Our thanks to talented artist Juan Plata who sent into us a wonderful illustration of the Everything Dinosaur Evolution Tyrannosaurus rex. The illustration depicts the theropod looking at a small turtle that is basking on a rock. The dinosaur leaves footprints in the soft sediment. Perhaps these tracks will be preserved as fossils and discovered some sixty-six million years later.
Walking along the shores of a lake, T. rex notices a turtle coming out of the water to rest on a rock. It will not eat it, but it is curious about it. The turtle is based on a recent find in the Hell Creek Formation, specifically a baenid turtle called Saxochelys gilberti. Picture credit: Juan Plata.
Picture credit: Juan Plata
Everything Dinosaur Evolution Tyrannosaurus rex
The Everything Dinosaur Evolution T. rex model is a 1:33 scale replica. It has been developed by palaeontologist Dr Dean Lomax, palaeo-reconstruction artist Bob Nicholls and award-winning digital sculptor Glen Southern. Everything Dinosaur is now a manufacturer of dinosaur models. The model’s digital product passport permits amazing illustrations to be incorporated into the packaging. Dinosaur fans can view the illustrations by scanning the smart QR code on the box.
The Everything Dinosaur Evolution T. rex model shown in lateral view. Picture credit: Carl.
Picture credit: Carl
To view the Everything Dinosaur Evolution model range: Everything Dinosaur Evolution Figures.
Mike from Everything Dinosaur commented on the impressive illustration and stated that he was honoured to have the chance to add this beautiful drawing to their dinosaur’s digital product passport.
He added:
“I shared Juan’s artwork with Bob, Dean and Glen. They were all amazed and delighted.”
A Baenid Turtle
The uppermost Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Hell Creek Formation in North America has yielded a diverse assemblage of fossil turtles. More than twenty-five taxa have been named. Most of the taxa have been assigned to the now extinct Baenidae family. Juan has included a baenid turtle (S. gilberti) in the illustration. These turtles were common in Laramidia, and it is very likely that Tyrannosaurus rex encountered these reptiles. The species in the drawing Saxochelys gilberti was named and described in 2019 (Lyson, Sayler and Joyce).
Our Everything Dinosaur Evolution Tyrannosaurus rex towers over the freshwater turtle. However, T. rex and the rest of the non-avian dinosaurs were soon to become extinct. In contrast, a turtle fossil assigned to Saxochelys gilberti was recovered from above the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary layer. This suggests that this baenid turtle species survived the end-Cretaceous extinction event persisting into the Palaeocene.
Our thanks to Juan, it is a beautiful illustration.
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