As you can see, I'm plenty of free time lately. So, since I drew a lot of theropods, I decided to do something different. A pterosaur. yeah, I've already drawn the mighty Quetzalcoatlus but there was a critter to interesting for leaving undone. It shares the most incredible crest along with the incredible Tupandactylus and the weird Nyctosaurus. It is...
Thalassodromeus sethi, the "Seth's searunner". This is crazy. The head is simply huge. Not as huge as in Tupandactylus, but it's very close. And we don't know very well the rest of its body so I restored it after Tupuxuara. Among the several options, beak and crest are shown fused together as in hornbills. I think it fits well, but is a very delicate subject. About the crest, it isn't similar to the one commonly depicted. Why? Because in the original specimen you can clearly see that the skull is damaged. The general shape is altered a bit and some parts are broken and/or erosed. The original head must have been different. Also, the wings. The attachment is near the knee, while the wing itself resembles the bats' ones. In the last months I was deeply interested in pterosaurs, so I've made a few researches. The wings in Pterosauria surely were different among the several species, but this is presumibly the most common type. I didn't add on pycnofibres because they're present only on the wings of smaller species, such as Jeholopterus and Pterorhynchus. In bigger species, the question is much more questionable. Also, the cruropatagium/uopatagium is reduced. Species that spended a lot of their time on land (in this case, Azhdarchoids) didin't need a lot such a feature. And it's not digitigrade. It's just this pose.
So this is it. Enjoy it!
Thalassodromeus was a large pterodactyloid pterosaur found in northeastern Brazil. Thalassodromeus was believed by Kellner to have fed in a similar way to modern skimmers; trailing its lower jaw in the water while it flew. However, later research on its jaw and neck anatomy suggested that for this and other larger pterosaurs it would not be feasible to skim because of the drag: the energy expenditure would be too high. Kellner assigned Thalassodromeus to the Tapejaridae. Other analyses however, showed that it was, joined with Tupuxuara in a Thalassodrominae, more closely related to the Azhdarchidae.
Coloured with Tria Markers, Pencils and Adobe Photoshop. Based on knobbed hornbill.
References: Mark Witton, Jaime A. Headden, David Peters, Mike Hanson
On my blog too:
[link]Ps: sorry for the colours' quality. Bad scanner
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Sta.sh
Thanks for explaining the pose, too. I got worried. Nope, it's just walking.
Still, thanks!