Tenontosaurus

Another spot illustration for Prehistoric Times magazine. This one's for an article on Tenontosaurus, a big 'ol ornithopod from the Cretaceous. Here I've depicted them at a clay lick, obtaining essential nutrients from the mineral-rich soil and using the clay to absorb toxins from their food. I found it kind of difficult to show exactly what was going on, so I added in a couple of Tupuxuara pterosaurs colored like scarlet macaws as a visual cue (I figured most people would be at least a little familiar with those pictures of huge flocks of macaws clustered all over clay cliffs). Most of these are juvenile Tupuxuara, by the way. The two larger, mostly blue pterosaurs are full-grown adults.