Sophie M.

@sophiesaurus98

Writer for Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs - Creator of the speculative evolution project "A New Age of Reptiles" - Natural History and Palaeontology Pop Culture - 28 - (she/her)

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Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· 29d

Today’s four random pieces of palaeoart: Neave Parker’s Protoceratops, Zdeněk Berger’s “Brachiosaurus” (Giraffatitan), John Conway’s Ceratosaurus, and Emilano Troco’s Edaphosaurus!

A Protoceratops with wide-sprawling forelimbs oversees the hatching of a clutch of babies, which look like tiny versions of the adult. Behind, fallen logs and twigs form a tangle.

An impressively muscled, towering brachiosaur with smooth, grey-brown skin and strongly differentiated fingers and toes ending in large claws.

A close-up of an outrageously ornamented Ceratosaurus, showing off its fluorescent keratinous crest and sharp scales.

A pin-headed, blue-sailed Edaphosaurus wallows in a mud pit. A huge red griffinfly clings to its sail, contrasting against the pale blue. A dense thicket of tall horsetails surround the animals.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· 29d

In lieu of actual project updates, here’s a few previews of A New Age Of Reptiles stuff I’ve yet to publicly share. Art courtesy of @manusuchus.bsky.social, Wyatt Andrews, and @astrapionte.bsky.social!

Arms and neck of a splotchy-patterned blue-grey and yellow monitor lizard. Art by Manusuchus

Portrait of a slender-jawed sebecid with a deep throat pouch hanging off a long, slim neck. Art by Manusuchus

Close up of the fanged, fearsome mouth of a primate-like mammal. Art by Wyatt Andrews

Partial views of various giant birds, each with varied feather density and patterns. One is nearly bare skinned, with a grey, splotchy hide. One has brown feathers covering its rump, and is raising its robust foot as it runs. Another is extensively feathered and has a wing ending in a single long, crescent-shaped claw.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jul 11

Today's four random pieces of palaeoart: @aberrantologist.bsky.social's Guidraco, Ely Kish's Velociraptor, Zdenek Burian's "Monoclonius", and Maurice Wilson's Stegosaurus!

Portrait of the pterosaur Guidraco. Its elongated, interlocking teeth contrast against its dark black skin and filaments. It has a red throat pouch that extends into an area of bare red skin around the eye, giving it a fearsome but beautiful appearance.

Portrait of a green and yellow-scaled Velociraptor. Its head is tilted towards the viewer, showing its recurved teeth. Above, an orange-faced Pteranodon soars.

A pair of heavyset, tail-dragging centrosaurines stand in the shadows of palms in a desert landscape. In the distance, a trio of slim, scaly ornithomimosaurs prowl.

A straight-legged, tail-dragging Stegosuarus with a mottled brown hide highlighted with whites and blacks. Its plates form two parallel rows down its back, and its hands and feet have an elephantine shape.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jul 9

If you see this, post your comfort characters.

Japanese poster for "Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster" featuring Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra facing off against Ghidorah.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jul 9

Today's four (not so random) random pieces of palaeoart: Charles Knight's Carboniferous Coal Swamp, E. Boyd Smith's Permian Scene, @prehistorica.bsky.social's Arthropleura, and Matt Celeskey's Cotylorhynchus!

A riparian forest choked by horsetails and towering scale trees. A dark-skinned, broad-headed temnospondyl cruises down a stream, while a small salamander-like tetrapod hauls itself out of the water.

A Permian lakeside, prowled by a menagerie of strange creatures including a fuzzy-faced, elongated Dimetrodon, a snail-like ammonite, and a hulking green herbivore with a spiny back. In the lake, a long-necked ichthyosaurian creature and a swan-necked plesiosaur can be seen.

A wide-bodied, studded Arthropleura trundles along a seashore. Its spiky back has a simple, earthy brown colour with two long black streaks down its length, flecked with little dots of red.

