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Description
Saurosuchus galilei

Bio:

Among a wide arrange of creatures that roamed Pangaea during the Triassic one particular kind of land creatures stood out. Those were reptiles known as Rauisuchians. While initially these creatures were thought to represent a single group, whe now know that they came from different lineages of Archosauria without close relation between most of them. Despite this, some traits were shared between all Rauisuchians. All Rauisuchians, to a varying degree, shared common ancestor with modern-day crocodiles. However, they all were terrestrial reptiles of sufficent size, from middle-sized to a truly gigantic members that reached the weight of over a ton. This size, among other specific traits, allowed Rauisuchians to dominate ecosystems throughout the Triassic, cementing their status as apex predators. And though these reptiles managed to reach the top of a food chain, they died out by the end of the Triassic, leaving their place for the taking by new type of predator — theropod dinosaurs.

First described by Osvaldo A. Reig in 1959, Saurosuchus is a stand out even among other Rauisuchians. All thanks to its immense size. Measuring up to 7 meters in length and weight of over half a ton, Saurosuchus can easily take the title of one of the largest non-dinosaurian reptilian land predators, surpassed only by its fellow rauisuchian Fasolasuchus. Fossils of Saurosuchus dating back to Carnian stage of the late Triassic are known from the modern-day Argentina, specifically the Ischigualasto formation. With such a massive size and powerful jaws, Saurosuchus stalked lush fern prairies of the late Triassic as an uncontested apex predator, with only other members of its own kind as natural predators. And while Saurosuchus was capable of hunting any residents of the Triassic esocystem, from nible early dinosaurs to gigantic reptiles like Silosuchus, its primary source of prey were giant dicynodonts, specifically Ischigualasia that roamed the landscape in large herds.

Role in the series:

Saurosuchus, specifically an olde female, appears as a tritagonist of the very first episode of the Walking With Dinosaurs reboot titled New Blood.

The female Saurosuchus was fist seen hunting a herd of Ischigualastia. After waiting in the ambush for a moment to strike, the female Saurosuchus suddenly charges from the cover of dense thickets and attacks a young dicynodont. While the rest of the herd, along with a flock of scared Pisanosaurs, managed to escape, a young Ischigualastia already lost its fight for survival to a predator, as female Saurosuchus sliced it's throat open with her razor-sharp teeth, getting an easy meal.

As female Saurosuchus started to consume her prey, she was quickly surrounded by a few Sanjuansaurs waiting for the leftovers of giant predator's prey. One individual, however, attempted to steal some meat from under Saurosuchus' nose. This wasn't left unnoticed by the female Saurosuchus as she tried to catch a pesky dinosaur with her deadly jaws. While she failed, the female managed to scare away opportunistic Sanjuansaurs for some time.

The female Saurosuchus was seen near the river, next to a resting herd of Ischigualastia. While this was a perfect place for an ambush, the female had no interest in atacking dicynodonts, taking a drink from the local waterfall instead.

Later during the dry season, a male Saurosuchus had invaded female's territory and was greedily quenching his thirst. A female Saurosuchus confronted him, trying to drive the intruder away. When her attempts proved to be futile, the female Saurosuchus initiated a fight with the male. Initially the two giant predators seemed to be evenly matched. However, the male managed to get the upper hand in the end by biting into female's thigh. With a heavily injured leg, the female hastened to retreat thus loosing her territory she had for past 6 years.

Having lost her territory to the male, the female Saurosuchus is forced to leave area of the river and hunt in dried fern scrubland. The female attempts to attack a group of Hyperodapedon that were digging for fern roots. The female ambushes rhynchosaurs, unfortunately, due to her injury, she looses her prey.

The female Saurosuchus was last seen surrounded by a flock of Sanjuansaurs. The combination of starvation and injury brought down the great carnivore, rendering her unable to fight back. Once the last remnants of her power left, the dinosaurs swarm around her, eating her from inside out.

Background:

After tackling the prey it was only a matter of time when I get to its predator. Saurosuchus was an obvious choice when it came to the Postosuchus replacement from the original, since it shared all the essential traits of WWD's Postosuchus. It was actually one of the first choices for my cast of creatures.

Now, when it comes to the Postosuchus' portrayal, it's similar to its prey, the Placerias, this being very unflattering image of slow, lumbering Knight-esque reptile that is utterly inferior to more advanced dinosaurs and is destinied to go extinct. This portrayal, obviously was unreasonably biased and as far from reality as possible, which sems weird to me. It's been almost 25 years since the original Walking With Dinosaurs came out and yet, even modern documentaries like Life on Our Planet still portray non-dinosaurian Triassic creatures in this heavily outdated light.

