an adult Brachiosaurus walks past the camera, only its two front legs are visible, a green juvenile is camoflagued amongst the foliage in the foreground
Brachiosaurus is one of the most famous sauropods (typically large long-necked dinosaurs) that is typically reconstructed with its more complete relative: Giraffatitan, the juvenile in the foreground is based on the specimen SMA 0009 (nicknamed Toni) which might not be Brachiosaurus
a Centrosaurus with a deformed nasal horn and left epioccipitals faces head on with the camera, only some short shrubbery separating the two. the nasal horn is split in two with the right side reduced to a stub while the left side is growing out of control to the left of the animal. the left epioccipitals have the same number as the right side indicating that this is a genetic deformity where multiple epioccipitals have developed as the "wrong" kind, the second most epioccipital has recently punctured though the parietal frill fenestra and scabbed blood is seen around the wound
Centrosaurus is a kind of ceratopsian dinosaur (frilled and horned dinosaurs) that typically has a pair of epioccipitals at the top of the frill which point downwards, with the next pair creating a hooked shape. this deformity where epioccipitals are "pulled" upwards along the frill and develop in an atypical way has been observed in other ceratopsians but not Centrosaurus
a Rauisuchus quickly adopts a bipedal stance (using its tail as a third limb for balance) while my sona stands behind it and gestures towards it while looking at the camera. three abstract boxy shapes are in the background
Rauisuchus is the namesake for the paraphyletic grade "Rauisuchia" which include members like Postosuchus. it was a quadrupedal and fully terrestrial ancestor of crocodiles that had a large brow ridge, most likely to help shade its eyes from the sun
a Muttaburrasaurus takes a drink during the day, blurry rock formations can be seen in the background
Muttaburrasaurus is one of the most well known australian dinosaurs, recently the holotype was reinterpreted, the depictions where the nose was large and continuous is based on a misinterpretation of the material, in actuality the bony crest curves downwards before the end of the mouth making the jaw end in a point rather than a blunt end similar to ceratopsian beaks. here i chose to not reconstruct it with the typical nose balloons, and in their place put a fleshy comb, i speculate that the extra space in the nose was for sound amplification and gave them chicken-like wattle earlobes to help dampen the volume of their speculated loud calls. a recent paper has placed it within the clade Elasmaria as opposed to a hadrosaur-line iguanodont, its new cranial anatomy matches the group very well at a glance
here's what we sketched during this week's #Paleostream flocking:
Brachiosaurus, Centrosaurus, Rauisuchus, and Muttaburrasaurus
#AusPalaeo
