Illustrating a Pterosaur

Our knowledge of the Pterosauria has grown remarkably over the last decade or so.  There have been some fantastic flying reptile fossil discoveries in Europe, South America (Brazil) and China.  One of Everything Dinosaur’s favourite illustrations of a recent pterosaur discovery is this lovely image of the small, insect eating Nemicolopterus.

Nemicolopterus Illustration

Nemicolopterus Illustrated

Small agile flier.  An illustration of the recently described pterosaur Nemicolopterus.

Picture credit: Michael Skrepnick

To read more about what is believed to be one of the smallest members of the Pterosauria discovered to date: Tiny Pterosaur from China.

We really like this picture as it shows a pterosaur with a dragonfly which gives the viewer a sense of scale and there is a Maidenhair branch (Ginkgo) in the illustration too.  This flying reptile had a wing span of around 25 centimetres and it has been named Nemicolopterus crypticus.

The Chinese model manufacturer recently introduced a small replica of this tiny pterosaur, to view this figure and the rest of the replicas in the range: PNSO Age of Dinosaurs Figures.

Prehistoric Animal Drawings from Everything Dinosaur

Whilst trawling through the extensive Everything Dinosaur database, we came across a selection of prehistoric animal drawings.  Team members are not sure where these have originated from or indeed which extinct animals from prehistory they represent but as they were quite colourful, we thought we would post them up.  Everything Dinosaur sends out a lot of drawings and other educational materials to schools as part of the company’s outreach programme that involves teaching about dinosaurs in school and delivering dinosaur workshops.  This is certainly quite an assortment of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals.

A “Selection Box” of Prehistoric Animal Drawings

A “selection box” of prehistoric animal drawings.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Prehistoric Animal Drawings

But which animals do the drawings represent?  This has led to some debate amongst Everything Dinosaur team members, we can’t agree on them all but reading from left to right as you look at the picture, this is what we think:

• Hypsilophodont (Hypsilophodon, Leaellynasaura, Drinker, Changchunsaurus, Qantassaurus etc.)
• Cetiosaurus
• Camarasaurid – Camarasaurus?
• Allosaurid – Sinraptor?
• Rhamphorhynchus
• Stegosaurus

However, we could be wrong of course, that’s one of the challenges of vertebrate palaeontology, trying to work out what long dead animals looked like.

To view the huge range of prehistoric animal models in stock at Everything Dinosaur: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Drawings.

Ewan’s Drawing of a Therizinosaurus

Everything Dinosaur gets sent lots of dinosaur drawings and illustrations by young dinosaur fans.  Whether they are inspired by their dinosaur toys or models, or just fans of dinosaurs, it does not matter to us as we love to receive pictures of prehistoric animals.  Our thanks to Ewan for sending into Everything Dinosaur his drawing of a Therizinosaurus.

Budding dinosaur hunter Ewan sent in a wonderful picture of the bizarre theropod called Therizinosaurus, super colouring in Ewan!

Ewan’s Therizinosaurus Dinosaur Drawing

Great picture of a “Scythe Lizard”.

Picture credit: Ewan/Everything Dinosaur

Drawing of a Therizinosaurus

We look at every illustration that we receive and we post them up on our warehouse wall next to where we store the dinosaur models.  Thank you Ewan for your fantastic drawing of a prehistoric animal.

To view Everything Dinosaurs range of dinosaur toys and models: Visit Everything Dinosaur

Gigantopithecus Drawing

The original King Kong film was released in 1933.  Merian C Cooper (who produced the film) along with Edgar Wallace (a crime fiction writer responsible for the screen play) wrote the story.  The 1925 film “The Lost World”, based on the book of the same name by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, heavily influenced their tale.  An expedition explores a mysterious island “Skull island” with a gigantic ape known as Kong.  Kong falls for the beautiful actress, who accompanied the expedition, when she is offered to Kong as a sacrifice.  She is rescued, Kong is captured and taken to New York where the ape breaks from his shackles and meets his end on top of the Empire State building.  “Beauty killed the Beast”.

The fossil record for primates and early human ancestors is very incomplete although there is no evidence to suggest that giant gorillas roamed the Earth.  However, sometimes real life can reflect fiction, two years after King Kong was released a German palaeoanthropologist Ralph von Koenigswald purchased a very large molar (back tooth) from a Hong Kong pharmacy.  Chinese doctors used “dragons teeth” fossils and bones found in remote caves in their traditional medicines.  Koenigswald correctly identified that the tooth belonged to a new primate species.  He went onto name the animal Gigantopithecus blacki.  Gigantopithecus means “gigantic ape”, the scale drawing below gives an impression of the estimated size of a male G. blacki.

Gigantopithecus Illustrated

A scale drawing of the giant ape.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Sketching a Duck-Billed Dinosaur

One of the more common members of the Late Cretaceous mega fauna of North America was Edmontosaurus.  Edmontosaurus (E. regalis), is known from several hundred fossil skeletons, including some that have internal organs and skin impressions associated with them.

A Scale Drawing of Edmontosaurus

Edmontosaurus Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

A large herbivore, the biggest fossil specimens indicate that this dinosaur could reach lengths in excess of ten metres and it perhaps weighed more than five tonnes.

Everything Dinosaur stocks a wide range of dinosaur and prehistoric animal models, including many ornithischian dinosaurs such as hadrosaurs and their close relatives.

To view the range of prehistoric animal models available from Everything Dinosaur: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Models.

Dinosaur Fact Sheet

For every named prehistoric animal model that Everything Dinosaur supplies, the company includes a free fact sheet about that animal. The fact sheet includes a scale drawing providing information about the size of the prehistoric creature.