THE PREHISTORIC SCENES PAINTINGS.

Each of these is 20x30” on board.  Some are in oil, some are in gouache.  Sometimes I painted onto photographs.

Late Jurassic, North America – Ceratosaurus (a 6-meter-long theropod) prowling in a forest at night.  In the trees are ornitholestes (2-meter-long theropods), who are stalking primitive mammals.

Late Cretaceous, North America (Alberta and Montana) – Corythosaurus (a 10-meter-long hadrosaur).  A male (on land) courts a female (in the water).

Early Cretaceous, North America (Montana) – A pack of deinonychus (3 – 4-meter-long dromaeosaurid theropods) and a freshly-slaughtered tenontosaurus (a 7.3-meter-long hypsilophodontid).  This is based on a famous fossil of these creatures, who were apparently buried together by a flash flood.

A detail of the painting.

Late Jurassic, North America – Diplodocus (27-meter-long Atlantosaurian sauropods), with rhamphorynchoid pterosaurs (wingspan: about 1 meter) picking parasites from their backs.  Two diplodocus hatchlings are in the foreground.  Years after I painted this, I learned that diplodocus could not crane its neck like this, or lift its head as high as the one in the background.  Also, it is more likely than not that large sauropods laid their eggs in the forest and abandoned them.

Late Devonian – Dunkleosteus (a 9-meter-long placoderm) chomping down on cladoselache (a less-than-a-meter-long shark).  This painting is on display at the University of Pennsylvania’s Geology Department.

Late Cretaceous, North America (Canada, US) – A pack of daspletosaurus (9-meter-long tyrannosaurids) ambushes a herd of monoclonius (6-meter-long ceratopsids).  The daspletosaurus in the foreground has impaled itself on the nasal horn of its prey.  Very recently, it has been proven that the two little “horns” on the frill of monoclonius were actually bony projections for muscle attachments, and therefore were neither horns nor exposed.

Late Cretaceous, North America (Alberta) – A pack of dromaeosaurs (1.8-meter-long dromaeosaurid theropods) attacking a straggling or sick parasaurolophus (a 10-meter-long lambeosaurid).  This painting is on display at the University of Pennsylvania’s Geology Department.

Late Cretaceous, North America (Kansas) – Plotosaurus (a 10-meter-long mosasaur) and a school of enchodus (18-centimeter-long fish).  We’re looking up from underneath.

Middle Cretaceous, Europe (England) – Pteranodon sternbergi (pterodactyloid pterosaurs with 7.5-meter wingspans).

Late Eocene, North America (Colorado) – Eobasileus (a 3-meter-long uintatherium) with young, being eyed by a saber-toothed cat (probably a genus of dinictis and 1.2 meters long – I have as yet very little information on early cats).

Middle Jurassic, China – Shunosaurus (a 12-meter-long cetiosaurid sauropod) with young, and yangchuanosaurus (a 9-meter-long allosaurid theropod).  Shunosaurus was one of a handful of sauropods that developed armor: in this case, a spiked tail club.

Late Jurassic, North America – Stegosaurus stenops (9-meter-long stegosaurids) and some small theropods in pursuit of a bug.  Again, science has turned my careful research into well-meaning error.  Recently, it has been determined that S. stenops more likely sported a staggered row of plates from the neck to the hips, followed by a single row up to the tail spikes.

Middle Cretaceous, Niger – Suchomimus tenerensis (11-meter-long spinosaurid theropods).

Middle Jurassic, China – a herd of deer-like yandusaurus (2-meter-long hypsilophodontids).  In this painting, I’ve given the males more pronounced blue patches and bright yellow crescents behind the ears; the females are less colorful.

A detail of the same picture.