Yixian collaboration designs

Yixian animal designs for collaboration piece.

Dilong Paradoxus, Raptorex kriegsteini, Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis. I'm working with the ever talented wildlife artist to create a little scene in the forests of the Yixian formation in China. Notorious for its unending supply of feathered dinosaur fossils, it was the prefect subject for a collaboration for the two of us (with her mad texturing skills using only a paintbrush and paints).

Here are the animals, labeled in order but not shown to scale. Dilong and Raptorex are both primitive members of the tyrannosaur family, Dilong being the size of a turkey (and the only feathered tyrannosaur so far known)while Raptorex was smaller than the average wolf in terms of overall mass. I love tyrannosaurs, so sue me...

Psittacosaurus is a primitive member of the ceratopsian family, the group that Triceratops and other horned dinosaurs belonged too, but being only the size of a pig instead of the elephant-sized Triceratops. And its a little curious as it has these weird quills on the end of its tail (not sure if this specific species has them) that are not feathers or even primitive feathers but something that might share an evolutionary origin with the carnivorous dinosaur proto-feathers and true feathers.

Interesting note, recent genetic studies show that alligators possess the same gene that birds have to create feathers. So maybe primitive feather-like structures might even predate the dinosaurs themselves, meaning that their archosaur ancestors that they share with crocs n pterosaurs might have had feather like coverings on their bodies too.

These were done with water-soluble pencils, which I suck at using so excuse me

Now, back to my airbrush paintings and the pencil work for this baby...

My love of tyrannosaurs can be seen here: