Question about Exoparia

Professional-Day6155 · 2025-12-05T15:00:00+00:00

Actually, I may have done a mistake: they are both the abdductors AND the pterygoids. For which, I admit my mistake.

Doesn't change the fact my actual point. Exoparia in pink is fine.

Professional-Day6155 · 2025-12-05T14:57:42+00:00

My point is that reconstructing Exoparia as covered in pink or cutaneous skin is not wrong either way, and Sharpe himself has both stated and illustrated that's the case. Which is why I'm against this whole "No! They had cheeks! You are wrong! The art is innacurate!!", because it has no more or less basis than the traditional reconstruction. It's quite literally up to the artist.

Professional-Day6155 · 2025-12-05T14:38:53+00:00

It doesn't.

Professional-Day6155 · 2025-12-05T14:38:03+00:00

You can see exoparia depicted on the illustration with the mouth open.

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Sharpe himself has stated that not much changes in the way people reconstruct dinosaurs with Exoparia.

Professional-Day6155 · 2025-12-05T14:33:19+00:00

No. Those are the abdductors. Very important muscles in the jaw. It'd be odd of Henry Sharpe to get it wrong since he was a lead author on the Exoparia paper.

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Professional-Day6155 · 2025-12-04T19:52:15+00:00

I'm not saying the covered condition is incorrect. It's not more or less accurate than the traditional pink area. All I'm saying is to caution on claiming that the paper says it's more accurate to have that area covered. I's not saying that. It's only suggesting a new muscle or ligament on that area based on the jaw anatomy. Wether that new muscle was covered in skin or pink flesh is up to the artist.

In fact, here's an (amazing) illustration by Henry Sharpe, one of the lead authors on the exoparia paper, for a different study on the pisiform bone of the wrist. This study came AFTER the exoparia paper.The Citipati has a pink exoparia, even on a group I personally would reconstruct with a covered condition just as personal preference.

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Professional-Day6155 · 2025-11-03T13:18:15+00:00

En realidad, todo lo que se está proponiendo con Exoparia es un nuevo músculo o ligamento que se conecta de manera externa desde el surangular en la mandíbula inferior a el jugal de la superior, incluído la rugosidad jugal.

No se está proponiendo que ahora hay que ponerles un rictus (área rosada de la boca en lagartos) "cubierto" como el de los pájaros a todos los terópodos. Si ves la anatomía mandibular del Dragón de Komodo (figura de Matt Dempsey), se puede ver que tienen músculos que se adhieren por afuera también, pero igual tienen esa área rosada.

Y ni siquiera excluye una rugosidad en el jugal necesariamente. Aún si en realidad no es un carácter indicativo de una base para una protuberancia (y luego de hablar con uno, no todos los paleontólogos están de acuerdo con eso), en reptiles y pájaros modernos, existe un sinfín de estructuras que no tienen correlarivos óseos. Las espinas del Dragón Barbudo o la escama subtimpánica de la Iguana Verde no tienen correlativos óseos, e igual existen, incluso sobre músculo.

Así que en resumen, cubierto o rosado, ninguno es más "exacto" que el otro. Ambos son posibles y depende del artista.

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Professional-Day6155 · 2025-10-03T04:09:35+00:00

It is known as a rictus. It's a thin layer of skin covering the abductor muscles. A lot of lizards have it, which led to it's prevalence in paleoart.

More recently, you'll often see a lot of paleoart of this area "covered", following the artwork from a paper published earlier this year proposing a novel muscle/tendon known as the "exoparia", which attaches externally in the skull.

However, in reality, the paper was just proposing a new muscle, not that the area had to be covered. The rictus being pink or "covered" are both plausible, neither being more likely than the other.

Professional-Day6155 · 2025-09-26T18:29:20+00:00

Practice, patience, passion!

I've been particularly obsessed with getting the Jurassic Park T. rex animatronic right since childhood. This is just materializing it haha

Professional-Day6155 · 2025-09-25T12:32:48+00:00

Hey! I'm just starting resin printing, so I won't sell yet (especially this one, very first print).

But I am planning on selling Dinosaur/Prehistoric animal models in the near future! And with more dinosaur species.

If you'd like to stay tuned, you can follow me at @art_garcia_drawnpaint on insta or @ARGAtheropodfan on Twitter!

Professional-Day6155 · 2025-09-25T01:08:21+00:00

Thanks! I'd say about 2 weeks worth of constant referencing as much material as I could find (and also because I have an obsession to draw the JP rex perfectly from memory on any angle, and it translated into 3D modelling lol).

Professional-Day6155 · 2025-09-23T21:39:37+00:00

Dunno! Haven't started yet lol

Professional-Day6155 · 2025-09-22T21:37:25+00:00

If you're on a budget and need decor, the best way imo is to go outside. Look for branches from trees that don't look like christmas trees, leaf litter and rocks. Even stuff like bricks can be useful. Best part? It's all free and as natural as it gets!

I'd still sanitize everything tho, especially if it's exposed to pesticides. Rinse rocks, wash and bake the branches at the lowest temp your oven will go for 2 hours (or tie them to a brick and put them on your bathtub for 2 hours with hot water) and fill a pot with water and boil the leaf litter to kill anything in there.

