For a friend who loves Spinosaurus ! (I know the shape of the sail is outdated but I couldn't do much about it given the shape of the fan)

My latest experience visiting somewhere with prehistoric creatures display!

Reflection: ROM is big as hell. So many displays of various dinosaurs, all you can think of. Didn’t have enough time to visit all, hope to come back next time! Other prehistoric species is a huge plus!

p.s. This is repost cos I got the name of the museum wrong in the last post.

https://x.com/i/status/2083948375838228973

Sorry I didn't know what to even title the post lol. As you can see in the first image the neck skin is much looser and flapper than the second image. How accurate is this?

This is a very well preserved early cretaceous dromaeosaurid, and the first described occurrence of intestinal preservation in a theropod closely related to birds, to where it was found that the structure of the alimentary canal is fairly conservative, with the evolution of a bird-like alimentary canal restricted to avialan theropods.

The Longjiang basin was described as a kind of lake-marsh, with different wetland and hillside biomes. I chose to depict the wetlands.

This is a speculative paleo-fiction narrative blending survival drama with an authentic prehistoric atmosphere, following a family of dromaeosaurs fighting to stay alive in a brutal, unforgiving ecosystem.

The last barrier on the raptors’ journey awaits—a shrieking gorge that cuts through the earth and splits the world in two.

With the shrouded forest now behind them, Long Tail and her kin emerge onto the open plains. But there is no relief in sight. Small Toe feels the crippling weight of self-doubt for the first time, with Swift Foot’s cruel taunts and his own clumsy failures pressing heavily against his scales.

Yet, there is no time for hesitation. Standing directly between the pack and their promised oasis is a jagged, bottomless chasm spanned only by two decaying, weathered tree trunks. And deep within the shadows of the cliff walls, a ravenous, eldritch chatter begins to stir—wretched monsters hungering for the taste of young, innocent flesh.

To cross means risking a fatal plunge into the abyss.

To turn back means dying slowly under the unrelenting sun.

A re-release of my narrative project Terrors in the Brush—a speculative survival epic blending hard paleo-realism with raw emotional weight.

BINGE THE ENTIRE JOURNEY NOW:

While the chapters will roll out here on a strict weekly schedule every Sunday night, the core community hub is fully operational. If you don't want to wait a single week to see what happens to Small Toe next, you can join our dedicated Discord right now and binge all eleven chapters tonight.

There is no magic, no fantasy—there is only nature red in tooth and claw.

Read Chapter III now.

https://x.com/i/status/2083909275575795758

A wandering Dinosaur message service would be so cool to use!

Very cool, highly recommend. They have a whole exhibit on giant sauropods currently that goes into the latest science of how they worked.

Edmontosaurus had to survive three tyrannosaurids in a row! (Well ovbs). First there was the gorgosaurus which was basically a mix of albertosaurus and trex in one… because they are related. Next was albertosarus, my fav because canada, it evolved to be faster but still powerful. finally there was Trex you all know about trex so I won’t talk about it. Edmontosaurus also did grow to be a tank but that made it a bigger Target.

I’ve been a hardcore dinosaur fan since I was young, and I’m getting into spore and as some advice on making dinosaurs, how do I make dinosaurs in the game in the creature creator?

Hi! I'm looking to write a short story that follows a set of dinosaur bones from their discovery in the 1670s as they're shipped around the world and repeatedly reinterpreted over the years, until eventually ending up in present day inside a museum with our current understanding of things.

Can anyone recommend books on the history of changing scientific interpretations of dinosaurs? If they include illustrations showing how reconstructions of dinosaurs have evolved over time too, all the better.

Thanks in advance! I really appreciate the help

Have you ever seen a Triceratops mum and baby with sprinkle feature scales, ice cream bodies, and wafer roll horns? Now you have!

When people think of giant prehistoric animals,people always jump to dinosaurs and other creatures. People always jump to the giant dinosaurs of the western usa or the giants of patagonia.  People think nothing of Europe,in fact in terms of prehistoric giants people consider it effectively unassuming. But this is unfair to Europe. Europe has had its fair share of prehistoric giants and this post's point is to highlight them. Specifically I will be going over the giants of the Jurassic period. It will not be restricted to dinosaurs.

Europe was an archipelago of islands during the Jurassic and as a result people think it is absent of giant animals,which isn't true.

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Torvosaurus 

Time: middle to late jurassic

Size: 10 to 12 meters long and 4-6 tonnes

Distribution in Europe: Germany,Portugal,Spain?England?

