Museums: Hessiches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt

This museum in Darmstadt, Germany, varies in its collections. We were only interested in their Palaeontological collection, although we did have a look at the zoological displays also. So, lets take a look at some photographs from the museum. Again, not much to say, but plenty to look at.

This is what greets you when you enter the geology and palaeontology gallery, an American Mastodon. 

Side view of the American Mastodon skeleton.

Part of the palaeontological collection also includes fossils from the Pleistocene of the area. This is the giant Irish Elk, Megaloceros.

This is the skull of the primitive proboscidean, Deinotherium. This elephant ancestor is easily identified by the short tusks that protrude from the lower jaw.

The complete skeleton of the early horse from the Messel Grube pit, Propalaeotherium. There is an example of this horse that is pregnant. The pale slab that the fossil is displayed on is the resin used in the transfer method mentioned in my Messel Grube post.

This is just one of many examples of the fossil fish that have been found in the Messel pit. My class was very fortunate to discover two of these gar pikes.

One of the rarer bird fossils found at Messel. This is an Eocene Ibis.

The more common bird is Messelornis.

Messel was also home to a diverse population of crocodiles, varying in size and orientations. This particular specimen was preserved in three dimensions, coming to rest on the bottom of the lake on its side.

This is the exceptionally well preserved skull of a larger genus of crocodile from the Messel pit.

The diverse reptile fauna also included snakes of various sizes. This was one of the largest on display.

Palaeoart: Mating Display

Because I was so impressed with the artwork I found last night by Emily Willoughby I decided to do another post on her work, this time, as with the last, we see her knowledge of modern birds shining through.

This piece is entitled 'Balaur bondoc is a bird', which it is, and we see that easiest here. Without having to look too closely it is evident that the Balaur on the log is a male from the more colourful plumage around the neck. The other animal is a more neutral colouring and therefore can be assumed to be a female. How can we make these assumptions? By doing what the artist did and taking a look at modern birds. Mallard ducks are a good example, the drake is more decorated than the female in order to compete for mating rights.

While watching pigeons in the street we also see another parallel between this depiction of the male dinosaur. The puffing around the neck, while fending off other males, birds such as pigeons will puff their feathers to appear bigger which also attracts a female. This is most likely what Willoughby is trying to portray here. Even the front limbs are held like wings.

Its safe to say I'm now a big fan of this artist, she brings modern birdlike features to the world of the dinosaurs, making for very interesting artwork. This won't be the last you see of Willoughby as I want to share more of her work on here.

Let me know what your thoughts are on this work in the comments.

Palaeoart: Dakotaraptor Hunt

Seeing as I haven't got as much done today as I would have liked I found a nice piece of artwork to have a look at. This one comes from an artist I haven't come across before, this is a depiction of the dromaeosaur, Dakotaraptor with an unknown ornithomimid in it's cluthces and is created by Emily Willoughby.

Let's start with the art itself. The textures of the feathers on these dinosaurs are beautiful, you really get the feeling that these are bird ancestors. I think we can agree that this is an incredibly accurate representation of this dinosaur, I really am impressed. 

I did a little research on the artist. Emily Willoughby is a bird photographer and palaeoartist, looking at her work it is evident that she has a talent for blending her knowledge of modern ornithology with the prehistoric animals that she resurrects in her art. 

In my opinion, this is the way that artists should look at theropods and ornithopods, by looking at the decedents; the birds. By studying modern birds; their plumage, their posture and behaviour, we can start to understand the way that dinosaurs may have looked and behaved. 

In this piece we can see direct parallels with modern birds. For instance the posture. If we look at the way the head of the Dakotaraptor is being held its very similar to eagles and vultures of today, the neck is also S-Shaped. The forearms are held more like wings than forearms of many bipedal dinosaurs. The artist here has made these arms look more like wings with the long feathers similar to those that enable flight. The hind legs are grasping the ornithomimid, again, much like birds of prey in the present day. 

Just a fantastic piece, I highly recommend that you take a look at her other work, I'll leave a link to her website below. Just a brilliant representation of the theropod dinosaurs. What do you think of this, let me know in the comments below. 

emilywilloughby.com