FossilCrafter

A sheep-demon known as Ovislav the Terrible, wearing the robe of a shepard and holding a shepard's staff on which three purple, cubic crystals are hanging. The demon is resting his other hand on the head of a sheep standing in front of him, while the moon is red and illuminating the night sky. Birch tress are framing the edges and red roses are growing beneath.

Ovislav der Schreckliche, shepard of all those who are lost wandering, wishes a sorrowless #Halloween to any souls, that may deserve it 🎃

Very glad that the effort was worth it, Thank You 😁

Some photos of the painting process.

Portrait of my best friend.

#acrylicpainting
>50 h
01.08.2025 - 07.09.2025

Really moved out of my comfort zone with this piece, but I'm quite proud. Might have been my most difficult painting yet, since I had to get her face right, the detail and the lighting.

It was a pain, but a lot of fun.

Great news! Plesionectes longicollum is a new genus and species of plesiosaur from Holzmaden, Germany.
www.sachspal.de/plesionectes...

This paleoart features two Plesionectes hunting near a colony of Seirocrinus.

Digital painting by Peter Nickolaus, 2025.

Line Art of the above Struthiosaurus sp.

Detail (anterior half) of the above life reconstruction of Struthiosaurus sp.

Detail (posterior half) of the above life reconstruction of Struthiosaurus sp.

Life reconstruction of a struthiosaurid ankylosaur (Struthiosaurus sp.) following Struthiosaurus austriacus and S. transylvanicus.

Following my last post, a reconstruction of a #struthiosaurid had to follow.

So, here you have my take on Struthiosaurus sp. from Pui in the #HategBasin (of course entirely based on S. austriacus and S. transylvanicus).

Now I may never draw an ankylosaur again... osteoderms and scales are pain.

New report of Late Cretaceous struthiosaurids from the Haţeg Basin, with an overview of the Transylvanian ankylosaur fossil record - Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments Ankylosaurs are a widespread but rare constituent of the latest Cretaceous dinosaur faunas of Europe. In the famous Upper Cretaceous continental deposits of the Haţeg Basin (Romania), ankylosaurs were...

T. Treiber et al. (2025)
New report of Late Cretaceous struthiosaurids from the Haţeg Basin, with an overview of the Transylvanian ankylosaur fossil record
Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments (advance online publication)
doi: doi.org/10.1007/s125...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

First hadrosauroid record from Petreşti-Arini (Transylvanian Basin, Romania; Upper Cretaceous) and its implications for the evolution of the Hațeg Island vertebrate faunas The uppermost Cretaceous continental deposits of Transylvania (western Romania) represent one of the most iconic sources for fossil vertebrates from t…

P.S., if you like to read more, please also check out the paper by Aaron Ebner:

"First hadrosauroid record from Petreşti-Arini (Transylvanian Basin, Romania; Upper Cretaceous) and its implications for the evolution of the Hațeg Island vertebrate faunas"

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

my colleague Aaron Ebner for his help and discussions and particularly Dr. Felix Augustin for guiding me throughout this whole project and for offering me this opportunity.

This would not have been possible without You.

New report of Late Cretaceous struthiosaurids from the Haţeg Basin, with an overview of the Transylvanian ankylosaur fossil record - Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments Ankylosaurs are a widespread but rare constituent of the latest Cretaceous dinosaur faunas of Europe. In the famous Upper Cretaceous continental deposits of the Haţeg Basin (Romania), ankylosaurs were...

If you are interessed in this topic, please check out the full, open access publication: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

I want to thank my co-authors, Prof. Zoltán Csiki-Sava for allowing me to work on the material, hosting us in Bukarest and all his work and time going into this paper, ...

Palaeogeographic (map of Campanian) and chronostratigraphic distribution of confidently assigned, late Cretaceous ankylosaur remains throughout Europe.

Lastly, while struthiosaurid ankylosaurs are also known from the latest Cretaceous of the western Late Cretaceous European Archipelago (i.e. Ibero-Armorica), there they disappear at the 'Mid'-Maastrichtian Dinosaur Turnover, showing that Haţeg Island fauna evolved unaffected by this change.

Stratigraphic collums of the various lithostartigraphic units in the Haţeg and Transylvanian basins with stars marking important sites throughout the basins and in colour those yielding ankylosaur remains.

that ankylosaurs first show up in the fossil record of the Transylvanian Basin and only later in the Haţeg Basin.
This observation is also found, but with new stratigraphic ranges:

TB: latest Campanian to 'mid' Maastrichtian
HB: earliest Maastrichtian to late Maastrichtian.

abundance, leading us to theorize that the scarcity of ankylosaur remains results from a low original faunal abundance of these dinosaurs.

The new scapula is also the first evidence of ankylours from the 'Pui Beds' of the eastern part of the Haţeg Basin.