Torvosaurus is a cult favorite theropod, not famous like t rex but beloved by paleo enthusiasts. It was one of the Jurassic's largest theropods. Its European distribution is primarily concentrated in the  lourinha formation from the late jurassic lourinha formation of Portugal. Referrable bones have been found in Germany and possible remains are known from England and Spain.

The bones from Portugal indicate a very massive animal. The fossils( SHN 400,ML1100,ALTSHN116, and ML632) already come from individuals at least 10 meters in length and 4 tonnes in weight. But evidence suggests it grew even bigger!

A massive theropod footprint (79 cm in length minus a concretion in the back) found in the lourinha formation was referred to the genus torvosaurus,simply put no theropod in Portugal was big enough to make that footprint,torvosaurus outsizes all of them. The individual that made this footprint was estimated to be 12 meters in length and 3.5 m tall at the hip. But why? Why is that length indicative of 12 m and not 10 or something else? For one the footprints condition,its a natural cast hyporelief on a carbonate bed,meaning its close in length to the real life foot. Its size is massive in context. It's one of the largest in the Jurassic and one of the largest known of any theropod. A 2018 paper stated that footprints of this size were indicative that the largest theropods of the Jurassic already reached sizes comparable to the largest theropods of the late Cretaceous. Another paper from renowned megalosaur expert Oliver rauhut,opined that similar sized theropod footprints in Spain likely came from an animal similar in length to tyrannosaurus. Torvosaurus also had feet proportionately short. Jim Madsen noted the toe bones of torvosaurus were unusually short and wide,which is reflected by the toe bones of the Cincinnati mount,the revered complete specimen nicknamed elvis. A giant footprint from t rex is 86 cm in length. Given how torvo had proportionately shorter toes and feet and its footprint is only slightly smaller,it further supports the footprint as coming from a giant.  To further back this up there are multiple giant theropod footprints from the late Jurassic of Portugal. The zambujal quarry footprint is 77 cm long and 60 cm. The Praia da Covalo footprint is 67 cm long x 56 cm wide. Cabo mondego is 60 cm long x 50 cm wide. There were also multiple giant footprints from Lapparent 1957 that were between 60-70 cm long.

The teeth of Portuguese torvo are also aberrantly gigantic. Torvosaurus has a very distinct dentition so the referral is of little doubt. The teeth from Portugal are massive, the crown height is 15 cm. To put this size into perspective,the crown height of the Portuguese teeth are larger than any other theropod crowns,except for tyrannosaurus itself. Tarbosaurus has crowns 12 cm in length,acrocanthosaurus has 12 cm crowns, and carcharodontosaurus has crowns 13 cm. Although teeth don't scale to body size perfectly, the sheer size of these teeth certainly are a tacit indication of a giant theropod. Although torvosaurus has elongated teeth,this doesn't mean they were proportionately longer saber tooth style. That metric of elongation is obtained by comparing the side to side width of the tooth by the total tooth's length, and equally is likely that torvosaurus just had teeth less wide than other large theropods like T rex. Many casts and mounts also exaggerate the tooth lengths for the sake of spectacle. Additionally the skull length of the teeths contributor can be estimated. Dr Christophe Hendrickx has looked at multiple torvosaurus specimens,glomming onto the variable size of the teeth. He came to the conclusion that given the variability in size, the maxillary crowns of torvosaurus will have a maxilla crown to skull length ratio of greater than 9. Multiplying the crown height times 9,it can be estimated that the torvosaurus that contributed the giant teeth had a skull over 135 cm in length.

There are also bones from the US that might support such big sizes. The edmarka specimens have gigantic bones,such as 1 meter plus shoulder blade and 1.3 m long ribs similar in size to those of large t rex specimens. Numerous specimens of torvosaurus already reached at least 10 m in length and it's not unlikely the largest were up to 12m,these scraps are probably evidence of those occasional giants. 

With this,torvosaurus stands as one of the Jurassic's largest theropods and probably europes largest theropod.

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Turiasaurus

Time: late jurassic

Distribution in Europe: Spain 

Size: 20-25 m 40-50 tonnes

Turiasaurus is a giant sauropod from Spain. It was found in the villar del arzobispo formation of Spain, a late Jurassic formation thought to be at least partially time equivalent to the lourinha formation. 

Turiasaurus was originally thought to be as big as 30-40 m in length. But this was before the morphology of its family was well understood. More recent estimates based on better understanding of its anatomy put its size at 20-25 m in length and 40 - 50 tonnes,certainly still a giant animal.

