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Description
A young Compsognathus explores the beach and finds a washed up ammonite Subplanites.

Compsognathus is a small theropod dinosaur that lived in Europe during the Late Jurassic 150 million years ago. Two very complete skeletons were found, one which comes from the famous Solnhofen limestone in Bavaria, Germany. It lived on a tropical archipelago along with pterosaurs and marine reptiles (In my previous painting of the turtle Solnhofia, you can see some of the fauna from this time), and also the famous Archaeopteryx. Compsognathus was small, around 1.4 m (4 ft 7 in) in length and preyed mostly on small animals. Remains of the lizard Bavarisaurus were found in its stomach.

Digital painting by 'Paleo Pete' Peter Nickolaus, 2023. E-Mail: contact.paleopete@gmail.com

Description
A young Compsognathus explores the beach and finds a washed up ammonite Subplanites.

Compsognathus is a small theropod dinosaur that lived in Europe during the Late Jurassic 150 million years ago. Two very complete skeletons were found, one which comes from the famous Solnhofen limestone in Bavaria, Germany. It lived on a tropical archipelago along with pterosaurs and marine reptiles (In my previous painting of the turtle Solnhofia, you can see some of the fauna from this time), and also the famous Archaeopteryx. Compsognathus was small, around 1.4 m (4 ft 7 in) in length and preyed mostly on small animals. Remains of the lizard Bavarisaurus were found in its stomach.

Digital painting by 'Paleo Pete' Peter Nickolaus, 2023. E-Mail: contact.paleopete@gmail.com