Robin's Great Coloring Pages: Brontomerus and Maaradactylus

Brontomerus was a Sauropod or long neck dinosaur from the early Cretaceous Period. They lived 110 million years ago in what is now Utah, USA (where I live). This was a small Sauropod compared to the North American Brachiosaurs and Apatosaurs or even Diplodocids. However, "small" is a relative term. This dinosaur was still 46 feet or 16 meters long and weighed 6 tons or 5.44 metric tonnes. This was probably a relative of the Jurassic Period Camarosaurs.

Brontomerus feeding with young
(with fly over by Maaradactylus)

When I was a science teacher, before health made me retire, I used to tell my students that this is an example of how science changes. When I was a boy it was thought that all Sauropods went extinct at the end of the Jurassic Period. That is just not so. In fact, the biggest animals EVER to walk on land were the Sauropods of South America from the Creatceous Period...the Titanosaurs like Argentinosaurus and Patagotitan.

You may have heard of the dinosaur once named Brontosaurus, that is now named Apatosaurus. Brontosaurus means Thunder Lizard. Some of the muscle attachment scars on the Brontomerus legs showed that this animal had HUGE thigh muscles. So, the name Brontomerus means Thunder Thighs! Note that the Brontosaurus or Apatosaurus was much larger and was a Jurassic Sauropod.

The paleontologists found two individuals Brontomerus together, an adult and a juvenile, however there were not anywhere near a complete set of bones for either, so our knowledge about this animal is fragmentary. It is thought that with muscles like that the Brontomerus had a heck of a kick! Therefore one of today's drawings show Brontomerus kicking an unidentified species of raptor dinosaur as she defends her young. This MIGHT indicate that at least SOME Sauropods may have cared for their young. Of course that depends upon how small the juvenile dinosaur they found was. Perhaps the sub-adults joined the adults after a few years on their own. That is what is suspected of the large Titanosaurs like Argentinosaurus and Patagotitan.

Brontomerus defending her Young

Maaradactylus was a Pterosaur of the same time period...the Early Cretaceous Period. This animal lived in what is now South America so possibly they never flew over a Brontomerus, but since Pterosaurs are highly mobile, and possibly migrated, this top drawing is a possibility. The Maaradactylus is a very recent discovery. It looks similar to another Pterosaur, the Ornithocheirus.
Ornisthocheirus fossils are known is both the UK and South America so this means we can infer that they may have been migrating animals. SO.... perhaps my drawings of a Maaradactylus flying over a North American animal may not be so inaccurate after all.

You may have noticed that I almost never draw grass with Jurassic dinosaurs but I started to draw grass with Cretaceous dinosaurs when it was discovered that grass evolved earlier than once thought.

The following are older drawings from older posts. They include animals mentioned in the above text. . . including Apatosaurus, Patagotitan the biggest dinosaur yet found, Argentinosaurus laying eggs, and another Argentinosaurus with a new Pterosaur called Argentinadraco. I also am adding some Raptor Dinosaurs.