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Description
The last thread I posted in my personal IG account www.instagram.com/perbonirenat…

Dinosaurs has always been a passion of mine. But this thread is very important to me not only for that reason. At the end of last year my head asked for rest and care. Everything was starting to weigh and I finally started a treatment with a psychiatrist and psychologist, which I continue to this day.

My idea, as with the drawings of Brazilian folklore, was also to take the opportunity to educate lay people. I am not a scientist and at most amateur paleoartist , but I think that combining art and knowledge is the best thing that an illustrator can do. So I will post the descriptions that I did on IG here too. Any mistake I made please point here, both in the text and in the drawings.

* Archaeopteryx lithographica - One of many examples of transition fossils, the Archaeopteryx has long been considered "the oldest bird in the world", with typical characteristics of Avian dinosaurs - feathers adapted for flight, the "wishbone" and the first toe of the hind legs being partially inverted - as for non-avians - teeth and particularly long tail. However, older fossils with similar characteristics have been excavated over the years, possibly taking the throne from Archaeopteryx, which does not prevent it from being one of the greatest proofs of the phenomenon of evolution in fossil record, discovered in a mine in Bavaria, southern Germany, just two years (1861) after the publication of The Origin of Species, by the British naturalist Charles Darwin.
With a size close to that of a crow, the Archaeopteryx existed in Southern Europe around 150 million years ago, in the Late Jurassic, whose habitat was similar to a large archipelago surrounded by a shallow sea with humid tropical climate, where it probably fed on insects and other small animals that could be caught in mid-air, gliding between trees - or even flying similarly, but not exactly the same, to pheasants or turkeys (Guarino, 2018). It is even known, through wonderfully preserved feathers, that the coloring of Archeopteryx, at least the primary feathers of its tail and wings, which would have a dark color, probably black without apparent signs of irisdescence such as those of a raven for example. Like the famous raptors, the Archaeopteryx seems to have the big curved claw on the second finger - the "terrible claw" - as John Ostrom noted in 1970, one of the most expressive voices on the relationship between dinosaurs and birds in the 20th century.

* Balaur bondoc - Discovered in 1997 but only formally named in 2010, the Balaur is one of the many strange inhabitants of the prehistoric island of Hateg, located where today would be Romania. During the Late Cretaceous (70 million years BC) Europe was still a cluster of islands surrounded by shallow seas, with Hateg probably the most isolated of them. Since its discovery, it was thought that the Balaur was a dromeosaurid, related to the Velociraptor, since the fossils of its feet had not one, but two large and curved "terrible claws" on the second and third toes, leading to the belief that the creature he was a super predator in its ecosystem, using its claws to tear its victims apart.
However, further studies in 2013 and in the following years, would place the Balaur as a basal dinosaur of the Avialae clade, which includes current birds and their extinct varieties. The sickle-shaped claws would be semi-retractable, and their first toe - the hallux - would be much more functional than other theropods. Despite this, Balaur's size - almost 2 meters long - obviously prevented it from taking flight or even gliding, having a lifestyle probably close to that of other birds that live close to the ground in forested regions, being opportunistic omnivores. The Balaur, as well as other Hateg's strange fauna, are examples of how islands have always been a kind of laboratory for evolution, creating new forms with animals that cover totally or partially different niches on the continents.

* Irritator challengeri/Angaturama limai - Discovered by means of an almost perfect skull in 1996, the Irritator was a theropod native from where today is the Araripe Basin, northeast Brazil, until today the protagonist of a taxonomic dispute among paleontologists, since fragments of another spinosaurid skull - credited to the species Angaturama limai (angaturama means something like "noble" in Tupi) - were found in the same region and in the same year, with some authors joining both species in the genus Irritator - named before and, therefore, having preference among the two nomenclatures -, while others classify them as two distinct species.
Measuring between 6 and 8 meters and weighing about 1 ton, the Irritator is one of the smallest members of its family, owner of conic teeth and a long snout with high nostrils, suitable for a diet of fish and other animals that would inhabit the Araripe Basin in the Late Cretaceous (110 million years BC), including the many species of pterosaurs, such as those of the genus Anhanguera, that flew over the region. Like other spinosaurus, it is believed that the Irritator may have had a sail/hump along the back, as well as a hook-shaped claw on its thumbs for fishing and semi-aquatic habits, being fully capable of swimming in the shallow waters of the prehistoric Brazil, just like its older cousins did in North Africa.

P.S: the pose I chose to draw the Irritator is a tribute to the skeleton that was once assembled at the National Museum, in Rio de Janeiro, including the pterosaur in its mouth, which unfortunately was lost in 2019 fire, along with so many other precious fossils and artifacts.

