Loading...
Phase one of my master plan to get back into the posting habit: Inktober!
Nevermind that it's four days late, and due to my school schedule (or my laziness; I can never tell which is which anymore), this one took me two days to complete. The point is that it's something, and hopefully, it can help me wind back up to more ambitious projects that I used to do in High School.
Now, regarding this piece, I have two clarifications I'd like to make.
First, I understand the difference between poison and venom. Don't judge me.
Second, the story behind this animal is confusing, to say the least. S. mellini is a species of dromaeosaurid found in the Yixian Formation in China in 1999. Living around 120 million years ago, it only measured 90 cm (3 ft) in length, but is one of the most intricate specimens of dinosaur fossils we have today, complete with detailed feather impressions. In 2009, it was thought to be more impressive when a team of scientists hypothesized that the dinosaur might have been venomous. They noted special grooves in the side of the maxillary teeth and cavities in the antorbital fossa. Incredible, to be sure, but biologists have since pointed out that this method of venom injection is unusual, if not impossible to find, anywhere in the animal kingdom, let alone in the dinosaurs and their closest living relatives. The simpler, and thus more likely conclusion, is that these grooves were the result of standard tooth decay or ornamentation.
Still, a paleoartist can have a little fun, right?
Source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12542-010-0074-9