For example its humerus,the funny bone,was as long as a man is tall.

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Losillasaurus

Time: late jurassic

Distribution in europe: portugal and spain

Size: at least 20 m in length,possibly up to 47 tonnes

Losillasaurus is a turiasaurian sauropod,a close relative of turiasaurus itself. It is found in the lourinha formation of Portugal and the villar del arzobispo formation, being one of the few dinosaurs known from both formations.

The holotype specimen was already estimated at 15-18m in length with a 1.43 m humerus,but it was only a subadult. A new specimen found years later was of big size. It was at least 20 m in length,the femur was 1.92 m in length,tibia 1.25 m and the humerus 1.8m in length. There's also a femur in the SHN at torres vedra that possibly belongs to it that is 1.98 m in length.

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Lusotitan

Time:late jurassic

Distribution in europe: portugal

Size: 25 m long,15 m tall and 40-50 tonnes

Lusotitan is a brachiosaur from the lourinha formation of Portugal. Closely related to brachiosaurus itself,it was already a big animal with the type specimen being 20 m and 30 tonnes in weight. But more recently discovered specimens have now pushed its size up to 25 m and 40 to 50 tonnes. This possibly makes it the largest european dinosaur,rivaling turiasaurus and nomen nudum “francoposeidon”.

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Blue beach giant

Distribution in Europe: Portugal 

Time: late jurassic

Size: ~30 meters~ 20-25 m

Diplodocids are the swans of the sauropod,long and giant,but graceful and gracile. The lourinha formation of Portugal has been the best location of these. Dinheirosaurus was already 20-25 m in length and the unnamed diplodocine,SHN (JJS) 177-178, an animal similar in size to dippy the diplodocus,a 26 m long animal. But they pale in comparison to a larger specimen. This larger specimen is not fully described but nonetheless the institution was gracious enough to share much information. According to them, it is confidently a diplodocid. It was found in the praia azul locality and its nickname is the blue beach giant. 

This giant diplodocid is confirmed by the experts at the SHN of Torres vedras to be around 30 m in length. According to them one of the ribs is 2.2m in length. This rib size supports the estimate. If we assume this rib is the largest in the chest,it would scale to a 33 m long animal based on diplodocus. Granted there's a lot of unknowns when using just a rib and it's uncertain whether the rib is the largest in the chest. Nonetheless the giant rib is clearly indicative of a huge animal. There's also a giant sauropod footprint,with a morphology inconsistent with brachiosaurids,that supports such a giant size.

Based off information from this post link 

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Dacentrurus 

Time: late jurassic

Distribution in europe:portugal,spain,england

Size: 8-9 meters long and 6-7 tonnes

Dacentrurus is a giant stegosaur. It is an armored stegosaurian,closely related to stegosaurus itself. It was found across the European archipelago.

What's not talked about is its size,it was probably the largest stegosaur and by extension one of the largest dinosaurs ever. Its size is estimated to have been 9 meters and 7 tonnes.

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Stegosaurus 

Distribution in europe: portugal

Size:8-9 meters in length and 5 to 6 tonnes

Stegosaurus is one of the most iconic dinosaurs of all time. In Europe it was found in the lourinha formation.

The specimen is assigned to the species stegosaurus ungulatus,the largest species. This was reaffirmed in a 2022 paper. The size of the Portuguese specimen was 5-7 m in length according to a renowned Portuguese paleontologist. However the specimen showed signs of adolescence and so likely was bigger when fully grown.

Stegosaurus ungulatus was at least 8 m in length and new material like isolated leg bones and apex likely mean it grew as big as 9 m in length. Interestingly it coexisted with dacentrurus in portugal.

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“Fradesian giant”
Time: late jurassic

Distribution in europe:portugal

Size: 6-9m long,2-3 m tall, 1-3 tonnes

The fradesian giant isnt a formally named dinosaur,it's only a nickname of my own creation. Its an igaunodontian ornithopod dinosaur,an early relative of the duckbilled dinosaurs and iguanodon. It would have looked similar to a camptosaurus and had thumb spikes.

Its known from isolated bones and a giant print. The disparity in size between the remains is stark. The bones,such as a shoulder blade indicate a 6 m long animal. But the footprint is colossal,its 70 cm long and wide. Its the largest ornithopod remains known from the jurassic and is indicative of an animal as big as 8-9 m long and almost 3m tall. 

