Gallery: Amazingly Vivid Dino Illustrations Reveal a Brutal Prehistoric World
Illustrations by Julius Csotonyi019-credit-1
One of 14 images appearing as backlit panels (about 4 feet tall) in the Hall of Paleontology at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, this image depicts the probably rare but plausible encounter between the giant shark *Carcharocles* (jaw diameter estimated at 11 feet) and a medium-sized proboscidean, *Platybelodon*.
Illustrations by Julius Csotonyi027-credit-1
A Cretaceous Nigerian scene depicting a young (and speculatively feathered) abelisaurid called *Kryptops* disturbed from its drinking by the commotion caused by a *Suchomimus* plucking a young *Sarcosuchus* from its river habitat.
Illustrations by Julius Csotonyi0310-credit-1
This image endeavors to restore some of the events leading to the creation of a large block of highly fossiliferous sandstone (containing *Utahraptor* over a range of ontogenetic stages and *Hippodraco*) from the Cretaceous in what is now Utah.
Illustrations by Julius Csotonyi042-credit-1
One of two marketing images created for Gondwana Studios’ traveling exhibit, “Permian Monsters: Life Before the Dinosaurs.” This image shows a lone *Dimetrodon* ready to begin sunning itself on an early Permian morning.
Illustrations by Julius Csotonyi058-credit-1
On a beach in Laramidia during the Cretaceous, in what is now Utah, a pair of *Lythronax argestes* moves in to investigate the stranded carcass of a large *Squalicorax*shark, which is already being picked at by a pair of enantiornithine birds.
Illustrations by Julius Csotonyi061-credit-1
One of eleven murals created for Gondwana Studios’ travelling exhibit, “Permian Monsters: Life Before the Dinosaurs”. This image features the bizarre sight of *Meganeuropsis* carrying *Hylonomus*, and *Eryops* leaping after them.
Illustrations by Julius Csotonyi075-credit-1
This piece -- commissioned to be sold as prints for fund-raising for the building of Canada’s newest paleontological museum, the Phillip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum -- depicts the extremely long-necked plesiosaur, *Albertonectes*, hunting fish in the Bearpaw Sea.
Illustrations by Julius Csotonyi086-credit-1
Created for Gondwana Studios’ travelling exhibit, “Permian Monsters,” this image features a group of the synapsid *Dicynodon* warily eying the early archosaur Archosaurus as it snaps up a breaching *Saurichthys*, while a *Chroniosuchus* hangs out in the stream shallows.
Illustrations by Julius Csotonyi094-credit-1
An illustration of the first published specimen of the troodontid *Mei long*, a name which in Chinese means “sleeping dragon.” In this reconstruction, I wished to illustrate the concept of cryptic coloration, referring to the color patterns of an animal closely matching those of its surrounding, and which is employed by modern animals to hide from predators or prey.
Illustrations by Julius Csotonyi103-credit-1
This scene shows the newly described dome-headed dinosaur, *Acrotholus*, exiting a stand of giant *Gunnera* leaves and coming across a *Neurankylus* turtle soaking in a footprint of a hadrosaur that had passed by earlier.
