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MattMart — A Scansor Tail
Published: 2009-08-27 21:06:55 +0000 UTC; Views: 2207; Favourites: 60; Downloads: 3
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Description
After many tweaks, this is the latest, updated version of my "Upon Branch" Scansoriopteryx painting, thanks mainly to my relenting acceptance that Scansoriopteryx and Epidendrosaurus are probably the same species. (The proper name is, therefore, Scansoriopteryx, unless a proposed ICZN amendment about online names is accepted and is made retroactive, the latter of which I don't think is very likely).Changes:
* Wings - the Czerkas specimen preserves rather long feathers on the hand and arm.
* Teeth - related Epidexipteryx has some gnarly, procumbant teeth that may have been shared with Scansoriopteryx.
* Muzzle - Epidexipteryx shows that the skull in scansors was tall and triangular, unlike the narrow snout I gave the original.
* Tail - I waffled on the original dur to the apparent preservation of a short tail in the Czerkas specimen. Now that I've mentally synonymized them, there's no harm in showing off the long, feather-tipped tail of the Zhang specimen.
* Pubic/caudal scales. The Czerkas specimen preserves scales on the underside of the tail.
* Crest - There's no evidence for a feather crest as I put in the original. This version is actually more conservative.
* Toe - The supposed "reversed hallux" is probably not real, but the first toe was unusually low on the foot, as in therizinosaurs.
* Little bug - Aphid-like insects are known from the Daohugou beds, and give Scansor a good reason to be tugging on that ginkgo leaf.
* Lips - And another more recent edit. A new study has convinced me to go the other way and give dinosaurs lips. Oops!
Necessary update to an outdated painting or horrible Frankesntein hack-job of a clean, simple composition? You decide. For my part, I'm still only offering the original as a print
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Comments: 9
I like this one. Ginkgo is such a cool plant and the saurus is so sweet... ^^
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Thanks! Though I actually got the ginkgo wrong, Mesozoic ones had differently shaped leaves. Something for a future revision...
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I saw thispicture in wikipedia
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Would these guys have been capable of flying, by any chance? I've read that Epidexipteryx probably couldn't; what about Scanosoriopteryx?
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Well, given the proportions of the limbs, it's certainly possible that they could at least glide, though the apparent lack of wings in Epidexipteryx might argue against it. Maybe they flew/glided as juveniles and became more ground-bound as adults.
Some people have even suggested that they're the same species, with Epidex as the adult stage of Scansor. There may be precedent (in confuciusornithids) for early birds 'losing' or highly reducing the tail as they grew, like avian tadpoles. I'm not even totally convinced the tail impression in the type of 'Epidendrosaurus' is a skeletal tail and not an Epidex-like undifferentiated vaned feather... This whole family needs more study and more specimens.
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You never fail to teach me amazing new things. Never.
Either way, it appears the little scansoriopterygids will remain a very enigmatic group of birds for now. Being hard to fossilize helps!
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It's awesome that you update your art as more becomes known.
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