A hulking Cotylorhynchus digs into wet mud, tearing up roots as rain pours down on its wrinkled, lightly scaled hide.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jul 8

Today’s four random pieces of palaeoart: Tim Bradley’s Pachycephalosaurus, @cmkosemen.bsky.social’s Dimetrodon, Richard Orr’s Allosaurus, and Matt Martyniuk’s Sinocalliopteryx and Sinornithosaurus!

A blue-grey Pachycephalosaurus with a yellow-tinted dome rams a rival off a rocky hillside.

A stumpy-tailed Dimetrodon with a soft, dog-like red face stands in a sprawl in a barren Permian landscape.

A deep-bodied, pear-shaped Allosaurus with bright red skin and blue streaks and splotches. Its long arms are held in a half-curled posture, stretching out in front of it. Behind, a lush green forest stretches behind, giving way to distant rocky plateaus.

A grey-feathered Sinocalliopteryx looks at the viewer, clutching a dead Sinornithosaurus in its toothy jaws.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jul 7

I just received my copy of @sharkbitesteve.bsky.social’s new dinosaur art book, complete with a specially requested Coelophysis sketch! It’s absolutely lovely and you should definitely consider getting one for yourself.

Steve White’s “Dinosaur Drawings” art book cover, featuring an imposing, strongly shaded Tyrannosaurus portrait.

Interior page of the book, with two tyrannosaur sketches and a bespoke Coelophysis sketch.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jul 6

A portrait of my favourite animal in the entire history of the planet: Coelophysis bauri! I don't do as much palaeoart as I'd like to, but I'm constantly imagining prehistoric animals in life and love the rare instances where I can bring those ideas to life through art.

A portrait of the long-skulled early theropod Coelophysis, shown with a bright red eye and a skull buried in long, simple black and white filaments.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jul 4

A New Age of Reptiles: Bristly Surf Shrew In the New Age of Reptiles, placentals are just one among many lineages of eutherians. Surf Shrews, initially misidentified as eulipotyphlans, are members of a large clade of mostly invertivorous mammals common in the Northern Hemisphere. (1/7)

A Bristly Surf Shrew, a chunky, desman-like mammal with a thick and roughly scaled tail and widely flaring nose. It has a grizzly fur pattern and a yellowish patch of skin surrounding the nostrils. A size comparison with a human hand shows it to be roughly the size of a hand with extended fingers. Text above reads "Bristly Surf Shrew"

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jul 4

Dinosaur Comics is the most notable example, and I'm certain this was my first encounter with Burian's Tarbosaurus in a different guise. It really is a shame because it's one of my all-time favourite dinosaur paintings!

Panel from a Dinosaur Comics strip, showing a Burian-esque Tarbosaurus presented as a Tyrannosaurus, looking at a scaly, muppet-faced Utahraptor.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jul 4

Imagine if scraps of T.rex were known during the construction of the Crystal Palace dinosaur park... "...estimated to be ninety feet in length, the Tyrannosaurus is a supreme expression of the form typified by the Megalosaurus of England's oolite, unequaled by any carnivorous saurian of any age..."

A hump-backed Victorian theropod with a bear-like quadrupedal posture. The skull is robust and deep, with recurved teeth and a vivid red eye.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jul 3

Today’s four random pieces of palaeoart: @bobnichollsart.bsky.social’s Psittacosaurus, William Stout’s Tyrannosaurus, Ely Kish’s Triceratops, and Emiliano Troco’s Estemmenosuchus!

A pair of brown and black-speckled Psittacosaurus engage in some mutual rump-sniffing.

A group of slindly, emaciated Tyrannosaurus chicks. In the middle of the group, two play-wrestle, one pinning the other down with its jaws. Another two are chasing a mayfly.

Two hulking Triceratops with wide, sprawling postures move through a muddy forest clearing. Above, the sky is full of huge grey clouds.

