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Description
Now that SVP 2021 Annual Meeting is over, it's time to reveal the piece depicting a Gryposaurus with a speculative puffin-esque rhamphotheca I made for Terry A. Gates and Evan Alger-Meyer's talk on potential hadrosaur facial keratin sheaths. The virtual presentation was already online late last month but I decided to play things safe.

Dr. Gates specifically presented the idea for this painting as Gryposaurus with a puffin-like beak, and I decided to run with it as far as seemed plausible. Just like a puffin this animal would presumably shed the brightly colored keratin layer after mating season, replacing it with a less ostentatious sheath.

The coloration of the rest of the animal was more inspired by oryxes and barnacle geese, because I didn't want to go overboard with the puffin connection. While we do not know exactly what all of the soft tissues of Gryposaurus were like, we do have fairly expansive skin impressions, and the feature scales on the neck and are based on actual fossils.

Description
Now that SVP 2021 Annual Meeting is over, it's time to reveal the piece depicting a Gryposaurus with a speculative puffin-esque rhamphotheca I made for Terry A. Gates and Evan Alger-Meyer's talk on potential hadrosaur facial keratin sheaths. The virtual presentation was already online late last month but I decided to play things safe.

Dr. Gates specifically presented the idea for this painting as Gryposaurus with a puffin-like beak, and I decided to run with it as far as seemed plausible. Just like a puffin this animal would presumably shed the brightly colored keratin layer after mating season, replacing it with a less ostentatious sheath.

The coloration of the rest of the animal was more inspired by oryxes and barnacle geese, because I didn't want to go overboard with the puffin connection. While we do not know exactly what all of the soft tissues of Gryposaurus were like, we do have fairly expansive skin impressions, and the feature scales on the neck and are based on actual fossils.