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Pelycosaur24 — Prehistoric Dugong
by-nc-nd
#marinemammal #paleontology #seacow #dugong #fossil #manatee
Published: 2017-08-12 18:31:31 +0000 UTC; Views: 3573; Favourites: 98; Downloads: 6
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Description
I recently returned from a Florida field trip where I had the luck to meet two very curious and friendly Manatees in the Loxahatchee River.
After that I went to the Manatee Lagoon in Palm Beach and also the Seaquarium in Miami where injured Manatees are treated. Dugongs and Manatees are now officially my favorite animals not native to Austria.
However we do have fossils of Dugongs here and finds show that they were very common in the shallow Thetys Ocean that covered parts of Austria 15 million years ago. A famous fossil sea cow nicknamed Linda that was found in 2015 in Bad Vöslau even has her own museum. The dominant dugong species in Austria was the Metaxytherium medium, like the depicted in this drawing. Originally it was called Thatattosiren but then found to be the same species.
This illustration was made originally for a publication of a castle wall in Seggau that had the fossil remains of a dugong in it.
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Comments: 32
Its beautiful. Love the water shine, it really bringing in more life to the piece. That seaweed also looks great. The Dugong is also good, though a little detail might be needed (but that's a really minor nitpick). Overall this artpiece is great, also loved what inspired you to make this piece.
Edit: Made some typos.
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Thank you very much!
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It had a predator that was specialized to hunt it. Hemipristis serra.
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Interesting! I have not heard of that shark before
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Me too. Check out the sizes it gets. www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/s…
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Yes, that is pretty impressive!
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Yeah. You think you might draw it?
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well right now I am a little busy 
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If I remember it right, we, here in Hungary have fossils which prove that Megalodons hunted those calm sea-cows... some bite marks on their vertebrae could be the evidence.
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Yes, true, and I also recall that the oldest known ancestor of the manatee was found in Hungary as well!
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My parents call me a Manatee because I swim under the water in a calm mater.
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Thank you and you are welcome
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Damn! I live in Florida. We could have met at a restaurant or some other-where neutral. Ah, well...whoulda shoulda coulda.
Nice manatee!
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Ah, too bad, the first week I was on the Keys (mainly Key Largo) with a university field trip and after that in West Palm Beach and Miami for three days.
Thanks, Dugongs and Manatees are fantastic animals
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You were in the other end of the state; I live in Tallahassee.
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Ok, I see, well we where mainly on the university field trip so not that much time anyway
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Looks great! I really love the colors and the depths of the background, how its not just a blue wall. Also the reflection of light on its skin.
A Thetys Ocean, my favorite ocean of all times!
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Thank you! Yes this was actually my first take on a more realistic background.
Thetys Ocean was a pretty cool environment, looked a lot like Florida today - thats why we went there on the field trip
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Well it turned out really great! So I guess this first time wont be the last one.
I see, yeah that makes sense, when I was little I didn't really like it that Mesozoic Europe was under an ocean, just because at the time we tough there weren't many dinosaurs living there, like we didn't know Spinosaurus was evolved for the coastal swamps and so on and yeah I also didn't appreciate the marine reptiles as much as I did dinos. XD Well by now that all changed and I would rather visit the Thetys ocean then to see Rex in america.
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I will definitely try to draw more backgrounds.
Ah, yes another great reason to hope for time machines! Thetys vacation
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Good to hear! So yeah you should, cuz this one turned out really great!
Hnm would be one dangerous vacation... every animal you meat would be dangerous for you, but would also very exciting!
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