These illustrations demonstrate unique features of the depicted animals in this mundane context. For example, the juvenile Smilodon standing against the tree displays their speculated adaptation towards lumbar stability that would have allowed them to stand and use their forelimbs to grapple with large prey.
Slice of Life for the Extinct
These paleontological reconstructions of Tarbosaurus bataar, Smilodon fatalis, and Daeodon shoshonesis respectively depict slice of life scenes in order to resist the typically dramatic cliches of the genre.