TSoSC #1: Lobster lunch of Luoping
By Gogosardina
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Triassic Seas of South China #1: Lobster Lunch of Luoping
2013, acrylics on card/photography/2D digital
1st in a series for the following review paper =
Michael J. Benton, Qiyue Zhang, Shixue Hu, Zhong-Qiang Chen, Wen Wen, Jun Liu, Jinyuang Huang, Changyong Zhou, Tao Xie, Jinnan Tong & Brian Choo (accepted manuscript), Exceptional vertebrate biotas from the Triassic of China, and the expansion of marine ecosystems after the Permo-Triassic mass extinction, Earth Science Review. [link]
Recent discoveries of outstanding fossil biotas in Yunnan and Guizhou have provided an unparalleled glimpse of early Mesozoic marine life, from the shell-shocked aftermath of the Permian extinction to recovery and diversification in the Middle-Late Triassic.
ca. 245,000,000 bp, Middle Triassic (Anisian), Luoping County, Yunnan, China (Member II of the Guanling Formation)
A mere 8 million years after the worst mass extinction in Earth's history, life has well and truly recovered on a shallow muddy seafloor at the eastern edge of the Tethys Sea, off the west coast of the South China continent.
Just as tasty in the Triassic as they are today, an early rock lobster (Yunnanopalinura) attracts the unwanted attention of a coelacanth (Luopingcoelacanthus) and the armoured reptile Sinosaurosphargis, allowing a pair of horseshoe crabs to scuttle away unnoticed. Numerous other fish and marine reptiles swarm around in the warm sunlit waters.
DEPICTED TAXA
Invertebrates =
Yunnanopalinura schrami (9cm minus antennae). The world's oldest rock lobster (Palinuridae).
Yunnanolimulus luopingensis (4cm minus telson spike). Horseshoe crab.
Some generic ammonoids.
Fishes =
Luopingcoelacanthus eurylacrimalis (complete specimens at 20cm SL - isolated scales suggest individuals over thrice that length). Big blue coelacanth in the foreground.
Sangiorgioichthys sui (8cm SL) - numerous small fishes with black-tipped fins. The most common vertebrate in the assemblage.
Marcopoloichthys ani (3.5cm SL) - tiny fishes with red-spotted fins. Named after the famous explorer because fossils of this genus were almost simultaneously discovered in Italy and China.
Gymnoichthys inopinatus (13cm SL) - bright blue fish with yellow back.
Sinosaurichthys longimedialis (45cm SL) - needle-like fishes with flowing fins. Females are more robust and have shorter snouts. Sleek surface-to-midwater predators.
Kyphosichthys grandei (12cm SL) - pair of deep-bodied brown-yellow fishes at left.
Luoxiongichthys hyperdorsalis (15cm SL) - black & white banded deep-bodied fishes with high triangular dorsal crest.
Reptiles =
Sinosaurosphargis yunguiensis (60cm snout & carapace length, tail not preserved). The turtle-like thing in the foreground. Not a turtle, not a placodont but something else entirely. The saurosphargids were armoured aquatic diapsids of uncertain affinity. Thus we have three groups of Tethyan Triassic sauropsids that all independently acquired a turtle-like carapace (saurosphargids, placodonts and genuine turtles). Weird.
Dianopachysaurus dingi (25cm total length) small green reptile. A small pachypleurosauroid sauropterygian.
Mixosaurus cf.panxianensis (80cm total length) Small early ichthyosaurs (although the biggest animals in this scene). Based on a specimen erroneously described as the Swiss M.kuhnschnyderi, but closer to M. panxianensis from Yunnan. Although mixosaurs are often restored with dorsal fins, there is no firm evidence for this structure so early in the ichthyosaur lineage. Luoping and Panxian mixosaurs are often surrounded by a carbonaceous film that show no trace of a DF.
2013, acrylics on card/photography/2D digital
1st in a series for the following review paper =
Michael J. Benton, Qiyue Zhang, Shixue Hu, Zhong-Qiang Chen, Wen Wen, Jun Liu, Jinyuang Huang, Changyong Zhou, Tao Xie, Jinnan Tong & Brian Choo (accepted manuscript), Exceptional vertebrate biotas from the Triassic of China, and the expansion of marine ecosystems after the Permo-Triassic mass extinction, Earth Science Review. [link]
Recent discoveries of outstanding fossil biotas in Yunnan and Guizhou have provided an unparalleled glimpse of early Mesozoic marine life, from the shell-shocked aftermath of the Permian extinction to recovery and diversification in the Middle-Late Triassic.
ca. 245,000,000 bp, Middle Triassic (Anisian), Luoping County, Yunnan, China (Member II of the Guanling Formation)
A mere 8 million years after the worst mass extinction in Earth's history, life has well and truly recovered on a shallow muddy seafloor at the eastern edge of the Tethys Sea, off the west coast of the South China continent.
Just as tasty in the Triassic as they are today, an early rock lobster (Yunnanopalinura) attracts the unwanted attention of a coelacanth (Luopingcoelacanthus) and the armoured reptile Sinosaurosphargis, allowing a pair of horseshoe crabs to scuttle away unnoticed. Numerous other fish and marine reptiles swarm around in the warm sunlit waters.
DEPICTED TAXA
Invertebrates =
Yunnanopalinura schrami (9cm minus antennae). The world's oldest rock lobster (Palinuridae).
Yunnanolimulus luopingensis (4cm minus telson spike). Horseshoe crab.
Some generic ammonoids.
