchopristis it looks phenomenal. By the way, Halichoeres, how much do you think that very rare prehistoric fish could have measured at most?

Thank you. There aren't any whole specimens known, but based on better-preserved relatives it might have been up to 6 meters long. Perhaps exceptional individuals got even larger, but we don't have any evidence for them.

[Stegotyranno420]

@Halichoeres  by the way im making a rhizodus sculpture. Its still in progress.

[Shonisaurus]

I really like the drawing of the onchopristis it looks phenomenal. By the way, Halichoeres, how much do you think that very rare prehistoric fish could have measured at most?

Thank you. There aren't any whole specimens known, but based on better-preserved relatives it might have been up to 6 meters long. Perhaps exceptional individuals got even larger, but we don't have any evidence for them.

Heavens! Because it was a fairly large fish more than six meters, it made it by far an important marine predator.