A group of visionaries have figured out how to bring nonavian dinosaurs to the present, and have determined the 10 species that make the best pets and domesticated them, with an oversimplified guide to what modern pet/livestock/husbandry animals they resemble most. you have done the work, you're completely prepared, and today, you're bringing your new friend home.

you will be able to take care of the pet and they will become your best friend for the rest of your lives. there are no downsides to any of these pets apart from what is in the brief description.

the pets, with image descriptions indicating which is which and artist credit, with artist links attached:

"What is to come"

(image id is both in the alt text and below the read more- I put it under one because it's incredibly long)

And so there we have it, the 200+ followers artpiece that I have been working on for several days, if I had to guess I'd say it took 25 or so hours over eleven days. Honestly it's so surreal to me that I'm here with over 200 followers (260 as of typing this- yes, I procrastinated on this), especially when I only hit 100 followers in February. It's genuinely really nice to know that people are actually interested in my art (before anyone brings up spam bots- I know there are a few of them amongst my followers but I've checked most of them and I am 100% confident that over 200 of them are real). I don't really have much else to say really- I'm just grateful to have the support. Thanks y'all :).

[Image id: a large, lineless digital drawing of several dinosaurs. It is nighttime. At the bottom of the piece, a lone Eoraptor lunensis is walking across the floodplains- both the ground and the Eoraptor are just silhouettes, the early dinosaur has been given protofeathers. The full moon is shining, it's size is exaggerated for artistic affect. Behind the moon, the heads of sixteen different dinosaurs can be seen (listed left to right, bottom to top) Row 1- Thecodontosaurus antiquus (small sauropodomorph with light brown protofeathers, near-white undersides, straight stripes that are moderately darker than the base colour and vibrant green eyes), Coelophysis bauri (small early theropod with a long and narrow skull, its protofeathers are golden and black. A soft orange stripe runs across the back of its head, it has warm brown eyes. Row 2- Plateosaurus trossingensis (long-necked sauropodomorph, it has reddish-brown scales, light undersides, triangular stripes running down it's spine that get bigger the further down they get and pale yellow eyes), Heterodontosaurus tuckii (small ornithopod with a hooked grey beak. It has spiky green feathers, a lighter chest and a darker stripe running along its head and back, there are three small spots on its face, two behind the eye and one infront of it, it's eyes are bright yellow). Row 3- Megalosaurus bucklandii (medium-sized theropod with warm brown feathers, lighter undersides, dark spots and bright yellow eyes, there are several scars on its face), Brachiosaurus altithorax (greenish-grey true sauropod with lighter undersides, a dark pink patch on its throat, dark desaturated brown eyes and a few small scars on its neck), Archaeopteryx (early toothed bird with a black head, white neck and bright yellow eyes). Row 4- Hylaeosaurus armatus (pale brown ankylosaur with lighter undersides and vibrant green eyes), Velociraptor mongoliensis (dromaeosaur with light brown feathers, a lighter chest, a black stripe near its eye and light green eyes), Sinosauropteryx prima (small compsognathid theropod with ginger protofeathers, an off white mask and undersides and pale yellow eyes), Iguanodon bernissartensis (large greenish-grey ornithopod with a slightly darker back, pale undersides, a grey beak, and yellow eyes). Row 5- Matuku otagoense (heron with medium grey feathers and a small crest. A red stripe runs from just behind its nostrils to about a third of the way down its neck. Its undersides are white, its beak is grey and its eyes are brown), Triceratops prorsus (three-horned ceratopsian with grey-brown scales, lighter undersides, two triangular stripes between it's brow and nasal horns, reddish-orange diamond-like stripes on its frill, a hooked grey beak and golden eyes. Its brow horns curve forward at the base. Row 6- North Island brown kiwi (plump brown bird with a long pale beak, whiskers and black eyes, its nostrils are at the tip of its bill, and unlike the other dinosaurs in the sky part of its body below the neck is visible), male house sparrow (small redish-brown and grey bird with a black bib below it's bill), it has brown eyes and a dark grey bill. Row 7- rock dove (grey bird with iridescent green feathers scattered across its neck, a dark grey beak, and warm brown eyes). end id]

Did the very early sauropodomorphs have feathers?

