MIRACLE IN THE SANDS

Miracle in the Sands, acrylic on canvas, 2022. 20" X 16".

This scene is inspired by an episode of the documentary Prehistoric Planet, being set in an oasis which is formed when water rises to the surface of a desert, which in this painting is in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia during the late Cretaceous period around 75 million years ago. Water sources like these may have been a magnet for animals that travel through the desert.

Therizinosaurus (top left, meaning "scythe lizard") is one of the largest maniraptorans and is from a special family called the therizinosaurs, one of the few families of theropods which transitioned to a more herbivorous diet. The first fossil of Therizinosaurus, a set of massive claws measuring above 50 centimeters in length, was discovered in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia.

Velociraptor is a dinosaur best known for having a large claw on each foot. It could sprint and leap great distances with its powerful hind legs. It is one of the dinosaurs found to be very closely related to birds based on strikingly similar features, including having feathers and lightweight bones. Adult Velociraptors were actually as large as a modern-day coyote.

Tarbosaurus (top right) is the Gobi Desert's equivalent of Tyrannosaurus rex, which it is a close cousin of. It is very similar to T. rex, but is less heavily-built, with a larger head and smaller teeth.

The sauropod in the background is Opisthocoelicaudia (name meaning "posterior cavity tail"), known from a complete skeleton minus the head and neck. It is a member of the titanosaurid family, a family known for being the sole surviving sauropod family in the late Cretaceous.

A herd of Saurolophus are among the dinosaurs attracted to the oasis. These hadrosaurs have a prominent spine-like crest on top of their heads that point backwards, an are formed from their nasal bones. The crest may have been used by them to communicate, just like most other members of their family. This dinosaur can be found in both Canada and Mongolia, but the Mongolian species is much larger in size.

Homalocephale (meaning "even head") is one of the few pachycephalosaur species from Mongolia. This herbivore belongs to the "flat-headed" variety of pachycephalosaurs and is closely related to the horned ceratopsian dinosaurs. 

Protoceratops (meaning "first horned face") is one of the most common ceratopsians discovered in Mongolia. Adults can grow to the size of a large pig. It is a very primitive horned dinosaur, having a small bump on its snout in a similar fashion as the nose horn of more advanced ceratopsians.

Tarchia (meaning "brainy one" in Mongolian) is the largest ankylosaurid known from the Asian continent an also the last surviving. Its head is quite large, making it house a considerably larger brain case than those of most other ankylosaurids, giving it its name meaning. It had a massive tail club made from a pair of modified osteoderms.

Mononykus (bottom left) is a small theropod with unusually short front limbs, each sporting a single, extremely large claw which gave its name meaning, "single claw". It most likely used its claws to open termite nests to feed on the termites inside. Like the Velociraptor, it also shared several characteristics with modern birds which were not found in most other dinosaurs.

Pterosaurs also soared through the skies of the Gobi Desert in the Cretaceous. One such species, which was unnamed but given the nickname the "Mongol Giant", was one of the largest pterosaurs discovered in Mongolia. Like most large pterosaurs from its time period, it is a member of the azhdarchidae family, whose members were among the largest animals ever to take to the wing.

Artist's notes

The artist has a fondness for the genre of paleoart, which is a genre which depicts prehistoric animals in their natural habitat according to scientific evidence. The artist also brings over the unity themes from most of his other artworks to build a scenery which gathers several species from the same time and place.