Of course I had to fix this injustice. The obvious fix was making Saurosuchus fast and agile to its size, similar to a galloping crocodile but even more mobile as it was fully terrestrial animal. But I went further than that. Since Ischigualastia lacks tusks thar Placerias had, I decided to give another reason to the injury that led to female Rauisuchian's downfall. Fortunately, the original documentary already presented perfect opportunity in a form of male rival. Now, the original scene is controversial as it contains imagery of Postosuchus urinating, something that reptile, and especially crocodiles, down't do very often. However, I find another kind of problem here. The scene now feels... unnecessary? The fact that female Postosuchus lost her territory had zero influence on her subplot, which I think was a missed opportunity. Naturally I decided to not only let two giant predators to have fight, but also to let it have a lasting impact on the entire story. After all, Walking With Dinosaurs isn't only a nature documentary but a show with dramatic narative. The idea of taking away female Saurosuchus' footing just felt right for me, with the ending of her dying due to the starvation and progressing infection painting her in more tragic light, similarly to a Liopleurodon bull from the Cruel Sea.

Now, when it somes to the initial drawing, I had some trouble. It took me quite a few trials and errors before I could recreate the skull shape of Saurosuchus. The main problem, however, was the tail. Saurosuchus is probably the longers creature in my cast (in terms of relation between height and length, not the actual numbers) which forced me into difficult situation, as I had to give the initial drawing shorter tail, just so it fould fit on paper. The problem, however, didn't go away, as the edited version still barely fit into canvas without making any details indistinguishable. The coloring process was quite tricky, as promo were doing bad job with showing off its coloration. But I think I did a good job with it.

That's all for now, folks! Stay tuned for the updates as there's a lot for us to unpack!

Sanjuansaurus entry
Chiniquodon entry
Carniadactylus entry
Ptychoceratodus entry
Pisanosaurus entry
Pelorocephalus entry
Hyperodapedon entry
Ischigualastia entry

Walking with Dinosaurs is owned by BBC and Impossible Pictures

Description
Saurosuchus galilei

Bio:

Among a wide arrange of creatures that roamed Pangaea during the Triassic one particular kind of land creatures stood out. Those were reptiles known as Rauisuchians. While initially these creatures were thought to represent a single group, whe now know that they came from different lineages of Archosauria without close relation between most of them. Despite this, some traits were shared between all Rauisuchians. All Rauisuchians, to a varying degree, shared common ancestor with modern-day crocodiles. However, they all were terrestrial reptiles of sufficent size, from middle-sized to a truly gigantic members that reached the weight of over a ton. This size, among other specific traits, allowed Rauisuchians to dominate ecosystems throughout the Triassic, cementing their status as apex predators. And though these reptiles managed to reach the top of a food chain, they died out by the end of the Triassic, leaving their place for the taking by new type of predator — theropod dinosaurs.

First described by Osvaldo A. Reig in 1959, Saurosuchus is a stand out even among other Rauisuchians. All thanks to its immense size. Measuring up to 7 meters in length and weight of over half a ton, Saurosuchus can easily take the title of one of the largest non-dinosaurian reptilian land predators, surpassed only by its fellow rauisuchian Fasolasuchus. Fossils of Saurosuchus dating back to Carnian stage of the late Triassic are known from the modern-day Argentina, specifically the Ischigualasto formation. With such a massive size and powerful jaws, Saurosuchus stalked lush fern prairies of the late Triassic as an uncontested apex predator, with only other members of its own kind as natural predators. And while Saurosuchus was capable of hunting any residents of the Triassic esocystem, from nible early dinosaurs to gigantic reptiles like Silosuchus, its primary source of prey were giant dicynodonts, specifically Ischigualasia that roamed the landscape in large herds.

Role in the series:

Saurosuchus, specifically an olde female, appears as a tritagonist of the very first episode of the Walking With Dinosaurs reboot titled New Blood.

The female Saurosuchus was fist seen hunting a herd of Ischigualastia. After waiting in the ambush for a moment to strike, the female Saurosuchus suddenly charges from the cover of dense thickets and attacks a young dicynodont. While the rest of the herd, along with a flock of scared Pisanosaurs, managed to escape, a young Ischigualastia already lost its fight for survival to a predator, as female Saurosuchus sliced it's throat open with her razor-sharp teeth, getting an easy meal.

