Drawings

On this page, you will find my representational work including scientific illustrations, still lifes and fantasy. Click the picture to zoom.

Inostrancevia Skull

Inostrancevia was the top of the food chain in Late Permian Siberia. 260-254 MYA (million years ago), this (up to) 1000lb predator was the terror of archosaurs (reptile ancestors) like Scutosaurus karpinski and Deltavjatia vyatkensis, as well as its closer relative Dicynodon. The skull above is about 2 feet long and nearly complete skeletons show us that Inostrancevia was almost 12 feet long from nose to tail. Imagine a tiger crossed with a crocodile. (Ref)
No really, take a moment to picture the huge jaws with long (6" in the case of those 'canines') teeth, possibly sparse, coarse hair, the wide stance of legs not quite held under the body yet, hot breath, and tiger's eyes evaluating your tastiness. Inostrancevia was a member of a group of non-mammalian synapsids called gorgonopsids, which evolved from the same animals that later evolved into mammals. That means that while gorgonopsids are not our direct ancestors, they are closely related to our ancestors. Since we don't know when endothermy (maintaining your body temperature above that of the surrounding environment) evolved, we can't be sure if Inostrancevia was warm-blooded. Paleontologists have not found skin impressions of Inostrancevia, but based on a skin impression found with Estemmenosuchus, a close relative, many people reconstruct gorgons with hairless, scaleless skin. (Ref*)
If you would like more information about gorgonopsids, I would suggest The Dragon's Tales post Once Upon the Permian.

Reference picture My drawing was done in Gimp on my laptop during the 2011 Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists meeting, Nov 2-5.

*This is the one reference I am including, though I found several others. The commenter Darren Naish writes Tetrapod Zoology and every reference I found backs up his comment.