I would say it is highly likely that they did! We currently have no direct evidence for or against feathers or scales on early sauropodomorphs, which means we have to rely on our understanding of other species.

We know that theropods and ornithischians posessed feathery structures at some point in their evolutionary history, and we know that pterosaurs were also fuzzy! There's actually new research that indicates pterosaur fluff does in fact share a common ancestor with dinosaur fluff, meaning all dinosaurs and pterosaurs are most likely descended from a feathered ancestor.

So what does this mean for sauropodomorphs? Well, given the earliest dinosaur was most likely feathered, early sauropodomorphs probably inherited their fluff! They were still small and vulnerable in the Triassic, and a fluffy coat like I've given this Thecodontosaurus would have helped them survive.

Image ID: Digital illustration of Thecodontosaurus, a small early sauropodomorph. It is a slender bipedal dinosaur, with a long tail and long, clawed arms. Its body is partially covered with a coat of feathers, except for the head and neck, which have bare, wrinkled skin like a turkey. The legs and belly are also bare, and coloured a pale brown. The feathers are dark brown, with white stripes on the quill-like feathers at the base of the tail. The head is mottled grey and yellow, with a blue face and red eye. Its body is turned towards the viewer, with one foot raised in an active pose. End ID.

However, as sauropodomorphs grew larger they probably outgrew their fluffy coats, as they would provide less protection than their large size already did and a heavy coat would risk overheating. Larger sauropodomorphs, such as the early Jurassic Lufengosaurus, may have had a few residual areas of fuzzy skin like today's giant mammals, but were probably scaly overall.

Image ID: Digital illustration of Lufengosaurus, a large bipedal sauropodomorph with a long neck and heavy torso and tail. The skin is scaly, except for a light dusting of feathers on the back and underside of the neck. Its body is light grey with darker spots on the back and light stripes on the tail. The neck fades to orange towards the small head, which is coloured a dark brown. The Lufengosaurus is in a walking pose, with both feet on the ground. End ID.

One thing we do know from skin imprints, is that later sauropods like Camarasaurus were definitely scaly. So at some point in their evolution, sauropodomorphs lost their feathers.

Running Thecodontosaurus antiquus, a basal sauropodomorph from the Late Triassic (Rhaetian) of Southern England. This reptile was described in 1836 from finds from a quarry in present-day Bristol. Then it was classified as squamate, and the name ("lizard with teeth in sockets" in translation) emphasized the differences in the fastening of teeth). It was only in 1870 that Thomas Huxley attributed Thecodontosaurus to dinosaurs (now it is obvious that all dinosaurs had thecodont teeth attachment). Later, many bones were found in the "fissure fillings", some of which were destroyed during the bombing of Bristol. Today, about 245 fragmentary fossils are known, from which it is possible to make up almost an entire skeleton. In 1891, the supposedly Australian material of Thecodontosaurus was separated into the genus Agrosaurus, but it turned out that it was incorrectly labeled. One juvenile specimen was describes as the genus Pantydraco in 2007. Thecodontosaurus was a small long-tailed dinosaur, the largest specimens were 2.5 m in length (and the average length was only 1.2 m). Michael Benton noted in 2000 that there was a robust morph among Thecodontosaurus. This may indicate sexual dimorphism.

Here I tried to convey the scaly integument with vertical hatching. Let's see how this method will manifest itself in future works. :) The filaments are speculative.

Black ballpoint pen and black colored pencil, 2023.

North American Dinosaurs. Written by Helen Sattler. Illustrated by Anthony Rao. 1981.

A skittish Thecodontosaurus antiquus surveying its surroundings. From my book ”De första dinosaurierna” (”The first dinosaurs”)

I did not know one of my models was celebrating a birthday today! This is my life-size Thecodontosaurus, built for the Bristol Dinosaur Project and the University of Bristol.

A History of What Dinosaurs Were Known up until the Bone Wars

Dinosauria was first coined in 1842, only three genera were known: Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, and Hylaeosaurus (which was named that year. The Crystal Palace Park was opened in 1852 and showed the whole world what people though dinosaurs looked like at that time.

However, by then, a few dinosaurs had been added to the list and described as dinosaurs. However, most of them were teeth or otherwise remain dubious species/known from little remains.

