Michael Tripoli

The Prehistoric Planet Ice Age logo

A photo of a crocodile resting at the edge of a river, its jaws agape. Image by the BBC

Some days ago I made a thread on Pleistocene crocs in honor of Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age, and now I'm bringing it here too.
Let me prefice this by saying that I of course understand their absence, obviously more unique fauna takes priority and I don't begrudge the team their choice

At a forest clearing, you're greeted by the guardian, the wise old man of the forest, Gigantopithecus blacki. Recent commission of the big guy, inspired by #prehistoricplaneticeage. Although this guy is a Pongine-->

Microsyops fur brush demo. Quick one. Brushes now available here villes.gumroad.com/l/rkrac

Lesmesodon edingeri, a cat sized Hyaenodont from the #Messel Pit. We only have 4 fossils from this species, all still suckling age. Would be an early horse’s nightmare as an adult though (dissection in thread) #sciart (done in 2021)

Mongolestes and Andrewsarchus, hoofed generalists
#paleoart

Almost done with this commission! 😁

#paleoart

Steppe lion enjoys the last days of summer.
But mornings are getting colder, winter is coming.

Digital illustration of the late Cretaceous tyrannosauroid dinosaur Nanotyrannus lanciensis in a foggy flooded open forest. The dinosaur is surrounded by warm fall foliage, palmettos and reeds. It is pulling sharply at a bit of sinewy meat from the neck of the carcass of a large softshell turtle, Axestemys in some shallow water. A small possum-like mammal, Didelphodon, is disturbed by this, hissing and splashing at the tall dinosaur

Digital black and white lineart of the late Cretaceous tyrannosauroid dinosaur Nanotyrannus lanciensis in a foggy flooded open forest. The dinosaur is surrounded by warm fall foliage, palmettos and reeds. It is pulling sharply at a bit of sinewy meat from the neck of the carcass of a large softshell turtle, Axestemys in some shallow water. A small possum-like mammal, Didelphodon, is disturbed by this, hissing and splashing at the tall dinosaur

A foggy morning in late Cretaceous Montana. The carcass of a large softshell turtle becomes a battleground for Hell Creek's two most ferocious apex predators...

I'm a little late to nano hype but I've got to fill my quota for one non-avian dinosaur per year

#paleoart #sciart #backinhell

Colored-pencil drawing of a Didelphodon in a sit-up position, grabbing onto a fluffy baby Nanotyrannus with both hands and one of its feet while its jaws completely envelop and crush the back of the small theropod’s skull. The Didelphodon is overall very dark brown in color, while the baby Nanotyrannus is a mix of olive tan and orange with thin dorsal stripes.

Colored sketch of the newly-validated Nanotyrannus lancensis, though it’s not having a good time. This baby has found itself grappled by a particularly ambitious Didelphodon, after wandering a little too far from home. #backinhell #paleoart #sciart #cretaceous

Digital Drawing. A depiction of an upland moa (Megalapteryx didinus) based on the type specimen. The head and right foot are represented as mummified remains while the rest of the body is drawn more like a life appearance, in the style of a monochromatic sketch.

Moa Remains

I've been working on a fully animated video about #Nanotyrannus since the paper dropped. I wanted to share a scene of a #Tyrannosaurus rex & N. lethaeus walking alongside each other, mainly for visual comparison. (Walk cycle animation rig made by @tylerstoneart.bsky.social in #aftereffects)

Be weary of the beardogs! These swift pack hunters are not to be taken lightly. New update (backers only) posted to our Kickstarter! Link in thread

Mammoth spotted in South Poland!

Actually, a to-scale model by Studio Kamyk for the Jegiellonian University Nature Education Centre, Krakow. 😍

Absolutely! The research for this was very fun lol, lots of elephant on pumpkin carnage

Take me back

I've always thought it'd be interesting to look at the skulls of proboscideans over time to see where the comparatively huge ear muscles elephants use to flap thier ears first show up

Maybe! We're not certain when proboscideans evolved thier thin, floppy, flappable ears. Mastodon are distant from elephants, so it's possible they retained more normal ears. Cold environments also tend to go with smaller ears, like in mammoths (tho the places mastodon lived were not as cold or dry)

Cute recent commission! I've been enjoying messing around with this style of line, the storybook whimsy is very season appropriate.

If you're interested in commissioning some artwork like this please get in touch! A full color illustration like this runs about $200 usd

Digital painting of two fuzzy, dark brown American Mastodon eating pumpkins in a small pumpkin patch. The style emulated watercolor and pencil paintings. In the foreground the larger mastodon is leaning over to crush a very large orange pumkin with its weight, while the mastodon behind it snacks on pumpkin chunks. The forest around them is mixed with tall conifers and deciduous trees in various shades of fall reds, oranges and yellows

A pair of American Mastodon chow down on a (slightly fantastical) pumpkin patch 🍂✨️

#sciart #paleoart

Prehistoric Planet Smilodon populator.

