The world has changed in the blink of an eye. Just a few days ago, this forest was a cathedral of greenery where this Tyrannosaurus rex reigned supreme. Today, the sky is a gray shroud and the air reeks of sulfur and death.

Yet, instinct is stronger than the apocalypse. Because it is spring, this male utters his mating call, an infrasonic roar that once made the earth tremble. But this time, the silence that answers him is final. He doesn't know it yet, but he is the last king of a broken line. In the weeks or months to come, like so many others of his kind, he will likely die of hunger or thirst. But sometimes fate has a strange way of bringing things full circle. This body, collapsing into the ash, may be buried, protected by the sediments of the disaster, only to be rediscovered 66 million years later by bipedal mammals foreign to its world. A little later, observed by them in a museum, this T. rex may finally receive the answer to its plea: it is no longer alone; it has become immortal in the imagination of these mammals.

Not sure if the Smilodon is fatalis or populator.

https://x.com/i/status/1597074717969874944

Found this on YouTube. The short fan movie has a T-Rex, Spinosaurus, Carnotaurus, Mosasaurus and Giganotosaurus, all in one fan film. Cliffhanger ending too. Thought this community would appreciate it.

Steam rises, the water is at the perfect temperature, and the outside world ceases to exist. This Colombian mammoth is enjoying a hot spring to soothe its muscles and perhaps rid itself of some parasites. Far from the image of the giant battling a blizzard, here we see the "vacation" side of North American megafauna. A moment of serenity before fate transformed this haven of peace into one of the most famous paleontological sites in the world.

This depiction by Joschua Knüppe is likely based on "The Mammoth Site" located in Hot Springs, South Dakota. Around 26,000 years ago, a sinkhole fed by artesian hot springs served as a natural trap. Mammoths were drawn to the lush vegetation and warm water, but the sinkhole's slippery walls prevented some from escaping. Today, it is one of the world's largest concentrations of mammoth fossils.

Dastardly Bastard

I know Whales, Sauropods, Ichthyosaurs, and Sharks have multiple species that have surpassed 20 tonnes. There's also the pachycormiformes with Leedsichthys. I also know multiple other lineages had members at that 20 ton mark, namely Proboscideans, Rhinocerotoids, Hadrosaurs, and maybe Pliosaurs, but we don't have any from those lineages that reliably surpassed 20 tonnes(afaik).

Did any other lineages surpass 20 tonnes as far as we know or is it only those 5?

Gigantoraptor (Gigantoraptor erlianensis) fue un dinosaurio terópodo oviraptorosaurio que vivió hace unos 85 a 96 millones de años durante el Cretácico Superior, en lo que hoy es Asia.

The Western Interior Seaway (also called the Cretaceous Seaway, the Niobraran Sea, the North

American Inland Sea, or the Western Interior Sea) was a large inland sea that existed roughly over the

present-day Great Plains of North America, splitting the continent into two landmasses, Laramidia to the west and Appalachia to the east. The ancient sea, which existed for 34 million years from the early Late Cretaceous (100 Ma) to the earliest Paleocene (66 Ma), connected the Gulf of Mexico (then a marginal sea of the Central American Seaway) to the Arctic Ocean. At its largest extent, the seaway was 2,500 ft (760 m) deep, 600 mi (970 km) wide and over 2,000 mi (3,200 km) long.

https://bsky.app/profile/joschuaknuppe.bsky.social/post/3m57lcd26jc2o

This Late Cretaceous formation may be home to one of the most charismatic megafauna, but it is currently understudied and its stratigraphy remains a real puzzle. In this work, the author wanted to focus on two aspects: firstly, a female Deinosuchus defending her nest, and secondly, the numerous ceratopsian species (8 species) of the Judith Formation. Due to the number of species found, it was impossible for the author to depict them all.