To be fair, the initial specimens of the original three weren't that great either. Still, it was enough to get an idea of these animals.

Most histories of Dinosaur Discovery then jump to Hadrosaurus foulki which was described formally in 1858, it was published in a monogram that was meant to be released in 1860, but the civil was got in the way of that, delaying publication until 1865. This had illustrations of the animal, with a reconstruction of the skeleton being put out by 1868.

However, between 1852 and 1861, several animals were described that were realized to be dinosaurs as well. Most of them didn't change the game or were realized to be what we know them to be today.

Thecodontosaurus was the 5th overall dinosaur named and recognized as such, the 4th being a fragment they gave a name so we're not counting it. Even then, the material was not great for Thecodontosaurus, so its actual ties remained unrealized (still, they recognized it was closer to Megalosaurus than Iguanodon). Next was Cetiosaurus. Found in 1841 and thought to be a massive oceanic crocodile, it was in 1856 when it was realized to be a dinosaur, but the remains were so fragmentary as to not give away its identity as a Sauropod, shoving it in closer to Iguanodon in the Victorian's minds. Next was Scelidosaurus, like Cetiosaurus, it was described by Richard Owen in 1861. It was properly lumped in relations-wise with Hylaeosaurus, but is notable for being smaller/older than Hylaeosaurus. And it confirmed to them that those two at least were still quadrupeds.

Then in 1861 came a 1-2 punch of discoveries. Compsognathus and Archaeopteryx. That was a shakeup on a lot of levels. In top of the wider knowledge of Hadrosaurus, it really shook up the understanding of Dinosaurs known at the time.

The Kangaroo posture was all in, now. Compsognathus allowing that stance to be applied to Megalosaurus.

With that established, a few more animals of note were added to the list. Of note are the Island Dwarfs Echinodon, Struthiosaurus, and Rhabdodon. Beyond them, they added Polacanthus, Dryptosaurus (known as Laelaps at the time), Hypsolophodon, and Dacentrurus (known as Omosaurus).

Of special note is Plateosaurus. First described in 1834 and described in 1837, it wasn't recognized as a dinosaur until 1867 (as near as I can tell) primarily due to the language barrier. Since it was found in Germany and most dinosaur sciences was being done in English-speaking countries.

More fragmentary material was being found by the 1870s from the west that today is considered dubious, but 1877 was the 'start' of the Bone Wars. Why?

In that year, the following animals were discovered:

Allosaurus, Apatosaurus, Camarasaurus, Nanosaurus, and Stegosaurus. Followed shortly by Diplodocus, Brontosaurus, Camptosaurus, and Coelurus. In short, the Morrison Formation had been found. These with full skeletons, showing the diversity of the Sauropods. 1876 also gave us the first 'frill' of a ceratopsian, dubbed Monoclonious. It wasn't until 11 years later that Triceratops solidified what they looked like in the eyes of scientists.

Still, I wanted to highlight that strange time between 1852 and 1877 when there were basically three 'types' of Dinosaur: Therapods, Thyreophorans, and Ornithopods.

top five dinosaurs?

Based purely on vibes, I have no real justification for any of these other than they look really cool or I have childhood attachment to them:

Parasaurolophus

Deinonychus

Styracosaurus

Kentrosaurus

Therizinosaurus

Also shout-out to Thecodontosaurus, the patron dinosaur of my home city!

Random Dino Facts #5

The title of earliest known dinosaur goes to Nyasasaurus Parringtoni, found near Lake Nyasa in Tanzania sometime in the 1930’s.

This creature lived roughly 245 million years ago, predating other dinosaurs by 10-15 million years. The significance of this species was not realised until a study in 2013 classified it as a basal dinosaur instead of an archosaur.

It was originally named Thecodontosaurus Alophos in 1932 before further examination showed it to be a completely different genus. After this it was almost completely ignored by the palaeontology community until 2013 due to the almost complete lack of fossils, with only one humerus and eleven vertebrae. Due to the lack of fossils, we do not know what the creature ate.

The study:

The oldest known dinosaur so far discovered in Britain is Thecodontosaurus antiquus. It was discovered near Bristol . Thecondontosaurus was 2.1 metres long, about the size of a kangaroo, and ate plants. It lived on the richly vegetated islands that were around that area in Triassic times about 200 million years ago.

