HOME | DD

Description
For all those people wondering why I´m putting up drawings of prehistoric ecosystems and label them as “Sci-Fi”. This is Northern Africa, 65 million years ago. Yeah, you read right. No Maastrichtian fossils are known from this place, so basically all these animals are fictional. They are all speculative descendants of animals which are known from the Early or Middle Cretaceous of Northern Africa.
If you know much about Cretaceous African dinosaurs, a lot of these animals might look very familiar to you. But the last cryptic 30 million years of evolution had not only winners, but also losers. Climate changes during the Late Cretaceous have triggered the extinction of some of the largest and most dominant animals of this continent – the titanosaurs, represented by giants like Paralititan, and the Carcharodontosaurids, the big game hunters like their namesake Carcharodontosaurus, are already extinct. But another very large and very famous dinosaur has survived thanks to adapting to a different environment…
Among the largest dinosaurs of Africa are now the Rebbachisaurids, maybe the last Non-Macronarians on the planet. Descendants of Nigersaurus managed to outcompete their Titanosaurian rivals thanks to their unique mouth design: They have a dental battery of hundreds of teeth (like the “duck-billed” Hadrosaurids), but they have all teeth in a single row at the front of their mouth. This weird adaptation will make these dinosaurs the most successful sauropods in some million years.
The niche of the Carcharodontosaurids is now taken by – no, no dinosaurs – Crocodylomorphs. Descendants of the infamous “BoarCroc” Kaprosuchus saharicus have grown even larger to take on the big contemporary herbivores (however even the largest Rebbachisaurids are not much longer than 12 meters). In fact, Crocodylomorphs practically rule this place. While the giant Mahajangasuchids hunt large dinosaurs, several smaller forms belonging to the extremely adaptable group Notosuchia take the niche of mammals and small dinosaurs, ranging from insect eaters to burrowing forms and even armored omnivores. But not all Crocodylomorphs of Africa have survived till the end of the Cretaceous. For example the Pholidosaurids, whose most famous member is the “SuperCroc” Sarcosuchus imperator, and the Stomatosuchids have died out.
Dinosaurs are exclusively limited to giant forms which often are the only ones of their lineage left on this continent. After the Rebbachisaurids the most successful herbivores are Ornithopods which already created some pretty weird forms in the Early Cretaceous. The black and white animals on the left side are – as their large red humps easily show – descendants of Ouranosaurus nigeriensis, the elegant Iguanodontian. They are about the same size as their ancestors, but are slender and walk exclusively on all fours. They are like an iguanodontian equivalent to a horse, although of course slower and heavier. On the other end of the spectrum are the descendants of the most badass ornithopod of Home Earth, Lurdusaurus arenatus. I already pointed out how much Lurdusaurus has in common with a modern hippo, so its descendants are obviously going to become even more hippo-like. They are about the same length as their ancestor; however you have to keep in mind they have an even shorter and more useless tail, so actually they´re bigger (and definitively even heavier) than their ancestor. The claws on their large webbed feet are atrophying, those on their splayed out webbed hands have already disappeared save for the thumb claw which is used for grubbing on the bottom of rivers (because of their low position and the heavy weight the claws are rarely used to defend against predators). Typical for many aquatic animals these dinosaurs have dorsally orientated eyes and nostrils and a very long neck, so most of the body can stay submerged while the animal checks its surroundings for predators.
However apart from giant Mahajangasuchids they have no natural enemies, as even the largest terrestrial theropod of Africa stays away from these massive dinosaurs. This predator (the yellow animal in the lower left corner) is an Abelisaurid, a descendant of creatures like Rugops primus. They are quite large, but have atrophied arms (even tinier and more useless than those of Tyrannosaurus rex!) and weak fragile jaws, so they hunt only weak prey. While this dinosaur occasionally eats carrion, the extremely light and slender built and the long legs show its adaptation towards a particular prey animal showing an interesting convergence with North America´s evolutionary arms race between Tyrannosauroids and Ornithomimosaurs. Its prey animal might look weird even to the most enthusiastic dinosaur fans – it is a cursorial Ceratosaurian, a distant relative of the Abelisaurid which hunts it. This beaked, ostrich-like herbivore with the tiny arms is based on Limusaurus inextricabilis, an Ornithomimosaur-mimic from Jurassic China. From the Late Jurassic of Africa known is Elaphrosaurus, which had an ostrich-like anatomy, too. Its skull has never been found, but likely it had a toothless beak like Limusaurus, too. There is one further Ceratosaurian adapted for running from Cretaceous North Africa – Deltadromeus agilis. Every reconstruction I´ve seen shows it as a predator with long clawed hands and a large skull full of sharp teeth. Combined with its extreme speed this seemed like a Ceratosaurian answer to those overrated Dromaeosaurids or “Raptors”. However, neither its hands nor its skull have been found, and the close relationship to Limusaurus and Elaphrosaurus suggests that this large runner was an Ornithomimosaur-mimic, too. Its Maastrichtian descendant has atrophied arms like its distant Abelisaurid cousin, however it still uses them for display (which is why they´re so bright red).
