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Description
Finally, I found the strength to post recent developments. This is a speculative portrait of the bird-hipped dinosaur Jakapil kaniukura, a sensation for the paleocommunity, from the Late Cretaceous
Argentina. The animal quickly became popular, albeit for a short time. I, as always, did not keep up with the hype. And here it is.

Jakapil fossils were discovered back in 2012 on private land with rock outcrops of the Candeleros Formation. They consist of a fragmentary skeleton with incomplete armor. The bones belonged to a sub-adult dinosaur less than one and a half meters long. The animal has a very unusual set of features: a very deep lower jaw with a developed predentary bone, vertebrae and ribs indicating a broad body, at least five types of osteoderms (including flat discoid and long sharp ones) and very gracile bones of the forelimbs suggesting bipedality. The name means "shield bearer" in the language of the Northern Tehuelche. Jakapil was assigned to basal thyreophorans, which is surprising, since the early history of armored dinosaurs was previously represented by fossils from the northern continents. Moreover, the presence of an ossified predentary bone and a very low form of osteoderms are completely uncharacteristic of early thyroophores. The supposed bipedality is also a strange trait, since the closest taxon, Scelidosaurus, has limbs more adapted for carrying mass. In this case, Jakapil returned to bipedalism independently. To the above, we can add that the teeth of the Jakapil are similar to the teeth of early thyreophorans, but at the same time, signs of wear indicate a more efficient processing of food in the mouth, more characteristic of heterodontosaurids and cerapods.

The fragmentary nature of the material and the strange mixture of features, however, do not give grounds to confidently attribute Jakapil to primitive thyreophorans. There, Dr. S. Maidment expressed the opinion that the strange South American dinosaur may belong to marginocephalians (the deep jaw is more reminiscent of basal ceratopsians) or even represent a previously unknown Gondwana lineage. Anyway, this small herbivorous reptile was in the shadow of sauropods and in constant danger of being killed and eaten by a young Giganotosaurus.

Due to the fragmentary nature of the specimen, I decided to limit myself to a portrait. At the same time, I refused to copy the official reconstruction and, taking into account possible kinship with marginocephalians, made a hooked beak and the back of the head reminiscent of early ceratopsians. It turned out to be such a spiked "dragon" with eagle notes.

Black ballpoint and black gel ink pens, 2022.

Description
Finally, I found the strength to post recent developments. This is a speculative portrait of the bird-hipped dinosaur Jakapil kaniukura, a sensation for the paleocommunity, from the Late Cretaceous
Argentina. The animal quickly became popular, albeit for a short time. I, as always, did not keep up with the hype. And here it is.

Jakapil fossils were discovered back in 2012 on private land with rock outcrops of the Candeleros Formation. They consist of a fragmentary skeleton with incomplete armor. The bones belonged to a sub-adult dinosaur less than one and a half meters long. The animal has a very unusual set of features: a very deep lower jaw with a developed predentary bone, vertebrae and ribs indicating a broad body, at least five types of osteoderms (including flat discoid and long sharp ones) and very gracile bones of the forelimbs suggesting bipedality. The name means "shield bearer" in the language of the Northern Tehuelche. Jakapil was assigned to basal thyreophorans, which is surprising, since the early history of armored dinosaurs was previously represented by fossils from the northern continents. Moreover, the presence of an ossified predentary bone and a very low form of osteoderms are completely uncharacteristic of early thyroophores. The supposed bipedality is also a strange trait, since the closest taxon, Scelidosaurus, has limbs more adapted for carrying mass. In this case, Jakapil returned to bipedalism independently. To the above, we can add that the teeth of the Jakapil are similar to the teeth of early thyreophorans, but at the same time, signs of wear indicate a more efficient processing of food in the mouth, more characteristic of heterodontosaurids and cerapods.

The fragmentary nature of the material and the strange mixture of features, however, do not give grounds to confidently attribute Jakapil to primitive thyreophorans. There, Dr. S. Maidment expressed the opinion that the strange South American dinosaur may belong to marginocephalians (the deep jaw is more reminiscent of basal ceratopsians) or even represent a previously unknown Gondwana lineage. Anyway, this small herbivorous reptile was in the shadow of sauropods and in constant danger of being killed and eaten by a young Giganotosaurus.

Due to the fragmentary nature of the specimen, I decided to limit myself to a portrait. At the same time, I refused to copy the official reconstruction and, taking into account possible kinship with marginocephalians, made a hooked beak and the back of the head reminiscent of early ceratopsians. It turned out to be such a spiked "dragon" with eagle notes.

Black ballpoint and black gel ink pens, 2022.