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Description

Euoplocephalus Tutus

Late Cretaceous, 76-75 mya

Dinosaur Park Formation, Alberta, Canada

Happy Ankylosaur week (a few hours late )! Pictured here is Euoplocephalus striding across a fern field at sunset, with a pair of Lambeosaurus off feeding in the distance.

Euoplocephalus was a highly derived Ankylosaur from the late Cretaceous period North America, closely related to Ankylosaurus. This animal is distinguished by a large tail club, thick fused armor with large spikes on the neck, shoulder, and entire back, a wide mouth useful for non-selective browsing, and cheeks helpful in chewing, complete with a pair of rear facing cheek spikes. Perhaps most astonishingly, Euoplocephalus also had armored eyelids! As Ankylosaurs evolved, many lineages such as this specialized in thicker and more complete armor than their ancestors, allowing them to graze indiscriminately with little chance of disturbance from predators. Given the sheer diversity of Ankylosaurs known to Paleontology, this must have been a successful strategy for survival.

This took a while because I felt unsure of my direction, but I wanted to be on time so I dove right in at the last minute, and I have to say, I feel really happy about how this one turned out- particularly I felt overall that my familiarity with drawing an animal's anatomy is improving, and I feel particularly motivated to draw more after finishing this- so I hope you like it!

As usual, please feel free to critique in good spirit!

Description

Euoplocephalus Tutus

Late Cretaceous, 76-75 mya

Dinosaur Park Formation, Alberta, Canada

Happy Ankylosaur week (a few hours late )! Pictured here is Euoplocephalus striding across a fern field at sunset, with a pair of Lambeosaurus off feeding in the distance.

Euoplocephalus was a highly derived Ankylosaur from the late Cretaceous period North America, closely related to Ankylosaurus. This animal is distinguished by a large tail club, thick fused armor with large spikes on the neck, shoulder, and entire back, a wide mouth useful for non-selective browsing, and cheeks helpful in chewing, complete with a pair of rear facing cheek spikes. Perhaps most astonishingly, Euoplocephalus also had armored eyelids! As Ankylosaurs evolved, many lineages such as this specialized in thicker and more complete armor than their ancestors, allowing them to graze indiscriminately with little chance of disturbance from predators. Given the sheer diversity of Ankylosaurs known to Paleontology, this must have been a successful strategy for survival.

This took a while because I felt unsure of my direction, but I wanted to be on time so I dove right in at the last minute, and I have to say, I feel really happy about how this one turned out- particularly I felt overall that my familiarity with drawing an animal's anatomy is improving, and I feel particularly motivated to draw more after finishing this- so I hope you like it!

As usual, please feel free to critique in good spirit!