Above the scenery flies a giant Azhdarchid. Whether it is a descendant of the early Azhdarchid Alanqa saharica or just a later species which crossed some oceans and continents doesn´t matter. So this is it, the first Maastrichtian place with entirely speculative animals. If you´re wondering about the missing of a particular African dinosaur, don´t worry, there is going to be one further drawing…

Description
For all those people wondering why I´m putting up drawings of prehistoric ecosystems and label them as “Sci-Fi”. This is Northern Africa, 65 million years ago. Yeah, you read right. No Maastrichtian fossils are known from this place, so basically all these animals are fictional. They are all speculative descendants of animals which are known from the Early or Middle Cretaceous of Northern Africa.
If you know much about Cretaceous African dinosaurs, a lot of these animals might look very familiar to you. But the last cryptic 30 million years of evolution had not only winners, but also losers. Climate changes during the Late Cretaceous have triggered the extinction of some of the largest and most dominant animals of this continent – the titanosaurs, represented by giants like Paralititan, and the Carcharodontosaurids, the big game hunters like their namesake Carcharodontosaurus, are already extinct. But another very large and very famous dinosaur has survived thanks to adapting to a different environment…
Among the largest dinosaurs of Africa are now the Rebbachisaurids, maybe the last Non-Macronarians on the planet. Descendants of Nigersaurus managed to outcompete their Titanosaurian rivals thanks to their unique mouth design: They have a dental battery of hundreds of teeth (like the “duck-billed” Hadrosaurids), but they have all teeth in a single row at the front of their mouth. This weird adaptation will make these dinosaurs the most successful sauropods in some million years.
The niche of the Carcharodontosaurids is now taken by – no, no dinosaurs – Crocodylomorphs. Descendants of the infamous “BoarCroc” Kaprosuchus saharicus have grown even larger to take on the big contemporary herbivores (however even the largest Rebbachisaurids are not much longer than 12 meters). In fact, Crocodylomorphs practically rule this place. While the giant Mahajangasuchids hunt large dinosaurs, several smaller forms belonging to the extremely adaptable group Notosuchia take the niche of mammals and small dinosaurs, ranging from insect eaters to burrowing forms and even armored omnivores. But not all Crocodylomorphs of Africa have survived till the end of the Cretaceous. For example the Pholidosaurids, whose most famous member is the “SuperCroc” Sarcosuchus imperator, and the Stomatosuchids have died out.
Dinosaurs are exclusively limited to giant forms which often are the only ones of their lineage left on this continent. After the Rebbachisaurids the most successful herbivores are Ornithopods which already created some pretty weird forms in the Early Cretaceous. The black and white animals on the left side are – as their large red humps easily show – descendants of Ouranosaurus nigeriensis, the elegant Iguanodontian. They are about the same size as their ancestors, but are slender and walk exclusively on all fours. They are like an iguanodontian equivalent to a horse, although of course slower and heavier. On the other end of the spectrum are the descendants of the most badass ornithopod of Home Earth, Lurdusaurus arenatus. I already pointed out how much Lurdusaurus has in common with a modern hippo, so its descendants are obviously going to become even more hippo-like. They are about the same length as their ancestor; however you have to keep in mind they have an even shorter and more useless tail, so actually they´re bigger (and definitively even heavier) than their ancestor. The claws on their large webbed feet are atrophying, those on their splayed out webbed hands have already disappeared save for the thumb claw which is used for grubbing on the bottom of rivers (because of their low position and the heavy weight the claws are rarely used to defend against predators). Typical for many aquatic animals these dinosaurs have dorsally orientated eyes and nostrils and a very long neck, so most of the body can stay submerged while the animal checks its surroundings for predators.
However apart from giant Mahajangasuchids they have no natural enemies, as even the largest terrestrial theropod of Africa stays away from these massive dinosaurs. This predator (the yellow animal in the lower left corner) is an Abelisaurid, a descendant of creatures like Rugops primus. They are quite large, but have atrophied arms (even tinier and more useless than those of Tyrannosaurus rex!) and weak fragile jaws, so they hunt only weak prey. While this dinosaur occasionally eats carrion, the extremely light and slender built and the long legs show its adaptation towards a particular prey animal showing an interesting convergence with North America´s evolutionary arms race between Tyrannosauroids and Ornithomimosaurs. Its prey animal might look weird even to the most enthusiastic dinosaur fans – it is a cursorial Ceratosaurian, a distant relative of the Abelisaurid which hunts it. This beaked, ostrich-like herbivore with the tiny arms is based on Limusaurus inextricabilis, an Ornithomimosaur-mimic from Jurassic China. From the Late Jurassic of Africa known is Elaphrosaurus, which had an ostrich-like anatomy, too. Its skull has never been found, but likely it had a toothless beak like Limusaurus, too. There is one further Ceratosaurian adapted for running from Cretaceous North Africa – Deltadromeus agilis. Every reconstruction I´ve seen shows it as a predator with long clawed hands and a large skull full of sharp teeth. Combined with its extreme speed this seemed like a Ceratosaurian answer to those overrated Dromaeosaurids or “Raptors”. However, neither its hands nor its skull have been found, and the close relationship to Limusaurus and Elaphrosaurus suggests that this large runner was an Ornithomimosaur-mimic, too. Its Maastrichtian descendant has atrophied arms like its distant Abelisaurid cousin, however it still uses them for display (which is why they´re so bright red).
Above the scenery flies a giant Azhdarchid. Whether it is a descendant of the early Azhdarchid Alanqa saharica or just a later species which crossed some oceans and continents doesn´t matter. So this is it, the first Maastrichtian place with entirely speculative animals. If you´re wondering about the missing of a particular African dinosaur, don´t worry, there is going to be one further drawing…