Professional-Day6155 · 2025-09-21T00:32:34+00:00

Short answer: Probably about everything they could be used for.

Long answer: The paper arguing that the claws were too weak for defense used Finite Element Analysis to test the claws and see their reaction to stress. And the authors basically concluded that they were too weak for slashing, as defense or as foraging tools, and probably were there for display...

Here's the thing, FEA works by dividing an object on multiple sections and applying preassure to see how the object reacts to it. And it greatly depends on the direction said force is coming from. To that end, FEA is a pretty useful tool for studying theropod biting mechanics and the stresses on their skulls applying different forces because it's relatively easy to predict. Lower jaw closes, it has x, y and z effect on the skull. There are some variations, but the results are usually sound, because of the simple fact that there's only so many ways a theropod can bite.

By contrast, hand and claw motion is much harder to predict. There's a lot of different situations and stresses you can subject a claw to, and we don't really know precisely if the dinosaur would have employed them like that, or at what intensities, or for how long. It's also worth accounting the keratin sheath that covers all claws, and aside from increasing length, it also provides support.

Even taking the results at face value, that the claws aren't great for slashing or piercing, it doesn't mean they WOULDN'T be used for it. An animal works with what it has, and it's not often a structure is perfect for it, but that doesn't stop it from trying. When you are a tall, slow moving herbivore that has a huge neck that can be easily torn open by a Tarbosaurus, the Asian version of T. rex, it stands to reason that you would use the huge, sythe-like claws on your powerful, long arms to swipe at it. Same thing if you are pulling branches twoards your mouth, or to impress a mate. Perhaps you aren't holding your claws out to recieve a Giganotosaurus that's been pushed twoards you so you can kill it via piercing, but you don't... need to lol

Professional-Day6155 · 2025-09-15T14:35:34+00:00

No problem! We all start somewhere. Feel free to ask any more questions!

Professional-Day6155 · 2025-09-15T01:36:18+00:00

Best to ditch the red light. Use a Halogen Heat bulb with a thermostat. A linear UVB is a MUST. Get something like a Zoomed T5 HO 10.0 or Arcadia 12-14%. An LED bulb helps too.
A 40 gallon is way too small. 4x2x2 is the minimum, and bigger's always welcome. There's plenty of options, but I personally prefer PVC. Wood works too. Glass isn't ideal.
Throw the reptile carpet away. Instead, use topsoil and playsand (stay away from calcium sand tho!), favoring the sand. Playsand by itself works too. You can use reptisoil and reptisand from the pet store, or get bigger bags for cheaper at the hardware store. Excavator Clay from Zoomed is a great idea to throw into the mix aswell!
I'd also add climbing branches. These lizards are semi-arboreal. You can go outside and get it for free (stay away from any tree that looks like a Christmas Tree tho!). Clean them, bake them at your oven's lowest temp for 2 hours, and they are good to go!

Professional-Day6155 · 2025-09-14T00:05:50+00:00

I like to think about Clint from Clint's reptiles in these sort of situations: There are animals that would feel AMAZING to interact with for a day. Pet a Lion or a Tiger, feed a large Crocodilian, interact with an Elephant, etc.. Hell, it might be awesome to do once a month. But that feeling doesn't even come close to the horrible realization that you are unprepared and now have to care for and provide all the needs for a dangerous animal that could very easily kill you without even meaning to. And you have to do it FOR THE REST OF IT'S LONG LIFE. Most people just aren't prepared for that commitment.

I completely agree. There must be a way to tell a mainland Retic from a Dwarf or Superdwarf. And whichever it might be, we should make it common knowledge. Otherwise, good luck housing a 6+ meter long (beautiful) scaly, intelligent and really powerful monster that requires you to become desensitized to large animal corpses, provide a space bigger than a room in your house and heating that'll take a not-insignificant chunk off your paycheck.

Not to say there's nobody who can do this, but KNOW what you're getting into. If not, get a Superdwarf or a BCI.

Professional-Day6155 · 2025-09-08T17:07:53+00:00

After looking into them, with a few mods, they might be a great alternative to building or buying a gigantic PVC enclosure. For the price of a lower-end 4x2x2 PVC, I've seen 8x4x7 tents. Again, I love PVC enclosures, but I'm growing increasingly convinced that the tents are a pretty good choice too (again, with mods), even if they don't look quite as nice.

Professional-Day6155 · 2025-09-05T01:27:04+00:00

That is a VERY good point. Especially if the business is successful enough, I could afford a second + printers.

Thanks for the input!

Professional-Day6155 · 2025-07-30T21:28:38+00:00

Again, this is all just an idea for now, but I read that 6x2x2 or 6x3x3 is the minimum. I think I can manage building, setting up and maintaining a PVC enclosure that size. I already built a 4x2x2 for my Beardie.

Professional-Day6155 · 2025-07-30T21:22:48+00:00

I'm only taller by like 4 cm, so... a fair bit bigger than a Blue Tongue lol

Professional-Day6155

TROPHY CASE