Microraptor

A small blue and purple feathered microraptor sits on a fallen tree in a dense Cretaceous era forest. It looks to the left to show its head in profile as is perches on the log. Its tail curves slightly in the same direction, show off its bright plumage. The twisted trunk of the down tree is covered with moss and shelf fungus. Ferns carpet the primeval forest floor as rays of sunlight cut through the thick green canopy above.

The microraptor was one of the smallest of dinosaurs. It was covered in feathers had wings on both it's arms and legs. It is one of the most commonly found fossils.

I decided to go a little wild with the coloring of this little dino. Originally, I had him in various shades of brown, but he didn't seem eye catching enough. So, I decided blue and purple would really make this fella stand out. After all, many birds have bright and intricate feather patterns, why couldn't a prehistoric cousin not have the same?

Thanks for looking!
Daniel Eskridge

Allosauruses

Three allosauruses kick up dust as they hunt along a rocky track created by the passage of large dinosaurs. Deep green plants line the sides of the trail, while a conifer forest dominates the background. Overhead clouds drift through the blue prehistoric skies.

The allosaurus was a theropod dinosaur from the Jurrassic period. Some paleontologists theorize that Allosaurs were pack hunters, so I though it might be fun to depict a trio of the creatures on the hunt for this latest addition to my paleoart series.

Thanks for looking!
Daniel Eskridge

Ichthyosaurs

A school of Ichthyosaurs swims over a bed of seaweed in the Jurassic seas. Though they may look like dolphins, they are, in fact, reptiles, and they swam the oceans in the time of the dinosaurs. The particular species depicted here is stenopterygius, very similar in appearance to the ichthyosaurus, for which the order is named. Stenopterygius, though, was about twice as big overall, but with a proportionally smaller head and flippers.

Thanks for looking,
Daniel

The Biggest Shark

Out of the murky waters emerge menacing forms. Two massive sharks prowl though beds of seaweed in prehistoric ocean shallows. A little red crab, too small for the great predators to take notice of looks up from the sandy sea floor.

Continuing my series of aquatic themed paleoart, I decided to depict the biggest shark of all time: Megalodon. This was a shark four times the size of the modern Great White. If these creatures were around today and one came upon you scuba diving, it could swallow you in a single bite.

Thanks for looking!
Daniel Eskridge

Warriors of the Primeval Sea

Under the surface of the Cretaceous sea, two might beasts do battle. A giant octopus has snared a styxosaurus in its tentacles. The long necked marine reptile strikes back by snapping its toothy jaws at the cephalopod's head.

Very little is known about prehistoric octopi. Because they have no skeletal structure they leave practically nothing behind to fossilize; however, because of a discovery of five such octopus fossils in Lebanon dating from 90 million years ago, we do know that at least a few species existed in the Cretaceous era oceans. Portraying one big enough to take on a school bus sized styxosaurus though requires me to use quite a lot of artistic license.

I've created a number of aquatic scenes lately, but for this one, I wanted to ratchet up the excitement a bit. The problem though is that most aquatic creatures are a bit on the stiff side with a very limited range of motion in their bodies and limbs. As a result, portraying action in a still artwork was proving difficult. I solved this by making one of the combatants an octopus. With those long tentacles, I could get lots of curved lines into the composition and create a better sense of drama.

A disclaimer about my paleoart:

When it comes to paleoart, the images I create favor 'art' more than 'paleo'. While I try my best to depict animals as accurately as possible I'm make no claim that they 100% scientifically accurate. The same goes for the environment I depict them in. I am primarily interested in creating aesthetically pleasing images and paintings. Scientific accuracy comes second behind artistic expression.

Thanks for looking!
Daniel

Kronosaurus

Kronosaurus was a marine repitle that lived during the early Cretaceous period at the same time dinosaurs roamed the land. Though sometimes called a dinosaur, it is technically a pliosaur of the order of plesiosaurs which is different from dinosaurs. They were large, only a little shorter than the average length of a school bus and preyed on turtles and plesiosaurs and possibly giant squid and elasmosaurs. It is named for the ancient Greek titan Kronos.

This one came from a request by a paleoart fan. He wanted a prehistoric aquatic reptile. He suggested a few and I like the Kronosaurus the best.

Thanks for looking
Daniel

Saber-Tooth at Rest

A saber-toothed cat relaxes on a large flat stone atop a grassy rise. It's late in the day and the evening sun has lit the clouds up into a fiery set of colors.

This is the latest in my paleoart series. It depicts my favorite of the pleistoscene mammals, the smilodon. For this one, I wanted to see what it would look like with a lion-like coat. I rather liked the way he turned out.

Thanks for looking!
Daniel Eskridge

Eohippus

A pair of small furry creatures forages in a primeval woodland on the pebble strewn shore of a forest pond. Leafy plants carpet the ground between the trunks of thick trees while mists drift through the air. One of the creatures, a darker coated one, grazes on the forest plants. Its lighter furred companion, however, seems to have been alerted by some sound in the woods.

These are Eohippus, or "dawn horse", the earliest known ancestor of the modern horse after the extinction event that ended the reign of the dinosaurs. Sometimes they are also called hyracotherium, but that name seems to apply to a different genus now. They were the size of a medium dog and was found in North America.

For this artwork, I had a request for an unspecified Equis. I decided to go with the earliest version I could find. Via, Daz Studio, I used a eurohippus model by Dinoraul that I thought looked more like eohippus and added fur using LookAtMyHair then constructed the rest of the scene in Vue. Post production was done in Gimp and color enhanced using Photomatix.

A disclaimer about my paleoart:

When it comes to paleoart, the images I create favor 'art' more than 'paleo'. While I try my best to depict animals as accurately as possible, I'm make no claim that they 100% scientifically accurate. The same goes for the environment I depict them in. I am primarily interested in creating aesthetically pleasing images and paintings. Scientific accuracy comes second behind artistic expression.

Thanks for looking!
Daniel Eskridge