Smithsonian Sea Monsters Unearthed! Prominent Marine Life
Time period shown: Cretaceous
About this image:
Getting to re-create such a wide range of Cretaceous life from ancient Angola's ocean was one of the great opportunities that came from working on Sea Monsters Unearthed for the National Museum of Natural History and Southern Methodist University.
Karen sculpted or painted more than three dozen vertebrate and invertebrate animals from both the Cretaceous South Atlantic and the same region today. Shown here are a few of the most prominent featured in the work of Dr. Louis Jacobs and Mike Polcyn, both of Southern Methodist University:
Top row: Prognathodon kianda
Second row: Globidens and juvenile mosasaur sp.
Third row: Platecarpus ptychodon and Halisaurus
Fourth row: Euclastes and Protostega
Fifth row: Cardiocorax
These animals are shown proportionally to their life size: The elasmosaurid Cardiocorax was up to 8 meters in length, and Prognathodon kianda was nearly as big. The ancient South Atlantic really was home to sea monsters!