Halszkaraptor

I had the chance to do this quick painting one day before the paper was published to give our Earth Archives article a own illustration.

Halszkaraptor (sz is spelled like sh) is a new dromaeosaurid from the Campanium of Mongolia. There is so much to write about this animal, and this specimen that I can hardly cover it here all, I will probably make a podcast soon.

This really bizarre animal was most likely a truly amphibious dromaeosaur and makes everything from the new Jurassic World trailer look like boring kids toys.
The really long necked carried a small, bird like head, with jaws so full of non-serrated teeth that it leaves no doubt about its diet. 
Short arms were equipped with unusual hands, with the third finger being the longest like in scansoriopterygidae, but more robust. The tail was short and the center of mass probably so far back that Halszkaraptor usually had a inclined back, similar to Deinocheirus or therizinosaurs (or many birds)
Many of the bones of this animal were denser than in other dromaeosaurs, similar to Spinosaurus but most notable diving birds. 
The feet were large but there is no evidence for webbing, instead the wings (or flappers, how Thomas Holtz calls them) are surprisingly well suited to propel the animal under water, at least that's what a morphometric analysis  suggests, that places the animal in that regard close to penguins.
If the feet were indeed not webbed I would suggest that is used them to walk over water plants and soft ground, but I leave it open here by hiding the feet mostly. 


The first, original restoration was done by Lukas Panzarin and because I can't keep up with his level of detail, especially considering little time I had, I tried to show some aspects that he didn't cover, easy considering how new this animal is.
Here I speculate about it building nests on the water, like some modern waterfowl. Also playing with the plumage and the colors was important to me, the dark green background is basically only there to make the light colored swan raptors stick out more. 

Our article with some more art: www.eartharchives.org/articles…