Prehistoric Planet Gigantopithecus.

Prehistoric Planet Megaloceros as seen from a cave interior.

Prehistoric Planet giant adjutant stork.

Years of work and collab with an incredible team at #BBCStudios #AppleTV @framestore.bsky.social ... involving so many camera operators, writers, producers, effects people, artists and others, #PrehistoricPlanetaIceAge is out on #AppleTV Nov 26th. A definitive vision of Ice Age wildlife worldwide.

A scene depicting the Patagonian scrubland in the early morning, dotted with araucarias and framed by foggy mountains in the background. A pair of Macrauchenia, four guanacos and a patagonian mara are seen among the grass. A Megatherium walks by further away and a crested caracara flies over the scene.

Foggy morning in Late Pleistocene Patagonia.

#Art #SciArt #artbyjulio

a greater rhea daddy and his chicks hang out with a 1+ ton Glossotherium robustum about 17 KYA in Pleistocene Argentina 🇦🇷!
….
#paleoart #iceage #sloth #megafauna #birds #art #procreate

and then Papa Rhea falls nervous and a bit defensive when his chicks check out an absolute behemoth - a female Megatherium americanum!

Pleistocene Argentina, ~17,000 years ago.

#paleoart #iceage #sloth

Black-and-white pencil drawing of a predation scene in the shallow coastal waters of California during the Pliocene. Near a large rock, a mother Herpetocetus morrowi (four-meter-long baleen whale) rests at the surface with her newborn calf balancing on her back. She has just begun to curve downwards in a dive, as a relatively large Homotherium sabertooth-cat is leaping towards her tiny calf with its front paws outstretched. The large cat had been crouched atop the nearby rock. In the distance, a massive cumulus cloud sits just above the surface of the open ocean. On the seafloor below are two small sea urchins, and on the base of the large rock near the seafloor is a Pacific Rock Crab.

On the coast of Pliocene California, a Homotherium pounces upon a newborn Herpetocetus morrowi. These are Cetotheres, small baleen whales that thrived during the Miocene/Pliocene. For the sabertooth, such a tiny calf so close to shore is a rare treat. #paleoart #sciart #pliocene #california

An evening chase erupts above the forests of Late Jurassic China between two gliding mammal-like animals. The sun sets between them, highlighting the leaves of the ginkgo tree they have leapt from. The mammals are darkly coloured, reflecting data from palaeocolour studies suggesting dark brown hues across most or all of their bodies.

The reality of being a freelancer is that you end up working a lot of evenings and nights, something #mammals have been doing since the Mesozoic. Here's new #paleoart of two #Jurassic gliding Mammaliaformes, Arboroharamiya, starting their day as the sun sets 160 million years ago. #sciart #fossil

Rhinos once lived in Canada A newly discovered species of Arctic rhino lived 23 million years ago.

"Rhinoceroses have been around for over 40 million years and have been found on all continents except South America and Antarctica. This recently discovered Arctic rhino lived about 23 million years ago, during the Early Miocene."
🌄🦴🦏 #Rhinoceros #Canada #Paleontology #Prehistory #Biology

Some work out recently made, Cetotherium riabinini is a small baleen whale from the Late Miocene of the Eastern Paratethys sea (Ukraine), a almost complete individual show it had remarkable body proportions unlike modern elongated species in a minuscule size.

Some work out recently made, cetotherium riabinini is a small baleen whale from the Late Miocene of the Eastern Paratethys sea (Ukraine), a almost complete individual show it had remarkable body proportions unlike modern elongated species in a minuscule size.

Second installment of #gomphtober2025 skeleton of gomphotherium from Mt. Diablo, California. Was on display at UC Berkeley, don't know if it still is.

#fossilfriday #prehistoriccalifornia #gomphotherium #cenozoic #miocene #elephant #fossil

Photograph of a young girl wearing a school uniform and a backpack at a museum, cradling the skull of the giant Miocene hyena Dinocrocuta

Somebody posted the photo this is a study of on a discord I'm in but I haven't been able to find the original context for it. If anyone knows I'd be interested!

Digital illustration of a young girl with a backpack cuddling with the giant miocene hyena Dinocrocuta on a solid yellow background with pink hearts. She is hugging the hyena's head warmly, and the animal looks content

Digital linework of a young girl with a backpack cuddling with the giant miocene hyena Dinocrocuta

A Girl and her Dinocrocuta

Messing around with some new brushes

#paleoart #sciart