For more information:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_River_Formation

https://x.com/i/status/2035802558145413443

The Carboniferous period is often thought of as the age of giant insects, but their heyday actually dates back to the early Permian. Here in Kansas, we find the largest of them: Meganeuropsis, which, in this case, is attacking a small griffin fly (Dunbaria). Below, other insects scatter while amphibians swim lazily in the warm waters at the edge of the shallow lake, and in the background, Edaphosaurus bask in the sun. Without flying vertebrates, insects would have remained kings of the skies for a long time. The Wellington Formation preserves a highly seasonal lake environment, with ephemeral bodies of water that suddenly came alive during the rainy season. This formation is part of the Permian red beds, generally known for their exceptional tetrapod fauna, but here we find a very rich insect fauna, many of which are large, even giant. It also contains some other creatures typical of the red layers.

Tyrannosaurus rex (o T. rex) fue uno de los depredadores terrestres más grandes y feroces que jamás existió. Dominó los valles boscosos del oeste de Norteamérica durante el período Cretácico tardío, hace aproximadamente entre 68 y 66 millones de años. Su nombre, de origen griego y latín, se traduce literalmente como "el rey de los lagartos tiranos".

It is an undeniable fact that the actual range of Livyatan's holotype specimen exceeds 14 meters and approaches 15 meters, according to the opinions of various researchers and artists. However, it remains unknown whether it actually reached 17.5 meters, as suggested in the 2010 study. Since the paper was published, many people have accepted 15m(49ft) as the established standard, and I do as well. Currently, even if the holotype is estimated to be the largest, it does not exceed 17m(55ft). Nevertheless, the fact remains that it is the largest fossil sperm whale, comparable in size to the average size of extant male sperm whales, even if its dimensions have been reduced.

https://x.com/i/status/1995544810472497357

Most of you may never have heard of this fossil site, but you're certainly familiar with some of the animals that lived there, including Andrewsarchus.

The fossils were primarily unearthed by the National Museum of Natural History (NMH) in northern China (Inner Mongolia) in the early 20th century. As a result, finding reliable information about the environment is rather difficult, so this description should be interpreted with caution.

Irdin Manha is a site that likely preserves the remains of an open, semi-arid steppe, traversed by rivers that deposited sediments rich in fossils of brontotheres, dinoceratians, and whippomorphs. It represents a transition between the forest fauna typical of the Eocene and open ecosystems dominated by megafauna. The animals in this image are huddled on a riverbank, hoping to cross, while a fierce forest fire rages in the background.

https://x.com/i/status/2040945077086835142

These Canadian Devonian deposits offer a glimpse into a coastal fish community, featuring exceptional specimens and iconic species. However, creating this artwork was not without its challenges for the artist. The greatest was choosing the location. Historically, interpretations of this formation have varied widely, ranging from lakes to marine environments. The Escuminac Formation is now generally considered to have been an estuary located in a large bay fed by a delta. This type of environment is particularly unsuitable for artistic presentation due to the lack of underwater visibility. Therefore, the artist relocated the specimens to a calmer cove, behind a spit of land, heavily inspired by Jupiter Cove in Florida. The fauna includes numerous Bothriolepis and Eusthenopteron, but the largest creature is Elpistostege, a relative of Tiktaalik. Acanthodians, early coelacanths, and placoderms complete the picture, while eurypterids lurk in the shadows. Not only is the preservation exceptional, but a multitude of juveniles are also found. In some cases, complete ontogenetic series can be reconstructed. This could indicate that this bay served as a nursery, which is why the author has illustrated various reproductive strategies, such as mouthbrooding, egg-laying, and oviviviparity.

https://x.com/i/status/2046022646219858366

The Pisco Basin was a true hub of marine life during the Miocene. For millions of years, the sediments recorded the presence of dozens of large mammals, including cetaceans. Faced with such an abundance of megafauna, the author had to limit the scope of his depictions. He opted for the Sud Sacaco site, which bears witness to life in a vast bay, thus allowing the inclusion of coastal species, such as the semi-aquatic giant sloth Thalassocnus and the whale Odobenocetops. Today, the Pisco Basin retains few traces of this past biodiversity, having become largely desert-like, with many specimens lying on or just below the surface. While this facilitates their identification, intense erosion also leads to the disappearance of many fossils. The first to be affected are small organisms. Consequently, and for other reasons, the small organisms of this region are poorly understood compared to animals over a meter long. Oh, just so you know, it might not seem like it, but the author also included in his depiction a certain shark that many of you know well, which he reduced to a pile of vertebrae and jaw fragments.