Front-view of an Estemennosuchus in a weed-choked swamp. Its leathery pink skin contrasts against the thick greenery, and a tangle of uprooted fern fronds are interwoven amongst its complicated head ornamentation.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jul 2

Today's four (not so random) random pieces of palaeoart! Steve Kirk's Spinosaurus, Dan Varner's Cretoxyrhina, Tylosaurus, and Pteranodon, Zubin Erik Dutta's Mawsonia, and Andrey Atuchin's Tylosaurus and polycotylids!

A long-legged Spinosaurus with a vivid red and black splotched pattern runs across a desert landscape.

A huge, great white shark-like Cretoxyrhina bursts from the waves with a writhing, serpentine mosasaur in its jaws. Above, a flock of Pteranodon soar past.

Mawsonia coelocanths swim through a murky river. A tangle of wood and algae covers the riverbed. A small red-shelled turtle swims out of the path of one of the fish, while a purple and orange-striped crocodylian sits motionless beneath the passage of another.

A huge, black and white-countershaded Tylosaurus lunges at a thick-bodied polycotylid plesiosaur, narrowly missing.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jul 1

Another new doodle kaiju! GUALAS: THE BEAKED BEHEMOTH A primordial brute awoken by a logging operation in the 1980s. GUALAS' constant rampages have effectively ended deforestation in the Amazon Basin, cementing its status as an icon of pro-kaiju environmental activist groups across the globe.

A hulking brown dicynodont kaiju with white streaks along its beak. It has large, tusk-like flanges on the beak and a tuft of black hairs on its tail tip.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jul 1

Today's four random pieces of palaeoart: Robert Bruce Horsfall's Megatherium, Charles Knight's Mesonyx, John Sibbick's hadrosaurs, and William Francis Phillips' Gorgosaurus!

A pair of Megatherium, one rearing and one standing quadrupedally, stand in the shadow of a large, gnarled tree. They have thick coats of fur and short, bulbous noses that are almost trunk-like. The rearing individual grips a leafy twig with a curled tongue.

A striped Mesonyx sits on its haunches, snarling at something out of frame. It is postured over a vertebrae, in a posture that is equally dog and cat-like. A dry, lightly wooded meadow forms the background, dotted with large stones.

A trio of hadrosaur portraits: Edmontosaurus, Kritosaurus, and Corythosaurus. All three are simple shades of green, yellow, brown, or grey, and their skin is covered in large uniform scales.

A tail-dragging, broad-footed Gorgosaurus stands atop a pebbly hillside. Its slick, oily skin is stretched over a bloated, almost formless body. Its red-tinted jaws hang in a slackened gape, lined with uniform recurved teeth.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jun 29

Today's four random pieces of palaeoart: Brian Engh's Angistorhinus, @villesinkkonen.bsky.social's Australopithecus, @joannakobierska.bsky.social's Asteriornis, and Andrey Atuchin's Triceratops and Edmontosaurus!

Two high-nosed Angistorhinus phytosaurs bask on a sandy shore, one resting its jaws atop the others neck. A group of long-necked "protorosaurs" perch atop the larger phytosaur.

A sombre-looking Australopithecus anamensis looks down, showing off a head fringed by thick, white fur.

A brilliant black and white-feathered Asteriornis spreads its wings in a green meadow.

Two Triceratops, one adult and one young, drink from a river in a lush green riparian forest. Behind, a group of chocolate brown Edmontosaurus walk past. The forest stretches on into the distance, giving way to low mountains.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jun 29

Today’s four random pieces of palaeoart: Larry Felder’s Sharovipteryx, Bernard Long’s Iguanodon, Zdenek Burian’s Barosaurus, and John Dawson’s Ceratosaurus!

A sprawled, greenish-yellow Sharovipteryx perches atop a broken branch, chomping on a roach.

A frill-backed, draconic Iguanodon pushes over a scaly-trunked tree. Its long, curled tongue reaches out for green fronds and its long tail snakes across the ground.