Prosauropods sure know how to party!

love that part in thecodontosaurus supersonic where he goes waaahaAUGH suuupersoniiic (half the song)

Islands are natural sites for evolutionary experiments. Their isolation and limited resources put a lot of selective pressure on their native species, often resulting in spectacular and unique adaptations. Big animals become small, small animals become big, and ecological niches can end up being filled in unexpected ways.

From the dodo becoming the first well-known example of human-caused extinction, to Darwin’s Galápagos finches being influential in the development of the theory of natural selection, to famous-but-endangered living examples like the kiwi and marine iguana, island species are fascinating and often fragile examples of how diverse life can get even in restricted conditions.

In fact, this theme ended up containing so many species I wanted to feature that I can’t possibly fit them all into just a single month. So, for the first time, a theme is going to need two months -- with part 1 happening right now, and part 2 coming later this summer.

Island Weirdness #01 -- Thecodontosaurus antiquus

For much of the Mesozoic Europe was an archipelago of islands in a shallow tropical sea. During the Late Triassic, about 205-201 million years ago, some of the paleo-islands in this region existed around southern Wales and South West England, near the city of Bristol.

Thecodontosaurus was actually one of the first non-avian dinosaurs ever named by modern science, discovered in the mid 1830s -- several years before the term “dinosaur” was even created to classify the "great ancient lizards”.

It was an early member of the herbivorous sauropodomorphs, the group that would eventually include the largest ever land animals. But unlike its enormous later cousins it was short-necked and bipedal, and was particularly small compared to other contemporary “prosauropods”, measuring only about 2m long (6′6″). This would make it one of the oldest known examples of insular dwarfism.

→ DINOCTOBER 2021 ←

DAY 5 - Europasaurus DAY 6 - Shringasaurus DAY 7 - Thecodontosaurus DAY 8 - Rugops As I didn't see any #dinoctober2021 prompt list pop on Twitter -or anywhere, but I maybe didn't look enough-, I did one on my own, for those who want to follow the challenge! Good Luck & Enjoy #dinoctober everyone! ❤ Art © Hopie.

Diphydontosaurus avonis

By Ripley Cook

Etymology: Reptile with two types of teeth

First Described By: Whiteside, 1986

Classification: Biota, Archaea, Proteoarchaeota, Asgardarchaeota, Eukaryota, Neokaryota, Scotokaryota Opimoda, Podiata, Amorphea, Obazoa, Opisthokonta, Holozoa, Filozoa, Choanozoa, Animalia, Eumetazoa, Parahoxozoa, Bilateria, Nephrozoa, Deuterostomia, Chordata, Olfactores, Vertebrata, Craniata, Gnathostomata, Eugnathostomata, Osteichthyes, Sarcopterygii, Rhipidistia, Tetrapodomorpha, Eotetrapodiformes, Elpistostegalia, Stegocephalia, Tetrapoda, Reptiliomorpha, Amniota, Sauropsida, Eureptilia, Romeriida, Diapsida, Neodiapsida, Sauria, Lepidosauromorpha, Lepidosauria, Rhynchocephalia, Sphenodontia

Referred Species: D. avonis

Status: Extinct

Time and Place: 227 to 200 million years ago, from the Norian to Rhaetian of the Late Triassic 

Diphydontosaurus is known from Southern England and Wales, and possibly also from Northern Italy.

Physical Description: Diphydontosaurus is an early-derived relative of the tuatara, one of the oldest in fact. Like the tuatara, it resembles a lizard in appearance, probably even more so than living tuataras. It was also very small too. Like, really small. 10 centimetres long from head-to-tail with a skull less than 15 millimetres long, small. The skull itself has massive eyes and a pretty short snout, so it was probably a rather cute looking little reptile. The most distinctive features of Diphydontosaurus are its jaws and teeth. Living tuataras have their teeth fused to the jaw bones (acrodont), which wear down and can’t be replaced. Diphyodontosaurus has these teeth at the back of its jaws, but the teeth in front were attached in sockets (pleurodont), like some lizards. These teeth were sharp and peg-like, perfect for puncturing the carapaces of insects, while the teeth at the back formed a shear for slicing through them. Diphydontosaurus also lacked the characteristic “beak” at the tip of the jaws found in later sphenodonts, and probably didn’t chew its food the way modern tuataras can (yes, tuataras can chew). Diphydontosaurus would also have had a typmanum, a.k.a. an eardrum, visible at the back of its head, again like most lizards but unlike the living tuatara.

