Today on Fossil Friday, Maggie Jo gave a great presentation on crocodilians, and we were talking about how cool it is that alligators sometimes balance sticks on their snouts to lure in birds. Ashley said the gators are probably thinking "Shhhh... I'm a log", and I just thought that was so cute that I asked her if I could make a graphic of it. Gators need more love!

This behavior also speaks to just how smart crocodilians are, because using something as a lure definitely counts as tool use. Don't count out the ectotherms! They'll surprise you.

 Yes, that is a Pikmin reference! I just thought it would be hilarious if Mr. Pokémon kept calling Elm about very mundane "discoveries".

Return to Lynwood, Chapter 16

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7
Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12 - Chapter 13 - Chapter 14
Chapter 15 - Chapter 16

Lynwood itself was very much like how Suhel remembered it, a drab block of an educational institution with no thought given to aesthetics or individuality. Just like how its teachers tried to mold their pupils into lifeless copies of each other to join the great dull mass of society, she thought. The building had stood the test of time quite well, as it was intact, albeit with the windows boarded, missing shingles, and vines crawling up the stone walls. Again, though, things decayed slower in the Haunted Woods.

But now the place was crawling with Werelupes. Several pairs patrolled the lawn, which was dotted with firepits and stacks of probably stolen goods. The boards on many of the windows had been broken, and there was no lock on the large front doors—but each of them sported a large V etched with claws.

“Bites and curses,” Isengrim hissed. “Of course Vakhtang would need a home base. And of course it would have to be Lynwood.”

 

 To be honest, Elm is kinda me when I'm hyperfocused on something. (But without the smell.)

 I wanted to characterize Professor Elm as also eccentric... but in a different, more benign way than Oak. But still eccentric.

 I designed a qilin gargoyle a few years back, but I was never quite satisfied with her; the proportions were off, plus I accidentally used the wrong brush for the line art and it just didn't look quite right. I've recently acquired some free time, though, so I thought I'd put it to good use redrawing her. I'm happier with this version. Qilin manes are so fun to render.

 A few months ago on Virtual Fossil Friday, we got an awesome Zoom tour of the Whiteside Museum of Natural History, located in the Permian Red Beds of western Texas. I got to learn more about Dimetrodon than I ever knew I wanted to know, and I came away really wanting to make this graphic for my merch. My dad is from Texas, and I'm proud of the Lone Star State being home to the largest species of Dimetrodon, D. grandis. They really do make them bigger in Texas!

I find drawing Dimetrodon a fun challenge, because it's not just a big lizard with a sail on its back--it's a basal synapsid, a cousin to mammals. Synapsids aren't even reptiles; they're a totally different branch of amniotes. That's why I feel it's important to portray them as something fundamentally different than reptiles despite the superficial similarities. These creatures were on their way to becoming mammals and their life reconstructions need to reflect that.