Hyrotrioskjan on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/hyrotrioskjan/art/Liopleurodon-ferox-524697439Hyrotrioskjan

Deviation Actions

Hyrotrioskjan's avatar

Liopleurodon ferox

By
Hyrotrioskjan
Published:
36.2K Views
beastdinosaursfingermanyjurassicliopleurodonmonsteroceanplesiosaurpliosaurwalkingwwdpliosauriasteinkernsimolesteswith

Description

This pliosaur from the rocks of Europe became quite famous because of a certain "documentary". 
But while the WWD Liopleurodon is a cool beast, it has not much in common with the real world fossil record.

25m?

Nope, the average Lipleurodon grew up to 5 or 7 meters and in rare cases reached 9 m. Other predators like Machimosaurus, a giant, turtle eating crocodylomorph from the same time, had similar size limits.
The biggest teeth weren't in front of the snout but a bit behind this toothed rosette (Simolestes was more this type of pliosaur) and the whole animal was likely more streamlined, not with this pretty visible wide postorbital region. Also- of course this wasn't known by the WWD makers- the small tail fin was added during the last years with the discovery and rediscovery of soft tissue preservation in at least two cases and two genera.

This picture was a commission for Sven Sachs and Christian Nyhuis who wrote recently a article for the newest issue of "Der Steinkern" a german magazine from fossil collectors for fossil collectors. They wrote about the rare cases where fossils were found (in Germany) that indicate larger pliosaurs with teeth that could be part of an 10 m long Liopleurodon-like animal and some other fragments (nearly all giant pliosaurs we know are preserved very fragmentary).

Here a small look into the other themes of the issue: www.steinkern.de/inhaltsangabe…

Here the paper about giant pliosaurs from Germany (in german): www.academia.edu/11482633/Bele…
Image size
5444x2875px 1.22 MB
© 2015 - 2024 Hyrotrioskjan
Comments351
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
AllosaurusTanneri's avatar
AllosaurusTanneri

Hey man! :)

Although I love your work, I have on criticism: Why do you claim Liopleurodon to be such a " huge" animal, when it actually wasn't ( Which is seen on this picture). If it was the WWD size, it would have been an actual giant. But it was no more than 7 meters in real life! Is that really " huge" to you? Come on. To me, you guys claiming it to be " gigantic", just because it's still bigger than a great white shark sounds like you somehow want to continue being impressed by it's size despite this being based on nothing. Sure, Liopleurodon was much bigger than Velociraptor, Compsognathus, Dromaeosaurus or Anomalocaris, but still, it's absolutely nothing compared to it's well- known relatives Kronosaurus and Pliosaurus, Mosasaurus, Tylosaurus, don't even let me talk about Megalodon or Lyviathan. If you call Liopleurodon " huge" or " very large", then why don't you call Macrogryphosaurus, Metriacanthosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus or Orkoraptor " huge" or " very large" as well? The answer is simple- Because they just aren't. You are giving Lio way too much credit. Sure, it's not a damsefly, but seriously, calling it a " giant"?! That is going way too far. Liopleurodon may not be tiny or very small, but it's definetly by no means a " giant" or " very large". That's exaggerating it. Also, if some people are disappointed in it's true size, don't try to make them appreciating it using an optimistic manner. Saying " 6 Meters is still huge, it's a very, very dangerous creature ;)" does not change their opinions in the slightest way. It only triggers them. Let them accept the facts themselves.

But hey, at least Liopleurodon looks very cool, even if it's not very big.


That being said, your picture is still looking pretty good.