Appalachiosaurus montgomeriensis. Original artwork from Feathered Dinosaurs.

2006.
Watercolour and gouache on Arches paper 415 x 655 mm, unframed, signed and dated by artist.

Appalachiosaurus montgomeriensis. Original artwork from Feathered Dinosaurs. Appalachian lizard from Montgomery County.

Appalachiosaurus is one of the most recently discovered tyrannosaurs from North America, based on a partial skull and lower jaw, the hind limbs, some vertebrae and the pelvis. It was clearly a large theropod, as the only known example is a juvenile some seven metres in length and estimated to weigh around 600 kilograms. It might be related to Alioramus from Asia as this dinosaur also had a row of bony crests on the snout. Appalachiosaurus I lived on what was once an ancient island continent, called Appalachia. An unusual feature of the skeleton was that two of its tail vertebrae were fused together, suggesting healing after an injury.

Artist's note: This is a life-sized depiction of the head of a sub-adult. By this stage of its development, the animal was large enough to have dispensed with its juvenile insulating feathers. I have displayed the early stage of the growth of adult brow horns, which was another feature of its adolescence.

Superfamily: Tyrannosauroidea
Family: Tyrannosauridae
Age: Late Cretaceous (c. 77 mya)
Locality: Montgomery County, eastern Alabama, USA.