As promised in our post last month, here's our update post for Christmas! We hope anyone reading this is safe and having a great holiday season.
For this update, we've got some new awesome stuff to show off again.
First off, a new model for the first episode, which takes place in the Triassic, specifically the Chinle Formation, 220 million years ago: Smilosuchus!
The largest carnivore of the formation, Smilosuchus belonged to a family of reptiles that looked quite similar to crocodilians, but actually weren't: phytosaurs. These oddities will be featured and educated upon in Dinosauria's first episode, and in a substantial way, too.
This wonderful model was done by José Antonio Peñas, the same artist who did the Placerias and coelophysid models. Originally, the model was intended to be of Leptosuchus, hence this skeletal drawing and these skull pictures (A & B, but not C) were used as references during the making of the model. However, the species of Leptosuchus we were intending to use was actually lumped into Smilosuchus, so now the model represents Smilosuchus.
We are very excited to be depicting Smilosuchus in our documentary series, being that Dinosauria will be the first documentary since When Dinosaurs Roamed America, made all the way back in the early 2000s, to feature a phytosaur (and even then, it was a mere cameo).
Unfortunately, depictions of the Triassic and the Chinle Formation have somewhat failed in showing just how unique, strange, and diverse the Triassic really was. Many very interesting groups of animals have simply been ignored and forgotten about, phytosaurs being one of them. It is a period that is way too often glossed over in favor of skipping to the huge dinosaurs of the Jurassic and the Cretaceous, which, while spectacular, are given far more attention then the bizarre beasts of the Triassic that also deserve some spotlight. Thankfully, the team behind Dinosauria isn't forgetting about them. Our first episode will feature representatives of some of the most strange reptile and synapsid groups of the Triassic that are hardly seen, giving them the spotlight they deserve, just as the dinosaurs, both small and large, will.
This render above was also done by José. A little disclaimer though, it is a strictly promotional image and not a screenshot from the actual documentary. The real episode won't be filmed in real environments. However, that doesn't mean there won't be a scene like this in the actual episode (*wink*).
Speaking of giant dinosaurs, the Smilosuchus is not all we have to show you. While our Tyrannosaurus model is not yet complete, much progress has been made since our last update: the high poly model is done.
Be on the lookout for our New Years update, as we will be revealing the completed Tyrannosaurus model then! Our post on New Years will go in-depth on how this iconic animal was reconstructed for our documentary.
Due to being such a well-known animal, in terms of both popularity among general audiences and scientific knowledge, the artist responsible for creating it, Sergi, made absolutely sure to get this model anatomically accurate, and referenced the best sources during it's creation.
We'd like to end by notifying you that Dinosauria is present on multiple social media platforms, and we will become much more active on those pages very soon, so be sure to like and follow us on the following platforms to show us your support and receive more frequent updates and posts related to the project.
See you in a week (or even sooner then that, if you follow our social media pages)! We'll have an 8-tonne present for you to start 2021 (which will hopefully be much better then the disaster that was this year), so make sure to subscribe to the blog so you will receive an email notification when we post that, as well as for any other time we post here (update posts will be done at least monthly, if not more then that if there is something big). The form to subscribe is in the site's footer.