Mike Skrepnick sent me these ammonite paintings, portions of some murals he has painted.
Portions of his email are quoted below along with the wonderful paintings, both artworks are Copyright 2007, Mike Skrepnick:
This note is concerning artistic life reconstructions of ammonites. I am a paleo artist ( my vocation for the last 15 years ) in Alberta, Canada and although most of my painted renderings are of terrestrial Mesozoic flora and fauna, I was recently commissioned to produce a number of mural images for DinosaurProvincialPark, and am currently involved with a second series for Dinosaur Ridge, just outside Denver. Two of the panels are of marine environments, in which ammonites are among the taxa represented.As I'm primarily involved with the restoration of dinosaurs and other terrestrial vertebrates, the marine scenes required research outside my usual sphere of reference. In looking for information, in addition to a number of descriptive papers on ammonites, their functional morphology and proposed behaviours, I came upon the TONMO site and the fossil cephalopod page including a thread featuring the proposed Japanese reconstructions ( all of which were helpful in my brief indoctrination, " Ceph 101 " understanding of the nature of these creatures ).
I noted that you are one of the staff at that site, and thought it best to write to you regarding this. In appreciation of the interesting material I discovered at the TONMO site, I thought the readers might find it of interest to see the finished art ( or at least portions thereof, that feature ammonites ).
The above is a restoration of the Bearpaw Seaway ( Campanian ), represented in the uppermost sedimentary unit at DinosaurProvincialPark. The ammonites depicted are Placenticeras meeki in amongst a pair of feeding elamosaurs Terminonatator ponteixensis, an approaching shark Squalicorax falcatus and receding indeterminate plioplatecarpine mosasaur.
The 2nd image is a detail from the Dinosaur Ridge scene ( should be installed within the next month ) depicting the Western Interior Seaway ( Cenomanian ) of Colorado, in which a flotilla of Acanthoceras amphibolum float above a colony of oysters, clams Inoceramus pictus, and mussels Pinna lakesii ( the latter not shown in frame ), with a pair of Squalicorax cruising in the distance.
It appears to me that fleshed out, life reconstructions of fossil invertebrates are somewhat underrepresented within the literature. . . probably due in part to the paucity and problematic nature of soft tissue preservation I imagine, but still an area that can be addressed, at least conservatively, even if only by virtue of a combination of inferred reference and modern analogs.
Please join me in thanking Mike for these wonderful paintings, and maybe with our mutual collaboration we can "flesh-out" more ammonites.
Portions of his email are quoted below along with the wonderful paintings, both artworks are Copyright 2007, Mike Skrepnick:
This note is concerning artistic life reconstructions of ammonites. I am a paleo artist ( my vocation for the last 15 years ) in Alberta, Canada and although most of my painted renderings are of terrestrial Mesozoic flora and fauna, I was recently commissioned to produce a number of mural images for DinosaurProvincialPark, and am currently involved with a second series for Dinosaur Ridge, just outside Denver. Two of the panels are of marine environments, in which ammonites are among the taxa represented.As I'm primarily involved with the restoration of dinosaurs and other terrestrial vertebrates, the marine scenes required research outside my usual sphere of reference. In looking for information, in addition to a number of descriptive papers on ammonites, their functional morphology and proposed behaviours, I came upon the TONMO site and the fossil cephalopod page including a thread featuring the proposed Japanese reconstructions ( all of which were helpful in my brief indoctrination, " Ceph 101 " understanding of the nature of these creatures ).
I noted that you are one of the staff at that site, and thought it best to write to you regarding this. In appreciation of the interesting material I discovered at the TONMO site, I thought the readers might find it of interest to see the finished art ( or at least portions thereof, that feature ammonites ).
The above is a restoration of the Bearpaw Seaway ( Campanian ), represented in the uppermost sedimentary unit at DinosaurProvincialPark. The ammonites depicted are Placenticeras meeki in amongst a pair of feeding elamosaurs Terminonatator ponteixensis, an approaching shark Squalicorax falcatus and receding indeterminate plioplatecarpine mosasaur.
The 2nd image is a detail from the Dinosaur Ridge scene ( should be installed within the next month ) depicting the Western Interior Seaway ( Cenomanian ) of Colorado, in which a flotilla of Acanthoceras amphibolum float above a colony of oysters, clams Inoceramus pictus, and mussels Pinna lakesii ( the latter not shown in frame ), with a pair of Squalicorax cruising in the distance.
It appears to me that fleshed out, life reconstructions of fossil invertebrates are somewhat underrepresented within the literature. . . probably due in part to the paucity and problematic nature of soft tissue preservation I imagine, but still an area that can be addressed, at least conservatively, even if only by virtue of a combination of inferred reference and modern analogs.
Please join me in thanking Mike for these wonderful paintings, and maybe with our mutual collaboration we can "flesh-out" more ammonites.