Description
The last thread I posted in my personal IG account www.instagram.com/perbonirenat…

Dinosaurs has always been a passion of mine. But this thread is very important to me not only for that reason. At the end of last year my head asked for rest and care. Everything was starting to weigh and I finally started a treatment with a psychiatrist and psychologist, which I continue to this day.

My idea, as with the drawings of Brazilian folklore, was also to take the opportunity to educate lay people. I am not a scientist and at most amateur paleoartist , but I think that combining art and knowledge is the best thing that an illustrator can do. So I will post the descriptions that I did on IG here too. Any mistake I made please point here, both in the text and in the drawings.

* Archaeopteryx lithographica - One of many examples of transition fossils, the Archaeopteryx has long been considered "the oldest bird in the world", with typical characteristics of Avian dinosaurs - feathers adapted for flight, the "wishbone" and the first toe of the hind legs being partially inverted - as for non-avians - teeth and particularly long tail. However, older fossils with similar characteristics have been excavated over the years, possibly taking the throne from Archaeopteryx, which does not prevent it from being one of the greatest proofs of the phenomenon of evolution in fossil record, discovered in a mine in Bavaria, southern Germany, just two years (1861) after the publication of The Origin of Species, by the British naturalist Charles Darwin.
With a size close to that of a crow, the Archaeopteryx existed in Southern Europe around 150 million years ago, in the Late Jurassic, whose habitat was similar to a large archipelago surrounded by a shallow sea with humid tropical climate, where it probably fed on insects and other small animals that could be caught in mid-air, gliding between trees - or even flying similarly, but not exactly the same, to pheasants or turkeys (Guarino, 2018). It is even known, through wonderfully preserved feathers, that the coloring of Archeopteryx, at least the primary feathers of its tail and wings, which would have a dark color, probably black without apparent signs of irisdescence such as those of a raven for example. Like the famous raptors, the Archaeopteryx seems to have the big curved claw on the second finger - the "terrible claw" - as John Ostrom noted in 1970, one of the most expressive voices on the relationship between dinosaurs and birds in the 20th century.

* Balaur bondoc - Discovered in 1997 but only formally named in 2010, the Balaur is one of the many strange inhabitants of the prehistoric island of Hateg, located where today would be Romania. During the Late Cretaceous (70 million years BC) Europe was still a cluster of islands surrounded by shallow seas, with Hateg probably the most isolated of them. Since its discovery, it was thought that the Balaur was a dromeosaurid, related to the Velociraptor, since the fossils of its feet had not one, but two large and curved "terrible claws" on the second and third toes, leading to the belief that the creature he was a super predator in its ecosystem, using its claws to tear its victims apart.
However, further studies in 2013 and in the following years, would place the Balaur as a basal dinosaur of the Avialae clade, which includes current birds and their extinct varieties. The sickle-shaped claws would be semi-retractable, and their first toe - the hallux - would be much more functional than other theropods. Despite this, Balaur's size - almost 2 meters long - obviously prevented it from taking flight or even gliding, having a lifestyle probably close to that of other birds that live close to the ground in forested regions, being opportunistic omnivores. The Balaur, as well as other Hateg's strange fauna, are examples of how islands have always been a kind of laboratory for evolution, creating new forms with animals that cover totally or partially different niches on the continents.

* Irritator challengeri/Angaturama limai - Discovered by means of an almost perfect skull in 1996, the Irritator was a theropod native from where today is the Araripe Basin, northeast Brazil, until today the protagonist of a taxonomic dispute among paleontologists, since fragments of another spinosaurid skull - credited to the species Angaturama limai (angaturama means something like "noble" in Tupi) - were found in the same region and in the same year, with some authors joining both species in the genus Irritator - named before and, therefore, having preference among the two nomenclatures -, while others classify them as two distinct species.
Measuring between 6 and 8 meters and weighing about 1 ton, the Irritator is one of the smallest members of its family, owner of conic teeth and a long snout with high nostrils, suitable for a diet of fish and other animals that would inhabit the Araripe Basin in the Late Cretaceous (110 million years BC), including the many species of pterosaurs, such as those of the genus Anhanguera, that flew over the region. Like other spinosaurus, it is believed that the Irritator may have had a sail/hump along the back, as well as a hook-shaped claw on its thumbs for fishing and semi-aquatic habits, being fully capable of swimming in the shallow waters of the prehistoric Brazil, just like its older cousins did in North Africa.

P.S: the pose I chose to draw the Irritator is a tribute to the skeleton that was once assembled at the National Museum, in Rio de Janeiro, including the pterosaur in its mouth, which unfortunately was lost in 2019 fire, along with so many other precious fossils and artifacts.