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Description

As dawn rises on the Hell Creek Formation, commotion erupts as an old male Acheroraptor watches a pair of male Tyrannosaurus fight over a mate down below. The battle between the two is short and brutal, with the winner biting down on the loser's face and leaving deep scars which will remain with him for the rest of his life.

The losing male has another distinct disadvantage compared to his rivals; he is melanistic, and therefore is more obvious to prey. Females will also usually choose males with normal coloration over him, leaving him very unlikely to breed and carry on his genes. He leaves this fight with scars and a wounded pride.

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Firstly, I want to say that I feel pretty dopey about having recycled the Velociraptor design for Acheroraptor. I'll probably come back to this piece and edit it so that it's more accurate later.

Melanism is one of those things you don't really see too often with paleoart; likely because of the fact that it's so rare that most people tend not to depict it too often. But these sorts of genetic mutations would almost certainly have been around, and they would likely have impacted those affected like how the condition does today; it leaves them at a severe disadvantage.

I have also depicted another interesting facet of tyrannosaur behavior; face-biting. Although a lot of the initial evidence of this behavior has since been explained as evidence of parasitic infestation, there has since been evidence found on the skull of Jane that indicates that such behaviors were a part of tyrannosaur life. As such, I've depicted an instance of it here.

Dromaeosaur tree climbing ability is something rarely touched upon in scientific literature, probably due to the limited evidence. What is known is that most dromaeosaurids were not particularly cursorial, but were likely fairly nimble and agile. I have my own hypotheses on the potential behavioral implications of this that may come up in this series eventually, but I'll save that for later.

Dromaeosaurids don't seem like the most graceful of climbers, and they likely were not; however, grace is secondary to efficiency, and thanks to W-AIR, it's likely Acheroraptor could quickly escape potential predators by scampering up into trees where it cannot be reached.

Description

As dawn rises on the Hell Creek Formation, commotion erupts as an old male Acheroraptor watches a pair of male Tyrannosaurus fight over a mate down below. The battle between the two is short and brutal, with the winner biting down on the loser's face and leaving deep scars which will remain with him for the rest of his life.

The losing male has another distinct disadvantage compared to his rivals; he is melanistic, and therefore is more obvious to prey. Females will also usually choose males with normal coloration over him, leaving him very unlikely to breed and carry on his genes. He leaves this fight with scars and a wounded pride.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Firstly, I want to say that I feel pretty dopey about having recycled the Velociraptor design for Acheroraptor. I'll probably come back to this piece and edit it so that it's more accurate later.

Melanism is one of those things you don't really see too often with paleoart; likely because of the fact that it's so rare that most people tend not to depict it too often. But these sorts of genetic mutations would almost certainly have been around, and they would likely have impacted those affected like how the condition does today; it leaves them at a severe disadvantage.

I have also depicted another interesting facet of tyrannosaur behavior; face-biting. Although a lot of the initial evidence of this behavior has since been explained as evidence of parasitic infestation, there has since been evidence found on the skull of Jane that indicates that such behaviors were a part of tyrannosaur life. As such, I've depicted an instance of it here.

Dromaeosaur tree climbing ability is something rarely touched upon in scientific literature, probably due to the limited evidence. What is known is that most dromaeosaurids were not particularly cursorial, but were likely fairly nimble and agile. I have my own hypotheses on the potential behavioral implications of this that may come up in this series eventually, but I'll save that for later.

Dromaeosaurids don't seem like the most graceful of climbers, and they likely were not; however, grace is secondary to efficiency, and thanks to W-AIR, it's likely Acheroraptor could quickly escape potential predators by scampering up into trees where it cannot be reached.