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Description
Majungasaurus crenatissimus, a theropod with particularly odd proportions. This was a practise at digital painting, painted over a still-unpublished drawing I made for a children's magazine.

Majungasaurus was a medium-sized theropod (some 6 to 8 meters long) that lived in what is now Madagascar at the very end of the Cretaceous. It was one of the abelisaurs, a group of theropods whose forelimbs make the hands of Tyrannosaurus look positively huge. Majungasaurus's tiny little arms were attached to its shoulders by a ball joint, allowing them to swing wildly around. Why they would have wanted to is a mystery. In addition, this animal had a long, somewhat lizardlike body balanced on top of short but powerful legs. Tearing through the Cretaceous forests like a giant snake on legs, it's hard to imagine it as other than nightmarish.

While I generally prefer my theropods fluffy, there are quite good integumentary fossils of Carnotaurus, a close relative of Majungasaurus. They show a mosaic of tiny pebbly scales and larger osteoderms, making a scaly hide the best supported option for abelisaurs.

Description
Majungasaurus crenatissimus, a theropod with particularly odd proportions. This was a practise at digital painting, painted over a still-unpublished drawing I made for a children's magazine.

Majungasaurus was a medium-sized theropod (some 6 to 8 meters long) that lived in what is now Madagascar at the very end of the Cretaceous. It was one of the abelisaurs, a group of theropods whose forelimbs make the hands of Tyrannosaurus look positively huge. Majungasaurus's tiny little arms were attached to its shoulders by a ball joint, allowing them to swing wildly around. Why they would have wanted to is a mystery. In addition, this animal had a long, somewhat lizardlike body balanced on top of short but powerful legs. Tearing through the Cretaceous forests like a giant snake on legs, it's hard to imagine it as other than nightmarish.

While I generally prefer my theropods fluffy, there are quite good integumentary fossils of Carnotaurus, a close relative of Majungasaurus. They show a mosaic of tiny pebbly scales and larger osteoderms, making a scaly hide the best supported option for abelisaurs.