The Maiacetus ("Good Mother Whale") is known from two fossils, and was first described in 2009. From the evidence, scientists have suggested that this four-legged whale ancestor gave birth on land, but lived most of its life in the water. 
I wanted to show this land/water lifestyle by portraying the Maiacetus and its young wading in the shallows. Here's the sketch I presented to the art director of Ranger Rick magazine (the finished picture appears in this month's issue). Friday I'll show you the maquette and the finished picture.----
Wikipedia on Maiacetus.
More about Ranger Rick, with an interview about the process.
Whoa! I didn't know we had fossils of a transient cetacean! That's actually a really disturbing image, to see a wolf-like whale.
ReplyDelete2009 seems to be the year of "missing links", so to speak: the fossil remains of Ardi, the discovery of a transitional pterosaur (dubbed Darwinopterus, amusingly enough,) and now this.
Ancient whales always fascinated me, just for the weirdness of a terrestrial animal moving back to an all-water habitat. Sometimes I wonder if they would ever swing back the other way.
I picked up a copy of Ranger Rick yesterday and the paintings look fantastic. Thanks for the insight on how you did them.
ReplyDeletestole my nephews ranger rick tonight!!
ReplyDeleteawsome paintings!! they gave you a nice big layout, love the wooly mamoths!
That's a gorgeous skeleton!
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to seeing the progression on this.