Furthermore, it's been reported before ...

a: Map of romania with the location of the Haţeg (HB) and Transylvanian (TB) basins. b-c: Map of the (b) Haţeg Basin and (c) Transylvanian Basin with areas yielding late cretaceous deposits shaded in green and marked localities of important vertebrate sites as well as in colour the sites from which ankylosaur remains are known.

which has lead to theories that they lived environmentally seggregated and/or outside the typically preserved fluvial-floodplain environments of the Haţeg and Transylvanian basins.

However, ankylosaurs are now known from most important sites of both basins and with almost uniformly low ...

We also provide a new and expanded overview of the Transylvanian ankylosaur record, particularly looking at their enviromental and stratigraphic distribution.

Ankyloaurs remains are a scarce among the remains of herbivorous dinosaurs (rhabdodontids, titanosaurs, hadrosauroids) on Haţeg Island ...

Photographs and drawing of a right scapula assigned to Struhtiosaurus sp. from various angles. a-b: lateral; c-d: medial; e-f: dorsal; g-h: ventral; i-j: posterior; k-l: anterior

To provide a brief summary: We described a new ankylosaurian scapula from the Maastrichtian 'Pui Beds' of the famous Haţeg Basin, Romania.

And based on thorough morphological comparisons - with a high degree of similarities to Struthiosaurus transylvanicus - assign it to Struthiosaurus sp.

New report of Late Cretaceous struthiosaurids from the Haţeg Basin, with an overview of the Transylvanian ankylosaur fossil record - Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments Ankylosaurs are a widespread but rare constituent of the latest Cretaceous dinosaur faunas of Europe. In the famous Upper Cretaceous continental deposits of the Haţeg Basin (Romania), ankylosaurs were...

I'm very pleased to announce that my first paper (as first author) has officialy been published two days ago :)

"New report of Late Cretaceous struthiosaurids from the Haţeg Basin, with an overview of the Transylvanian ankylosaur fossil record"

Open access: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Allosaurus sitting on a field of ferns in the early hours of the morning, enjoying the first rays of light of the sun.

#Allosaurus enjoying the first light of the sun on a Late Jurassic Morning.

Old #Paleoart piece from December 2020, done with acrylic paint.

Honestly me neither, I only knew about it because of a palaeontologist I'm working with. We both submitted abstracts for the general congress, but that's how he knew and he suggested I'd enter the PaleoArt Contest as well.

Please do, I think it could do with more attention and thank You 😁

past to create a lithological profile and place it in the stratigraphy.

Lately however, I was lucky and spotted a small, eroded bone in the wall that I went to collect today. Turns out, there is more to it, and the "rib-like" element extended into the rock, so I still have pieces left to get out.

Small, "rib-like" fossil bone in a limestone or fine-grained coquina-bed. Uppermost Muschelkalk, below Hauptterebratelbank, Middle Triassic of southwest Germany.

Geological outcrop wall with a series of thin-bedded limestones at the base, thick coquina-beds, yielding a small bone, thin marlstone intercalations followed by further thick coquina-beds and overlain by the dolomitic marls of the Hauptterebratelbank with abundant brachiopod shells of Coenothyris vulgaris.

Besides PaleoArt, I also go fossil-hunting from time to time, and one outcrop that I visit quite often is in the uppermost Muschelkalk, Middle Triassic.

Besides the brachiopod Coenothyris vulgaris and a single Ceratites cf. weyeri, there are barley any fossils there though.
I mainly went in the...

Thank you so much 😊
I gotta agree, there is something really aesthetic about this particular species.

Honourable Mention in the 2nd VPC Paleoart Contest 🥳

Truly honoured and surprised by this amazing result.

My thanks and gratitude go out to the 5th VPC team.

Huge congratulations to the other winners and everyone who entered

Non-palaeo related piece for #valentinesday2025.

"Mondlicht"
ca. 21 h / Acryl
03.-12.08.2021

An old piece, but still one of my favourite paintings, especially because of the lighting, mood and the vegetation... definitely the vegetation, still love it!

Pencil drawing, life reconstruction of the centrosaurine ceratopsian Xenoceratops foremostensis.

Xenoceratops foremostensis

Somehow the only time I ever drew a #ceratopsian properly. Have not touched onto the group since...

#paleoart

Merry #Christmas2024 to all 🎄

Have a festive little #rhabdodontid to celebrate :)

Small painting of the #belemnite Parapassaloteuthis zieteni for my own little collection.
The belemnite rostra were collected from the #toarcian #Posidoniashale of Dotternhausen, Germany.

May as well start out the same way here, as in the old place. Not the lifestyle concept I follow for Ceratites but one I find fun :)

"Ceratites nodosus" according to Siegfried Rein

- Simosaurus gaillardoti
- Ceratites weyeri
- Coenothyris vulgaris

ca. 12h/Acrylic
02.-07.09.2020