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Eurwentala — Uintatherium portrait
#fossil #mammal #paleoart #paleocene #paleontology #dinocerata #uintatherium
Published: 2019-09-19 07:15:46 +0000 UTC; Views: 8338; Favourites: 315; Downloads: 0
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Description
I really don't know how to paint, but make an occasional attempt nevertheless.Uintatherium is a dinoceratan, one of the first groups of mammals to reach megafaunal sizes after the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs. The species has a famously weird-looking skull with long sabreteeth and bony knobs all over. However, when reconstructed with a typical mammalian amount of soft tissue, it appears surprisingly normal.
The idea here was to illustrate the idea that dinoceratans evolved from small, shrewlike animals extremely quickly, without much competition or many formidable predators. This resulted in rather clumsy, ungraceful animals that did indeed go extinct as soon as the next wave of megafauna had time to evolve - around late Eocene. The Uintatherium here still has the long soft nose, pink rhinarium, prominent whisker pads and reddish-grayish agouti fur typical of small mammals, despite being the size of a rhino.
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Comments: 48
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so much sleeker than I'm used to seeing it. this is a nice change of pace.
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Nice drawing 
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I'm not saying unitatheruin and rhinos are relatives. Just that they share a similar appearance. Converting evolution. Speaking of ancient animals: Do you like "Jurassic Park"?
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1. By "expect to look similar based on their bones or ecological niche", you also mean to creatures like saber tooth cat and thylacosmylus?
2. You might not believe it, but nobody in my immediate real-life environment take interest in JP. I love it, but I can't talk about it as much as I want, because people around me can feel the gaps with their common sense in a good day, and need me to spell it out using the lowest register language I can in a bad day. Always good to find someone you like JP as much as I do. Would you like to take this conversation to the JP wiki? My username there is ScaryMovie53. Which is your username there?
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If you'll ever change your mind, remember you don't have to open more than one account. It's like the one ring. One account to rule them all lol. I hear you about fandoms. Were they always so aggressive by nature, or it's just the product of later times? And do you have articles? I should really get back to popular science, because it's been too long since the last time I talked about it.
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Dont take this the wrong way.. but his is a cursed paleo picture
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Very nicely done! Quite a unique approach in contrast to the cliche "saber-toothed rhino with giraffe horns" look.
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Interesting idea, it reminds me of musk-deers and muntjacs. One of the ideas proposed of their ancestry is that dinoceratans are related to xenungulates like Carodnia, which were browsers animals relatively unspecialized.
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That really is one peculiar mammal. Rhino, saber-toothed cat and early giraffe mixed into one.
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...
Holy smokes, all that headgear is just plain showing off!
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Interesting depiction. Though wouldn't being furry cause overheating problems to something so big? After all, at such large sizes heat is lost from the body rather slowly and thus having fur trapping heat would go from being a benefit to being a problem. This seems to be the reason why things like rhinos and elephants became naked.
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I thought about its slightly more gracile build, shaded forest environment and simply very fast evolution from small animals as reasons to have more fur than today's rhinos. It's a bit of a stretch, I admit.
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I imagine if it lived in a more shaded and forested environment than those other large mammals, that would've been a lot cooler. (That's why Sumatran rhinos are hairier than other rhino species, for instance.)
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Seeing its skull I would expect it to have tapir-like or maybe elephant-shrew-like nose.
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It is a shrew-like nose, just a very wide one.
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omg I love this design so much! literally a blend of shrew, rhino and walrus owo
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A very unorthodox reconstruction! It is true we tend to reconstruct those weird big mammals with elephant or rhino-like features and skin when in reality we have no serious ground for it. Kudos for daring to go in another direction, one that could very well be more accurate.
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Thanks! I have illustrated a hippo-like Uintatherium before, but the idea of a different direction has been brewing at the back of my mind for a while now. Nice to see it has generated interest and discussion.
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This is a interesting creature. The long teeth really stands out on this😊
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I never knew Uintatherium would retain a coat of fur instead of losing them after their ancestors grew larger. Still an interesting concept!
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There's no direct evidence either way. I was going for an animal that has evolved from small animals very quickly and hasn't exactly perfected the design of being large. The poor guy might well suffer from overheating from time to time.
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Oh, I never thought of that...
Oh well, cool concept by the way!
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Komea ilmestys! Useimmat näkemäni Uintateerin rekonstruktiot tuovat mieleen lähinnä hyvin kummallisen sarvikuonon, mutta tämä muistuttaa huimiin mittoihin venynyttä muntjakkia. Hyvä veto. Olivatkohan muuten Dinoceraattien esi-isät nimenomaan päästäismäisiä vai olisivatkohan ne muistuttaneet tavalla tai toisella kääpiökauriita?
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Kiitos!
Onhan se kyllä mahdollista, että jotain kääpiökaurismaista on ollut liikkeellä jo liitu-paleoseenikausien taitteessa. Protungulatum lienee ainakin jotain sinne päin, mutta uusimmissa fylogenioissa se ei taida olla lähelläkään dinocerataa.
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A pretty interesting take on the classic animal. Even if Uintatherium and relatives did have a more "megafaunal" look to them, I bet they would still look quite different to rhinoceros and other modern large mammals, the skeleton isn't really that rhino like, with the long neck and legs.
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Very cool, I would never see the uintatherium again in the same way !
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Wasn't there some speculation of a lagomorph relationship somewhere here or did I pull this out of a hat
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I haven't heard of it. Sounds like it would be an interesting relationship!
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Actually looks like a giant tufted deer. Fascinating interpretation.
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That's a bit cuter and fuzzier than it is usually depicted.
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Sure is! I tried a hippo-like naked look before, and it sure wasn't as cute.
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Pretty much. It's just a rhino-sized one. 
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