Here's a little guide (also inspired by Knuppe's formation work) of the common and scientific names of each animal I illustrated!

#SharkWeek BONUS!
The cast of sharks and rays in the Marine Protected Areas of southern California hold a special place in my heart and to celebrate my last year of university here I spent weeks on this mural (inspired by Joschua Knuppe) of the native species I've come to love!

#SharkWeek2025 Day 7: Dasmyliobatis thomyorkei
Despite appearing like a generic ray, Dasmyliobatis represents an intermediary state between the eagle rays and whiptail rays (or what many consider stingrays). The holotype was discovered in Italian rocks dating to the Eocene.

#SharkWeek2025 Day 5: Galagadon nordquistae
Named after its teeth that resemble the spaceships in Galaga, this holotype of this freshwater carpet shark was famously discovered near the remains of Sue the T.rex. Unlike the giant dinosaur, Galagadon only was about a foot or so long.

#sharkweek2025 Day 4: Rolfodon goliath
An extinct relative of modern frilled sharks, R.goliath was discovered to be from the Late Cretaceous of Angola, and lives up to its species name: potentially growing up to 6 meters (or almost 20 feet) long!

#SharkWeek2025 Day 3: Metopacanthus granulatus
Despite looking like it has two mouths, the upper appendage of this Jurassic chimaera relative is likely a head clasper, which is used in holding onto females during reproduction, supported with en elongated cartilaginous rostrum!

#SharkWeek2025 Day 2: Iniopteryx rushlaui
This strange animal superficially resembles flying fish, but is actually more related to the modern day chimaera. Found in warm shallow Carboniferous seas, this fish grew just over a foot long, and used its large pectoral fins for locomotion.

#SharkWeek2025 Day 1: Acanthodes bronii
Part of the acanthodiians, or "spiny sharks", this Permian fish is believed to provide insight into the common ancestors of both cartilaginous and bony fish. Acanthodes was found to be toothless and thus could have been a suspension feeder!

Some sketches I did while watching the new #WalkingWithDinosaurs2025

A practice sketch of a fisherman catching a small Clavusodens.

Traskasaura sandrae, a newly described genus and species of basal elasmosaurid, from Early Cretaceous British Columbia that shares several morphological convergences with the later derived aristonectiines.

Gadusaurus, a recently described species of ichthyosaur from the Early Jurassic of Portugal.

A sketch of the recently published paper's describing of Pararhincodon torquis, a stem-parascylliid related to modern day collared carpetsharks, found in the Cretaceous Chalk of the UK.

An illustration of the Eocene fish, Dibango volans. A fish of unknown placement, it's anomalous features appear similar to that of larval teleost fishes, but had levels of ossification on the bones akin to adults, leading to a possibility of a paedomorphic fish.

A practice sketch of a breaching Helicoprion, also known as the buzzsaw shark, despite being a holocephalid, or being related to modern day chimaera.

🌊🌿There's a whole world of forests beneath the waves. This #InternationalDayofForests, we're celebrating Scripps Oceanography researchers who study these underwater ecosystems to understand their role in carbon storage, marine biodiversity and coastal resilience. 🧵 ⬇️

The petalodont Clavusodens in dark water.

Everyone's favourite new therizinosaur, the one with only two main fingers. Not published as I write this!

The famous sabretooth salmon, showing gaping jaws wide in dark water.

Some kind of fin-backed dinosaur that I haven't seen before, in the water with a fish in its mouth.

#ArtBoost today is for CJSEA @cjsea.bsky.social, marine biology student and scientific illustrator at Uni California San Diego, a big fan of chondrichthyans (sharks and kin), archosaurs and other beasts, and who's doing really nice portraits and environmental scenes. Also met Tiktaalik recently!

Thank you so much for this! You have no idea how much this means to me, and I'm so happy to see my hard work in illustration paying off!!!

Practicing better lighting and water effects with an illustration of a Spinosaurus snacking on a small Concavodectum. This turned out amazing and I'm 95% happy with how it turned out!!

A quick sketch of the newly announced two-clawed therizinosaur Duonychus tsogtbaatar.

The longfin greeneye is a species of lizardfish found in Antarctic waters. Its genus name, Lagiacrusichthys, refers to a popular Leviathan from the Monster Hunter game series. Its large upward-facing eyes are used to detect bioluminescent prey in the deep.

Clavusodens mcginnisi is a new genus of petalodont, a relative of modern day chimaera. Known from teeth dating from Carboniferous rocks in Mammoth Cave National Park, this cartilaginous fish lived in shallow seas, where they likely lived similar to modern triggerfish.

Another practice sketch, this time of the unique mosasaur Megapterygius! Found in rocks in Japan dating to the Late Cretaceous, it is rather the interesting case with evidence of a dorsal fin, and the only known mosasaur to have one!

A quick sketch of a Platypterygius, a paraphyletic genus of Cretaceous ichthyosaur that contains numerous species. No particular species was used as reference, but I did use a Hector's dolphin as reference for the colors.

An illustration of the infamous Otodus megalodon based on a paper released recently that explores its physiology, speed, and life history. What I drew here is only based on the paper's evidence and modern illustrations.

palaeo-electronica.org/content/2025...

Carpathospinosus propheticus is a prehistoric species of spikefish found in Polish rocks dating to the Oligocene. It lived in what was the late Tethys Sea, and was related to the Triacanthodinae, a subfamily that contains most extant spikefish.

I even got to hold a cast of the skull of what I believe was the original holotype of Tiktaalik!!

Today, I had the honor of listening to and getting to meet Neil Shubin, one of the co-discoverers of Tiktaalik roseae!! While listening to the talk, I took the opportunity to learn about its unique bone structure and illustrated this sketch! Even got it signed!

Cooking up some things in the back.

"Lord of the Lake"

Gaiasia jennyae is the largest known genus of stem-tetrapod that has digits. Found from Namibian rocks dating to the early Permian, it habitated in cold lakes in Southern Gondwana as an apex predator, hunting fish and other tetrapods.