Suddenly I realised that I overlooked this piece of my Mexican Dinosaurs series. Meet a displaying pair of Tototlmimus packardensis (Serrano-Brañas et al 2016) from Cuenca Cabullona, Sonora some 72 million years ago. An obvious relative of the Canadian Ornithomimus, it was indeed pretty robust 4-meter ornithomimosaur, with stouter and longer legs and arms that its cousin, according to Angel Ramirez.
I got the inspiration for this piece in an old painting of two ostriches displaying… the shared anatomical features might have lead to coincidental behaviour! Incorporated is the newly discovered feathery distribution in ornithomimids. The environment is again coastal and shared by some hadrosaurs (like the included, still unnamed “Sabinosaurus”), ceratopsians and tyrannosaurs… one of which could have been the famous Tyrannosaurus rex according to some footprints (but this needs evidence for definitive confirmation).
Thanking everybody for their support, specially our friends in the national Museum of Natural History in Denmark, Mexico’s Universum and UNAM, Spain, Australia’s Gondwana Studios, Italy, France, StoneCo and Silver Plume and the many fans in the U.S., Bristol and London, that’s all from me in this eventful 2016 from here, “springtime London”! For the record: Twelve degrees Celsius the 25th of December! This reminds me a crispy, clear winter day in Barcelona more than 35 years ago. It was bitterly cold but nevertheless, somehow in the sun you felt the warmth of its rays (something that never happened to us before)… I was with a friend ands we joked: “I wonder if that’s what the dinosaurs felt just before they went extinct… they looked at the sky and felt that something was different… “
To counter all the state of denial, madness and irrationality of the world as it is today, there’s nothing better than Science… if two Stegosaurus were capable of successfully mating (carefully!) everything positive is possible with good will and determination… the only things humans need to survive is common sense and wisdom…even if more often than not we glorify our lack of both of them!
Hi Luis,
This is an amazing illustration of Tototlmimus packardensis! Thank you so much for doing it. Regarding the comment of the tyrannosaurids that were present in the Cabullona Basin of Sonora, my colleagues and I published a paper in 2014 concerning the identification of Tyrannosaurus rex in the Lomas Coloradas Formation, which is the top formation of the Cabullona Group. This is the link to the article:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261218484_Tyrannosaurid_teeth_from_the_Lomas_Coloradas_Formation_Cabullona_Group_Upper_Cretaceous_Sonora_Mexico
In this way, we can confirm the presence of this dinosaur in the state of Sonora, Mexico.
Best wishes
Dr. Claudia Serrano Brañas
I am much obliged for your kind comments. Many thanks also for the Tyrannosaurus footprint. I’ll be doing something about that soon. Since I’m very interested in restoring more of the Mexican paleofauna, I would also extend an invitation for a continued collaboration… that is: if you want me to illustrate some more of your own research I’ll be happy to do it! Any ideas welcome. You can reach me at my e-mail (where we can also exchange in Spanish of course!).
Thank you very much for the invitation, I will love to have a continued collaboration with you! Right now, my colleagues and I are working in some interesting projects, so I´ll keep in touch with you.
Saludos y muchas gracias!