Fishes =
Luopingcoelacanthus eurylacrimalis (complete specimens at 20cm SL - isolated scales suggest individuals over thrice that length). Big blue coelacanth in the foreground.
Sangiorgioichthys sui (8cm SL) - numerous small fishes with black-tipped fins. The most common vertebrate in the assemblage.
Marcopoloichthys ani (3.5cm SL) - tiny fishes with red-spotted fins. Named after the famous explorer because fossils of this genus were almost simultaneously discovered in Italy and China.
Gymnoichthys inopinatus (13cm SL) - bright blue fish with yellow back.
Sinosaurichthys longimedialis (45cm SL) - needle-like fishes with flowing fins. Females are more robust and have shorter snouts. Sleek surface-to-midwater predators.
Kyphosichthys grandei (12cm SL) - pair of deep-bodied brown-yellow fishes at left.
Luoxiongichthys hyperdorsalis (15cm SL) - black & white banded deep-bodied fishes with high triangular dorsal crest.
Reptiles =
Sinosaurosphargis yunguiensis (60cm snout & carapace length, tail not preserved). The turtle-like thing in the foreground. Not a turtle, not a placodont but something else entirely. The saurosphargids were armoured aquatic diapsids of uncertain affinity. Thus we have three groups of Tethyan Triassic sauropsids that all independently acquired a turtle-like carapace (saurosphargids, placodonts and genuine turtles). Weird.
Dianopachysaurus dingi (25cm total length) small green reptile. A small pachypleurosauroid sauropterygian.
Mixosaurus cf.panxianensis (80cm total length) Small early ichthyosaurs (although the biggest animals in this scene). Based on a specimen erroneously described as the Swiss M.kuhnschnyderi, but closer to M. panxianensis from Yunnan. Although mixosaurs are often restored with dorsal fins, there is no firm evidence for this structure so early in the ichthyosaur lineage. Luoping and Panxian mixosaurs are often surrounded by a carbonaceous film that show no trace of a DF.
Image details
Image size
2692x3150px 1.85 MB
Make
Canon
Model
Canon PowerShot S50
Shutter Speed
1/1002 second
Aperture
F/5.6
Focal Length
7 mm
Date Taken
Jan 2, 2012, 2:33:26 PM
Sensor Size
7mm
Published:
© 2013 - 2021 Gogosardina
Comments27
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This is on my vertebrate palaeontology text book o_o, you are an amazing artist, this looks incredible
Mike Benton's Vertebrate Palaeontology? Yeah, the 1st edition was my paleo-textbook. Was glad to be able to contribute to the 4th ed.
Out of words to describe this work, simply fantastic. All the taxonomic and paleoecologic informations are fascinating well done. I didn't even knew the existence of the saurosphargids !
Thanks - I had no idea what saurosphargids were until I saw the Sinosaurosphargis holotype in 2012.
Where do we start to find Shastasaurus liangae and Barracudasaroides in Chinese rocks? who do you think would be the apex predator of tis environment?
If you agree with Maisch's scheme, the animals in this picture are Barracudinasauroides - many workers, including myself, are happy to continue lumping it with Mixosaurus
The shastasaurids come much later.
The shastasaurids come much later.
Great realism here, definately one of your better works! 
I really like it, great job you've done here! 
I really like it, great job you've done here! Thanks! Hope you like the rest of the series when I get around to posting it.
Well, I'm eager to see them, but I'm sure I will. 
I'm amazed how you gave such a realistic look to strange extinct creatures such as the turtle mimic, the proto-nothosaur and the sword-gars (I looked them up and phylogenically they're more like sturgeons, but whatever).
Yeah - it's striking how convergently close the saurichthyid body-plan was to modern needle gars/long toms (Belonidae) despite the two groups being unrelated.
Like they say, prehistory repeats itself.
Sinosaurichthys was marine?
Yes, all three species are from marine sediment (Luoping and Panxian).
Then, is Saurichthys also marine?
Given that Saurichthys is also found at Luoping, yes.
Very peculiar.
Hm, why?
Well, in Dawn of the Dinosaurs, by Nicholas Fraser, one of the pictures portrays a species of Saurichthys as being a freshwater fish.
Yes, Saurichthys spp. are found in deposits ranging from lacustrine to offshore environments - the genus obviously had good osmoregulatory capabilities. Not too odd given their distant living cousins, the sturgeons are found in a similar range of habitats.
Luoping represents a moderately deep coastal (intraplatform) basin wedged between the mainland to the west and a large offshore island to the east - given the sheer number of perfect Sinosaurichthys (and lesser number of Saurichthys) its obvious that they lived out at sea for at least part of their adult life (and were subject to mass-kill events)
Luoping represents a moderately deep coastal (intraplatform) basin wedged between the mainland to the west and a large offshore island to the east - given the sheer number of perfect Sinosaurichthys (and lesser number of Saurichthys) its obvious that they lived out at sea for at least part of their adult life (and were subject to mass-kill events)
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you swear this is traditional over photo? Amazing!!
The montage itself is digital even if the animals are acrylics, right? Now I got it.
Yeah, the foreground algae covered sediment is a cropped underwater photo with digital overlay, the reef in the middle distance is digitally rendered and the distant seafloor is again photographic.
I take large a number of shots of nothing but empty seafloor whenever I go diving for this kinda thing.
I take large a number of shots of nothing but empty seafloor whenever I go diving for this kinda thing.
I liked your approach right since I saw it the first time. What struck me was getting that you were not digitally producing your animals over the background and knowing that these were acrylics instead. I allways tend to think that it is an obstacle to have a good scan of traditional art. Nice job!
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