Death of a Dragon

Sometimes, fossils are absolutely beautiful. This piece was based on a recently published remains of Dinocephalosaurus orientalis, a marine reptile that lived in the Middle Triassic, some 240 million years ago. This animal was an archosauromorph, a distant cousins of dinosaurs, birds and crocodylians. Dinocephalosaurus could grow up to six meters long, though as it mostly consisted of a very long neck, the animal was smaller than the length alone might suggest. Fossils of Dinocephalosaurus are only known from southwestern China, though related species seem to have occurred worldwide.

Description and photo of the fossil, as well as a few other specimens, can be seen in this open access article: www.cambridge.org/core/journal…

This illustration was a weekend's project that mostly consisted of drawing a seemingly endless number of scales. Digital art, drawn on Procreate.