I had a list of what specific creatures I wanted to fill the world around Carnotaurus.
First was Abelisaurus, the main territory rival. Abelisaurus is a close relative of Carnotaurus, so their basic structure and hunting styles are similar, however Abelisaurus is smaller, longer and has a different skull shape. I also wanted to differentiate in colours, so I used one of the other Carnotaurus colour palette, greys for scales and blue/yellow for feathers and proto-feathers.
This was more of a challenge, as there is less fossil information of Late Cretaceous Argentina pterosaurs, but pieces of fossilised skull of Aerotitan was enough of a jumping off point, as large pterosaurs have a pretty uniform body structure. I added a small brightly coloured crest and eye markings for display, but the rest was informed by other pterosaur fossils. Large pterosaurs have small or non-existent tails to prevent drag, have air sacs around the body to help with breathing, and were covered with feather filaments, giving them a fuzzy appearance.
Although this was the hardest one to research the design for, I really enjoyed drawing it and have definitely found a new appreciation for pterosaurs.
The design I wanted to spend the most time on (aside from the Carnotaurus) was the Austroraptor as small -raptor predator dinosaurs have some of the most misinformation around them that annoys me, mostly from Jurassic Park.
The animal is mostly covered in feathers and filaments with larger feathers on the forearms and tail, and I also added some more noticeable fluff on top of the head. The hands are also pointed inwards not backwards.
For pigmentation, I looked at modern day raptors for inspiration and drew on the rusty reds, dark navy/light blues, and creams for feathers, greys for scales, and bright yellow for the iris.
Now I had the other species, I added them to the size chart, keeping individual size charts for each fossil on hand to make sure they're accurate.
Before I had chance to design the Neuquenosaurus, Pippa sent a design on the group Discord for the dinosaur, but I was severely disappointed with what she sent.
The head does not resemble the fossil skull of Sauropods (and the nostril position and size are off as well), the neck does not thicken around the base, the front right leg bends in completely the wrong direction and the wrist is on the ground when it should be on tiptoes, the back legs have the ankle joint off the ground when the bone structure is more similar to ours (with the ankle on the ground and thick amounts of muscle on both thigh and calf), the feet have a paw look to them when individual toes should be near invisible, the osteoderms on the back are pretty shapeless, and the tail is far too short and looks almost prehensile when the base has a thick amount of muscle to keep it straight to provide balance.
After the amount of research and work I did into constructing the other animals, I was really let down with this. Small inaccuracies would be forgivable, but the inaccuracies here are so glaring it makes me think that Pippa didn't even look at fossils or reconstructions when making it.
Rather than get Pippa to redesign it properly, I just took on fixing it myself as it'd be quicker.
I moved the nostrils to the edge of the snout and changed their angle, I added more soft tissue around the head to round it better, and added some loose skin under the throat. I also thickened the base of the neck, put the leg joints in the correct places and fixed the feet (adding a single claw to the inside of the front feet, made the U shape of the footprints more obvious, and added claws to the back feet). I also added muscle correctly to the tail and straightened it out better, and also streamlined the osteoderms.
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