TA Holmes
banner
fadeno.bsky.social
TA Holmes
@fadeno.bsky.social
Lapsed geochemist and science teacher turned stay-at-home dad. I draw bones of dead things.
It's World Crocodile Day and I conveniently just finished my skeletal of Deinosuchus hatcheri, a gigantic crocodylian (or near crocodylian) from Campanian Laramidia. This has been in the works for a long time and it feels good to have it done.
#WorldCrocodileDay #dinosaurs #paleoart #Deinosuchus
June 18, 2025 at 1:35 AM
I could streamline this by just using the non-vector skull I've drawn, but that's a shortcut that won't save time in the long run.
April 2, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Here's an update on my Deinosuchus skeletal. Nearly all the bones are done, just gotta finish the skull detailing and the osteoderms. Also the back leg. But theoretically in the home stretch. #paleontology #Deinosuchus #paleoart
April 2, 2025 at 11:42 PM
This might be one of my favorite diagrams I've made, a multiview diagram of the holotype of Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus, the best hadrosaur. It was a fun to figure out how best to represent multiple views. #paleoart #fossilfriday
March 7, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Between homeschooling two boys, taking care of two more under 3, and everything else in life, I don't have much time for skeletals, but I have been making progress on my Deinosuchus skeletal in my spare time. Everything is scaled, just gotta pose and draw it all. Family comes first though.
March 6, 2025 at 7:09 PM
My own reconstruction of AMNH 3073 is just under 11.2 meters.

Using Laramidian specimens gives us the entire skull and mandibles, most of the pre-sacral vertebrae, several caudals, a femur, a humerus, as well as most of the shoulder and pelvis. The Eastern species fills in the tail and limbs.
March 6, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Iijima and Kubo 2020 used a large data set of crocodylian vertebrae to generate regression equations for various parts of the vertebrae column. They estimated AMNH 3073 to be between ~7-8.3 meters long, with their most likely value being 7.7 meters.
March 6, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Schwimmer estimated AMNH 3073 to be 12 meters long in his book, "KIng of the Crocodylians". This is the largest estimate for AMNH 3073 that can be scientifically verified, since it was produced using a regression equation for Alligators from Woodword et al. 1995.
March 6, 2025 at 7:09 PM
We all know that #Deinosuchus is a giant crocodylian, but how giant was it? This diagram shows the largest and smallest estimates for AMNNH 3073 to appear in scientific literature over the last 25 years, plus an estimate based on my WIP skeletal. #paleoart #paleontology
March 6, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Some more #paleoart, this is a diagram I threw together for my wife when she needed some visualizations for teaching homologous structures and evolution. Took a bunch of skulls from completed projects and some WIPs and added in a couple horrible mammal skulls. #sciart
February 6, 2025 at 6:53 PM
#Torosaurus skulls, laid out approximately in stratigraphic order. Torosaurus is a large, controversial chasmosaurine with two? species from the American west. I've got a few more chasmosaurine skeletals to post and I have a few more I'd like to work on over the year. #paleontology #paleoart
February 4, 2025 at 5:14 PM
I've changed a lot about how I do skeletals and this skeletal was showing its age. I was able to find some more reference material and get a lot more detail out of the material I was using. Been some interesting, if fairly subtle, changes and some downsizing.
January 29, 2025 at 7:13 PM
First post here, I've got some new skeletals to share, but wanted to drop this WIP - I've been (slowly) updating my Deinosuchus diagrams from the ground up. Here are three specimens of the western species: TMM 43620-1, AMNH 3073, and TMM 43632-1.
January 29, 2025 at 7:13 PM