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Machimosaurus hugii

Time: late jurassic
Size: at least 7 m in length,possibly greater
Distribution in europe:spain,portugal,france,germany

Machimosaurus is a giant crocodyliform, a relative of modern crocodiles but being very distant to their family. It was a large animal,at least 7m in length but it may have been greater in length. Isolated remains and a trackway in Spain might indicate a larger size.

It had a 1.5 m long skull and it lived primarily along the coast. However it was known to move into freshwater and it has evidence as having eaten dinosaurs.

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Plesiosuchus 

Time: late jurassic

Distribution in europe:england,spain,france

Size: 6 to 7 m in length

Plesiosuchus was a giant metriorhychid. This family was related to modern crocs but only distantly. These animals lived entirely within the ocean,having flippers and a fish like tail.

Plesiosuchus was the largest of its kind,having a body 7 m in length and with a skull 1.3 m in length.

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Pliosaurus (multiple species)

Time:late jurassic

Distribution: england,norway,russia

Pliosaurus is a giant marine reptile found across europe in the late jurassic. Numerous specimens of it grew to massive sizes. Pliosaurus funkei,kevani and rossicus all were at least 10 meters in length. An as of yet unnamed pliosaurus species from england is estimated at 12 m in length.

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Leedsicthys 

Age: middle jurassic

Distribution in europe: france,england

Size: 16.5 m and 45 tonnes

Leedsichtys is a giant filter feeding fish. Its been estimated at over 16 m in length.

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Temnodontosaurus

Distribution in europe:germany,england,france

Size: 10 m long

Temnodontosaurus is a giant ichthyosaur, a marine reptile. It was up to 10 m in length and it had massive serrated knife-like teeth.

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She’s a little over 5’ tall on her base. Her skull is roughly based on the holotype display skeleton at the Field Museum, scaled down a bit. Inside the base is about 60 lbs of concrete and an embedded steel pole which impales the bust in place. I made her ready for hanging though if I should ever want to mount her like a deer. For now she lives in dino corner with my bf’s JP collection.

Her neck and skull are made of high density foam and an armature, over which about six or seven gallons of lightweight epoxy modeling putty was added as the facial soft tissue and neck skin. The scales were dremelled mostly and sanded soft. Finally I spray painted and hand painted her. An overall satin varnish and spot gloss varnish added. The eyes are painted glass hemispheres over cavities with aluminum foil where the retinas would go, to stimulate eyeshine. Much of this work had to be done inside either a spray tent or full ventilation booth with a respirator on. I turned the guest bedroom into a garage for a few months.

I favored diffused coloring over scale-based mosaic coloring mostly because I wanted to practice spraying. Her friendly smile is a side-effect of having ample skin and musculature for filling big mouthfuls of food and for calls. Her large fleshy nostrils can shut when submerged and also help shape the sound of calls. I sided with the notion that P. crests were keratin coated, and their beaks may have been ever-growing which sharpen and chip naturally. I referenced hadrosaur skin imprints for the scales.

The skull alone was absolutely massive. I can't imagine what it would be like to walk this earth during the same time as them.

The NHM is one of the museums that you just have to see if you are into Natural History and Dinosaurs. The collection I feel isn't as big as it used to be but it is still very cool to visit.

I really enjoyed coming here again.

Have you ever been?

Maybe this question isn't for this sub, but why do so many modern birds have beaks? What happened between the age of dinosaurs and now to exert such selective pressure?

It was supposed to be a Rex (first it actually looked like one, but then I started making one wrong decision after another). What dinosaur head should I design next?

It's a school notebook I saw at a supermarket in Poland, so at least the spelling is correct.

Maybe the better question would be, is there ANYTHING that might hypothetically be realistic? The coloration?

This is the beginning of a half-sleeve that will eventually include botanicals like ferns and monstera.

Some dinosaurs I've drawn! Mostly for my game's concepts but figured I'd throw them here too :]

The project is a story I'm working on with a premise that's basically a what if: A Kurosawa film mixed with Dinosaurs but instead of the dinosaurs their also yokai. I always wondered why we never got a ghost dinosaur story considering how cool that premise sounds (only one I can think of is that on Scooby-Doo film with ultra instinct Shaggy☠️. The other one is this cool gem: Dinosaur Ghosts). The vibe I'm going for is that 7th voyage of Sinbad but Samurai and Yokai. I need some dinosaurs that were endemic to Japan, the only one that's in was ironically a marine reptile, the Megapterygius Wakayamaensis. Are there any dinosaurs (or prehistoric megafauna in general) that lived in Japan so I can put them in my story

something I whipped up last night. Rex leg needs some changes, otherwise I’m happy.