Diet: Diphydontosaurus was insectivorous, as evidenced by its small size and teeth, although like some living insular lizards it may have eaten plants to supplement its diet.

Behavior: Diphydontosaurus was likely an active predator or insects and other small arthropods. Its large eyes and well developed ear openings indicate that it likely relied heavily on these senses for hunting and catching prey. They may have especially congregated around the abundant fissures and sinkholes in their habitat, where moist soils and plants would have attracted plenty of insects and other arthropods, and so too the Diphydontosaurus. Being small would have been handy for clambering over steep rock faces after prey, out of reach of other, larger reptiles.

Ecosystem: Diphydontosaurus was part of a diverse collection of island ecosystem in the latest Triassic of Europe, populating low-lying islands of limestone pockmarked with deep fissures and caves eroded into the karst. The species found on each island differed, but there was some broad similarities. The largest land animals on these islands were the possibly dwarfed prosauropod dinosaurs Thecodontosaurus and Pantydraco, as well as small theropods. Pseudosuchian archosaurs were here too, including the small predator Terrestrisuchus and the enigmatic Aenigmaspina, both extremely long-legged, agile animals well suited for navigating the karst-riddled landscape. There was also a drepanosaur around, as well as the gliding reptiles Kuehneosaurus and Kuehneosuchus whose affinities remain mysterious. They could be lepidosaurs like sphenodonts, or, they may belong to the strange allokotosaurs on the archosaur side of the tree! The jury is still out on them. Some of the islands also hosted small mammaliaforms, including Morganucodon and Eozostrodon.

Stem-tuataras like Diphydontosaurus were remarkably diverse, and it coexisted with numerous other genera such as Gephyrosaurus, Clevosaurus, and Planocephalosaurus, each with multiple species, and there are still more new types of sphenodont to be described! Such a high density of different sphenodonts on these islands implies they were all specialised for different ways of life. Diphydontosaurus was one of the most abundant of all sphenodonts on the islands of Late Triassic Europe, no doubt thanks to its small size and insectivorous diet. However, this small size left it vulnerable, and it may have been preyed upon by its larger, more predatory cousins like Clevosaurus.

Other: Diphydontosaurus is one of the oldest known, and is the earliest diverging, sphenodont, the group of animals that includes living tuataras but excludes the even earlier-diverging rhyncocephalians, the gephyrosaurids (the distinction isn’t huge, mostly that gephyrosaurids have completely pleurodont teeth). The anatomy of Diphydontosaurus was unexpected compared to modern tuataras, which are so often described as ‘living fossils’ unchanged since the Mesozoic. In fact, certain features of Diphydontosaurus and other early sphenodonts reveal that the modern tuatara is actually pretty derived compared to its ancestors, especially so in the skull, including the loss of its external ears, its shearing teeth and the ability to chew food. Diphydontosaurus really just goes to show you can’t judge a 200 million year old clade by its sole extant member, eh?

~ By Scott Reid

Sources under the Cut 

Whiteside D.I. (1986). "The head skeleton of the Rhaetian sphenodontid Diphydontosaurus avonis gen. et sp. nov., and the modernising of a living fossil". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 312 (1156): 379–430.

Whiteside, D.I., Duffin, C.J., Gill, P.G., Marshall, J.E.A., Benton, M.J. (2016). “The Late Triassic and Early Jurassic fissure faunas from Bristol and South Wales: stratigraphy and setting”. Palaeontologia Polonica 67, 257–287.

David I. Whiteside, Christopher J. Duffin, (2017). "Late Triassic terrestrial microvertebrates from Charles Moore's "Microlestes" quarry, Holwell, Somerset, UK". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 179 (3): 677–705.

Whiteside, D.I., Marshall, J.E.A. (2008). "The age, fauna and palaeoenvironment of the Late Triassic fissure deposits of Tytherington, South Gloucestershire, UK". Geological Magazine. 145 (1): 105–147.