A pair of erect-postured, swan-necked Barosaurus stand on a river shore. One looks out over the water while another catches a fish in its jaws. Cycads, tree ferns, and conifers decorate the landscape.

A splotchy-patterned Ceratosaurus stands on a sandy hill. Its scales are a rich blend of white, yellow, brown, and black. Behind, a more plainly patterned Ceratosaurus runs past.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jun 28

I spent the last few hours archiving dozens of random nature documentaries and stumbled upon something incredible. These screenshots are from the 2005 series "Europe: A Natural History" and have to be seen to be believed. Walking with Dinosaurs really was EVERYWHERE back then!

Walking with Dinosaurs Brachiosaurus wandering through an urban centre, obscured by stone buildings and iron fences.

WWD Iguanodon browsing on a tree with a stone cathedral behind.

WWD Ornithocheirus soars above a street with buildings behind.

A marble statue stands in a public square. A huge flock of pterosaurs whirls in the sky in the distance.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jun 27

Can we all take a moment to marvel over this postively spectacular draconic monstrosity my son made in Totally Accurate Battle Simulator? What a hideously wonderful beast! I'm beaming with pride.

A pale flesh-coloured, centaurian dragon with a head like a puppet, compelte with needly teeth and a protruding tongue.

Close-up of the dragon's face, showing its googly eyes, lolling tongue, and snaggle-toothed, lizard-like mouth.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jun 27

Today’s four random pieces of palaeoart: Michael Skrepnick’s Diplodocus, Douglas Henderson’s Pteranodon, Wayne Barlowe’s Baryonyx, and Peter Snowball’s Tyrannosaurus!

A pair of slender, spiny Diplodocus wander across a sandy floodplain. A young Diplodocus tags along. Thin conifer trees dot the landscape and grey clouds fill the sky.

A white Pteranodon with a striking yellow, red, and black head soars over an aquamarine sea.

A pair of glossy, wiry-muscled Baryonyx with pink faces catch fish in a flowing river surrounded by pebbly shores.

An ashy grey Tyrannosaurus strides across a dried up swamp forest, looking around with gaped jaws that show off its formidable teeth. Swamp cypress and their roots fill the landscape, and streams of fluffy clouds billow across the sky.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jun 26

Today's four random pieces of palaeoart: Alejandro De Lorenzo's Iguanodon, @maijakarala.bsky.social's Macrauchenia, Ashley Patch's Deinonychus, and @literallymiguel.bsky.social's Gigantoraptor!

A low angle view of a pastel-coloured Iguanodon carrying a snapped tree limb. It strides towards the viewer, spiked thumb pointing skyward. A tiny ant carrying a leaf stands in its path, a minisucle parallel to the giant dinosaur.

A thick-nosed Macrauchenia browses messily on wild pink peppercorn, dropping leaves and fruits as it chews.

A Deinonychus with grey-brown feathers feeds on a fish in the shallow waters of a lakeside, backed by a distant forest and an evening sky.

A low-angle view of a towering, lightly feathered Gigantoraptor. Its heavy beak is held high, looking out with an almost haughty expression. Behind, great cloud gather in the sky. Distant pterosaurs can be seen as silhouettes against the stormy sky

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jun 26

Another spur of the moment doodle kaiju! ARCTONOPS: THE SKATING SYNAPSID A Permian throwback that skates the ice fields of Antarctica. It is an enigma amongst kaiju, sporting a baffling semi-crystalline biology and utterly bizarre anatomy. Reports suggest its icy breath can chill to absolute zero.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jun 25

Today’s four random pieces of palaeoart: Dave Marrs’ Edaphosaurus, Rudolph Zallinger’s Stegosaurus, Luis Rey’s Baryonyx, and Mark Hallett’s Carcharodontosaurus and Deltadromeus!

A deep, oily green/brown Edaphosaurus with an orange frill stands atop a rocky outcrop.

