DO NOT PANIC: we are not yet done on the mesonychians...

If you've been enjoying the series on mesonychians you'll be pleased to hear that it's not completely over. There are a few groups yet to come (though, as we'll see, whether they really are mesonychians or not is controversial. 1000 Tet Zoo dollars* to whomever guesses the names of the groups I'm talking about). Anyway: you can't think awesome extinct Cenozoic mammals and not think Carl Buell. They're kind of synonymous. And, whaddayaknow, here's something incredible...

i-3990ff41c3b9a5667e24f50b5b76dcde-Carl_Buell_Andrewsarchus_Final_Aug-2009_resized.jpg

Yes, Carl has done an Andrewsarchus. Sincere thanks to Carl for allowing me to use it; I won't say much as the picture speaks for itself. Enjoy! Image © Carl Buell.

i-55759d95329ac91332825fc4abe2b007-Carl_Buell_Andrewsarchus_Final_Aug-2009_front_crop.jpg

* Shamelessly inspired by SV-POW! dollars.

More like this

Those of us interested in the same subject often tend to have experienced the same sort of things. If you share my interests (as you probably do, given that you're here), you've probably watched a lot of Attenborough on TV. You've probably been to at least one of the bigger natural history museums…
Readers with good memories will recall both that January 21st 2010 was Tet Zoo's fourth birthday, and that I wrote about 'four years of operation' on that day. I had more to say about the subject in 2009, a year of Tet Zooery. Buuut... then things went downhill, and I had to take that break, and…
In time-honoured fashion, once more it's time to wish you all best Christmas wishes and share with you my digital 'Christmas card'... though if you're a regular correspondent or one of my Facebook friends you'll already have seen it, sorry... A larger version is available on request. You'll note a…
Earlier this year (July) my children's book on Mesozoic reptiles - Dinosaurs Life Size - appeared in the shops. People seem to like it (yikes, even if some of the 'life sized' animals are scaled wrong). July also saw the publication of Dorling Kindersley's Know It All (Baines 2010): I didn't write…

I can't tell you how much I've been fascinated by this series. I've been curious about these unusual creatures since I first saw a depiction of an Andrewsarchus standing beside a Kodiak brown bear in a children's book on giant mammals.

And I must say that I really loved Carl Buell's work at Olduvai George blog, which no longer is being updated. He does, however, have a nice Flckr site, which has been updated relatively recently: http://www.flickr.com/photos/olduvaigeorge/

This series has been excellent. Such enigmatic creatures. They still fascinate me.

Is there a large collection of Carl Buell's work online? It's really marvelous, but I've only seen a few samples.

By Kevin Schreck (not verified) on 22 Aug 2009 #permalink

That's some terrific art. I love the detail of the dense, wooly coat and the goat-like ear shape.

By Viergacht (not verified) on 22 Aug 2009 #permalink

The Andrewsarchus looks really amazing! I find the reconstruction with a tufted tail like those of a bull especially cool.

As much as I enjoy every post on this blog, the mesonychian series has been especially cool. I love learning about groups that are not quite like anything alive today (e.g. hoofed, stiff-backed carnivorous mammals), since I really enjoy having my concepts expanded of what's possible eco/morphologically.

Many thanks indeed for the positive comments - much appreciated. Loads more Paleogene mammals to come at some stage.

OMG! (Overawed by Mesonychid Goodness.) Fantastic! I just had an Andrewsarchgasm!

By Stevo Darkly (not verified) on 24 Aug 2009 #permalink

That lion's tail is totally speculative artistic license right?

There have been many excellent posts and series on Tet Zoo, but the mesonychian series ranks among the most awesome. May I suggest something similar on oxyaenids and hyaenodonts?

Great stuff on the mesonychians and allies. Reading this has made me realize how diverse (and compressed) the initial Cenozoic radiation of mammals was- like arthropoda and allies in the Cambrian.

I love Carl Buell's artwork, and this Andrewsarchus is by far the best reconstruction I've seen of the animal. Too many palaeo-illustrators portray extinct mammals as just scaled-up versions of what seems to be their closest living equivalent, so for example Andrewsarchus comes out looking like a big wolf or hyena. In reality as a member of an entirely extinct group (whatever that group was!), with, as Darren shows, a very unusual cranial morphology, it may well have looked nothing like either of those modern species. Carl's animal looks lifelike, lithe and powerful, clearly mammalian, but also quite clearly different from anything living today. It does have an entelodont-like feel to it as well, which as we've heard might reflect some genuine affinity.

As for the query above about whether the lion-like tail tuft is artistic licence, I suppose strictly speaking everything posterior to the head is equally hypothetical as we don't yet have any postcranial remains at all! Maybe we'll all be surprised when an Andrewsarchus skeleton eventually turns up. If giraffes were extinct and known only from a single skull, would anyone correctly predict their body shape?

By Dave Hughes (not verified) on 26 Aug 2009 #permalink

Dave:

Too many palaeo-illustrators portray extinct mammals as just scaled-up versions of what seems to be their closest living equivalent [...] Carl's animal looks lifelike, lithe and powerful, clearly mammalian, but also quite clearly different from anything living today.

Well said. I agree completely.

Although, for all it's originality, there does seem to be a nice nod to tradition in Carl's Andrewsarchus reconstruction: the faint vertical stripes on its body. ZdenÄk Burianâs early and influential Andrewsarchus reconstruction had stripes, and many/most later paleo-artists have followed suit. (Come to think of it, there also seems to be another convention in reconstructing Andrewsarchus: with its mouth open.)

Good work,darren naish! I loved this series on mesonychia!
I hope u'll do other interesting series on other tetrapods