“A Brachiosaur's Eye View”
In this Jurassic scene from about 150 million years ago, U.S. paleoartist Brian Engh imagines a brachiosaur’s eye view of an ancient flood channel in Utah. “I try to show the environment from a view that is personally relatable to the animals in it,” Engh says. “I constructed and photographed small posable models of the animals. This gave me the lighting and perspective reference I needed to execute the final illustration.”
Photograph by Illustration by Brian Engh“Akainacephalus”
This finely textured portrait of the armoured ankylosaur 'Akainacephalus johnsoni' offers an unusual window into the personality of a dinosaur 75 million years old, which was described as a new species in July 2018. The artwork is one in a series called “Faces of The Grand Staircase” created by Russian artist Andrey Atuchin in support of Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which President Donald Trump’s administration recently slashed in size.
Photograph by Illustration by Andrey Atuchin“A Mob of Dimorphodon”
Here, the Jurassic pterosaur 'Dimorphodon macronyx' seeks food and shelter in an English coastal forest 190 million years ago. Florida-based illustrator Gabriel Ugueto sought to put the record straight on one of his favorite pterosaurs in this work. He’s not a fan of the many illustrations of 'Dimorphodon' that depict it like a puffin, he says, “not to mention the nightmarish, scaly, gargoyle-like 'Dimorphodon' that made it to the silver screen in [the 2015 movie] 'Jurassic World'.”
Photograph by Illustration by Gabriel Ugueto“Ichthyosaur Love”
Depicted here in the act of mating, the ichthyosaur 'Cryopterygius kristiansenae' lived during the late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago. It is among many fossils of marine reptiles recovered from the Arctic island of Spitsbergen in the past decade, says Norwegian artist Esther van Hulsen. “Many of these fossils are fragmented, but one of them is very complete, with only a piece of the tail missing,” she says.
Photograph by Illustration by Esther van Hulsen“One Step Beyond”
In a striking and unique illustration of the natural world, Italian artist Davide Bonadonna depicts a moment of reflection 70 million years ago in Mongolia. “A herd of 'Saurolophus angustirostris' moves along a river bank after a storm in the Cretaceous Nemegt Basin,” says Bonadonna. “The feet of the large herbivores sink into the soft sediment, crushing the skull of a 'Tarbosaurus bataar' that was lying in the mud.”
Photograph by Illustration by Davide Bonadonna“Trilobite Mandala”
Trilobites are arthropods, related to insects and crustaceans, and an incredible 20,000 forms with a great variety of shapes and designs are known from fossils. “Trilobites once filled the planet’s oceans,” says U.S. artist Carrie Carlson. “This mandala pattern celebrates the variety and charm of trilobites, appearing almost as synchronised swimmers, though it is thought that some trilobites were more crawlers than swimmers.”
Photograph by Illustration by Carrie Carlson“Marsupial Lion Study”
Australia’s largest ever pouched predator, the marsupial lion, lived until about 40,000 years ago, overlapping with the continent’s early Aboriginal inhabitants. 'Thylacoleo carnifex', pound for pound, had the strongest bite of any known mammal,” says illustrator Joseph J. Ortega. “It had opposable thumbs and semi-retractable hooded claws, which probably made it a nimble tree climber as well as lethal predator.”
Photograph by Illustration by Joseph J. Ortega“Giant Takes a Gander”
Some azhdarchid pterosaurs were massive creatures, with wingspans comparable to those of small aircraft and heights akin to giraffes when standing. In this artwork created by U.S.-based Midiaou Diallo, a large male has landed in the Nemegt region of Mongolia during the late Cretaceous period, stretching his legs on a sand dune far from home.
Photograph by Illustration by Midiaou Diallo“Tundra Mural”
In a scene created for a museum diorama, U.S. artist Beth Zaikin imagines a vast panorma featuring the mammoth, caribou, and musk ox of the upper New York region during the last glacial period, from about 115,000 to 11,700 years ago. “Both fantastic and familiar megafauna species in that period roamed across an ecosystem known as glacial or shrub tundra,” she says. “The habitat is mostly carpeted by low-growing vegetation and shaggy shrubs, and punctuated by broken and scattered rocks carried by glaciers."
Photograph by Illustration by Beth Zaiken“Anasazisaurus horneri”
Depicted here by Ukraine-based artist Sergey Krasovskiy, the duck-billed hadrosaur 'Anasazisaurus horneri' sports stripy camouflage that suited its moist, tropical environs. This creature lived in what was New Mexico during the late Cretaceous period, about 74 million years ago.
Photograph by Illustration by Sergey Krasovskiy“Pengornis with a Snack”
Roughly the size of a pigeon, 'Pengornis houi' lived in China about 120 million years ago. It is the largest early Cretaceous member of a primitive lineage of birds called the enantiornithines. “I want to try to shine some light on prehistoric animals that aren't depicted in artwork very often,” says U.S.-based artist Tyler Young. 'Pengornis' was the perfect subject, he notes, as it has a nearly complete skeleton for reference but has rarely been illustrated before.
Photograph by Illustration by Tyler YoungTrilobites emerged during the Cambrian period some 520 million years ago and proliferated globally until their demise at the close of the Permian period 250 million years ago. “Dangers lurked from every direction in the prehistoric seas. The need for self-defence spawned a menagerie of quirky creatures,” says Indonesia-based artist Franz Anthony. “Though often depicted in black and brown, these creatures likely came in every imaginable colour, like today's crustaceans.”
Photograph by Illustration by Franz Anthony