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jconway β Nyctosaurus sp
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Published: 2008-05-09 19:52:38 +0000 UTC; Views: 11511; Favourites: 228; Downloads: 832
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Description
For those who don't know, this is the rather spectacular crested Nyctosaurus--a medium-sized pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous.I did picture of this pair a few years back [link] where I put sails on them, to go with the skim-sailing hypothesis that was so hot right then. It's not so hot right now, so this is an un-sailed version (which is based on an old painting I did at the same time, but never uploaded anywhere). I've extended the rear-facing prong somewhat, as it seems there were extra bits that weren't obvious in the original description.
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Comments: 27
What is the general consensus about Nyctosaurus' crest now? Was it a sail or an antler?Β
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This might sound awfully weird, but this kind of reminds me of an old airline poster, what with the colors of the animals and the pretty sky in the background.
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Heartbroken that this print isn't available! Any other places to get it?
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This is my favorite dinosaur. Bravo to the smooth forms and how it looks so old.
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Its not a dinosaur, its a pterosaur.
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I read that it may have rarely ever landed due to lacking an extra claw that could help it climb around on land. I wonder then, now how could these animals have slept?
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Yeah, well, I have no doubt they could land and shuffle about on land. Sure, their limb proportions would have made it awkward, but there's no reason to think the lack of digits I-II-III would have made it impossible to move around on the ground--they'd just walk on their big knuckle, nothing wrong with that.
Nyctosaurus are very similar to frigate birds in a lot of ways. Similar size, very big wings with a high aspect ratio, and ting legs (Nyctosaurus has proportionally thee smallest legs of any pterosaur buy a long shot), and probably limited ability in the water (unlike, say, albatrosses).
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Though AFAIK they lacked the same adaptations on the vertebrae that frigate birds have, which might mean that they'd have to use other method instead of picking things from the water surface on the wing
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I'm not sure why it would be necessary to have the same adaptations frigate birds have to pick fish from the water--especially considering there's a huge difference between pterosaur and and bird necks.
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True, though wouldn't the more inflexible necks of pterosaurs be less efficient anyway?
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I don't know. It's a very complicated thing, because pterosaurs also had a very different head.
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Lovely work again, John.
IΒ΄ve a Pteranodon wip on my shelves right now with a lot of very dark grey-black dorsally like these two. Camouflage for some casting problems, solar energy trap and Black-backed gull look all at the same time.
I still canΒ΄t get my head around the aerodynamics of this head crest. It seems so incredible...
Spike.
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I've always been fascinated by this type, and they look so lovely here!
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Yeah, I remember these guys! Very strange, but bautiful creatures. Great drawing, I love your minimal style.
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So what happened to the sailed crest hypothesis?
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It sailed away ho ho ho
Well, that was a bad joke. I shouldn't even had to say it. Too late now.
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