As female Saurosuchus started to consume her prey, she was quickly surrounded by a few Sanjuansaurs waiting for the leftovers of giant predator's prey. One individual, however, attempted to steal some meat from under Saurosuchus' nose. This wasn't left unnoticed by the female Saurosuchus as she tried to catch a pesky dinosaur with her deadly jaws. While she failed, the female managed to scare away opportunistic Sanjuansaurs for some time.

The female Saurosuchus was seen near the river, next to a resting herd of Ischigualastia. While this was a perfect place for an ambush, the female had no interest in atacking dicynodonts, taking a drink from the local waterfall instead.

Later during the dry season, a male Saurosuchus had invaded female's territory and was greedily quenching his thirst. A female Saurosuchus confronted him, trying to drive the intruder away. When her attempts proved to be futile, the female Saurosuchus initiated a fight with the male. Initially the two giant predators seemed to be evenly matched. However, the male managed to get the upper hand in the end by biting into female's thigh. With a heavily injured leg, the female hastened to retreat thus loosing her territory she had for past 6 years.

Having lost her territory to the male, the female Saurosuchus is forced to leave area of the river and hunt in dried fern scrubland. The female attempts to attack a group of Hyperodapedon that were digging for fern roots. The female ambushes rhynchosaurs, unfortunately, due to her injury, she looses her prey.

The female Saurosuchus was last seen surrounded by a flock of Sanjuansaurs. The combination of starvation and injury brought down the great carnivore, rendering her unable to fight back. Once the last remnants of her power left, the dinosaurs swarm around her, eating her from inside out.

Background:

After tackling the prey it was only a matter of time when I get to its predator. Saurosuchus was an obvious choice when it came to the Postosuchus replacement from the original, since it shared all the essential traits of WWD's Postosuchus. It was actually one of the first choices for my cast of creatures.

Now, when it comes to the Postosuchus' portrayal, it's similar to its prey, the Placerias, this being very unflattering image of slow, lumbering Knight-esque reptile that is utterly inferior to more advanced dinosaurs and is destinied to go extinct. This portrayal, obviously was unreasonably biased and as far from reality as possible, which sems weird to me. It's been almost 25 years since the original Walking With Dinosaurs came out and yet, even modern documentaries like Life on Our Planet still portray non-dinosaurian Triassic creatures in this heavily outdated light.

Of course I had to fix this injustice. The obvious fix was making Saurosuchus fast and agile to its size, similar to a galloping crocodile but even more mobile as it was fully terrestrial animal. But I went further than that. Since Ischigualastia lacks tusks thar Placerias had, I decided to give another reason to the injury that led to female Rauisuchian's downfall. Fortunately, the original documentary already presented perfect opportunity in a form of male rival. Now, the original scene is controversial as it contains imagery of Postosuchus urinating, something that reptile, and especially crocodiles, down't do very often. However, I find another kind of problem here. The scene now feels... unnecessary? The fact that female Postosuchus lost her territory had zero influence on her subplot, which I think was a missed opportunity. Naturally I decided to not only let two giant predators to have fight, but also to let it have a lasting impact on the entire story. After all, Walking With Dinosaurs isn't only a nature documentary but a show with dramatic narative. The idea of taking away female Saurosuchus' footing just felt right for me, with the ending of her dying due to the starvation and progressing infection painting her in more tragic light, similarly to a Liopleurodon bull from the Cruel Sea.

Now, when it somes to the initial drawing, I had some trouble. It took me quite a few trials and errors before I could recreate the skull shape of Saurosuchus. The main problem, however, was the tail. Saurosuchus is probably the longers creature in my cast (in terms of relation between height and length, not the actual numbers) which forced me into difficult situation, as I had to give the initial drawing shorter tail, just so it fould fit on paper. The problem, however, didn't go away, as the edited version still barely fit into canvas without making any details indistinguishable. The coloring process was quite tricky, as promo were doing bad job with showing off its coloration. But I think I did a good job with it.

That's all for now, folks! Stay tuned for the updates as there's a lot for us to unpack!

Sanjuansaurus entry
Chiniquodon entry
Carniadactylus entry
Ptychoceratodus entry
Pisanosaurus entry
Pelorocephalus entry
Hyperodapedon entry
Ischigualastia entry

Walking with Dinosaurs is owned by BBC and Impossible Pictures