A pair of hump-backed, blue-green mottled Stegosaurus with orange plates approach a pond. They are surrounded by a mix of lush green horsetails, ferns, cycads, and palm-like trees.

A Baryonyx with a yellow and black striped pattern and a red crest leers menacingly at the viewer, clawed hands curled in predatory anticipation. Another Baryonyx charges in the distance, kicking up splashes of water as it goes. The scene is bathed in a reddish evening glow.

The massive, massively muscled frame of a colossal Carcharodontosaurus lords over the carcass of another dinosaur. A streaked yellow and blue Deltadromeus with a spiny back and slender, tight musculature approaches from the right. In the distance, a pair of giant Sarcosuchus rest along a shore. A tiny turtle slips away from the dinosaurs, half submerged in water.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jun 24

PETROCHELON: HUMANITY'S FOLLY This giant, once totally harmless, became one of humanity's greatest foes after being caught in a major spill. It roams the world's oceans, mad with pain, indiscriminately attacking vessels, oil rigs, and other creatures with no concern for its own wellbeing.

A giant sea turtle partially coated in slick oil which drags behind it in black tendrils. Its bloodshot eye peers from beneath, and its gaping maw suggests it is in terrible pain.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jun 24

Today's four random pieces of palaeoart: Jan Sovák's Talarurus, Piero Cozzaglio's "Monoclonius", John Sibbick's Ornithomimus, and José Olivier's Cynognathus!

A squat, earthy-toned Talarurus hides beneath leafy fronds, blending in with the stony ground below. The shadow of a tyrannosaur hovers menacingly above.

A hunch-backed, rough-scaled ceratopsian with a long nasal horn and short frill. It stands in a squat posture with widely sprawling arms and erect legs, its tail drooping to meet the ground.

A scaly red Ornithomimus messily devours an egg buried in a depression between sand dunes.

Two pink-skinned, wrinkly Cynognathus prowl atop a mound of bare stone. Their strange, chunky bodies equally reminiscent of a short, squat bulldog and a big iguana. A tiny bipedal reptile flees at bottom left.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jun 24

DACTYLAX: THE JURASSIC DRAGON Awoken from hibernation by the burning of the Centralia mine fire, this winged colossus established a territory covering much of Appalachia. Its blade-tipped wings are vicious weapons capable of slicing through aircraft, skyscrapers, and other kaiju with ease.

A pink-skinned pterosaur with a fuzzy white body. It has a low, forward-projecting crest and pointed beak on the upper jaw. Its wings are tipped by keratin, and its tail ends in a diamond-shaped fin.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jun 24

VENATOR: CRETACEOUS KICKBOXER Found washed ashore on a beach along the coast of Costa Rica in the early 1990s. Within hours, the 20-meter tall theropod awoke and disappeared into the jungle. It has plagued the region ever since, emerging under the cover of darkness to devour whole herds of cattle.

An orange, striped Jurassic Park-style Velociraptor.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jun 23

THE PLUTONIAN: VISITOR FROM BEYOND A bioengineered horror unleashed by a failed alien invasion, brewed in the ungodly beast-factories of Pluto. It ravaged Las Vegas and killed the titanic wasp SPIDERHAWK but was defeated by an experimental cryonic weapon. Its current whereabouts are classified.

A waxy, ghost-like creature with huge, slanted yellow eyes and hook-clawed hands. It seeps like a melted candle from a strange shell-like body toddling on narrow insectile legs.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jun 23

PINSAUR: PRIMORDIAL PUGILIST A colossal prehistoric reptile 70 meters from tip to tail, PINSAUR is the uncontested ruler of the Atacama desert. It is in a constant state of rage, desperate to lock tusks with rivals that no longer exist. Monster and man alike are no match for its incredible might!

A green, shell-backed reptile with huge inward-curving tusks and oversized clawed arms.

Sophie M.@sophiesaurus98· Jun 23

Bluesky ruined the image quality, here's a better version!