New Side - Necked Turtle, Mali Skull Fossil

I was delighted to receive in my inbox a copy of the publication, American Museum Novitates (2007), Acleistochelys, a New Side – Necked Turtle (Pelomedusoides: Bothremydidae) from the Paleocene of Mali. I had rendered figures 2 – 5 for this project two years ago. Fig 5 is shown above and the tonal; drawing of the partially restored ventral view of the skull can be viewed on my webpage. This project was a unique experience because I closely interacted with Senior Scientific Staff Illustrators at the American Museum of Natural History, a welcomed change from the normal solitary lab environment!

Bat Teeth Fossils

Some of my favorite illustration assignments involve documenting other peoples fun finds. I had the pleasure of illustrating fossils of an insectivorous bat, H. besaoka, for Dr. Karen Samonds. Her paper describing the new fossils from her paleontological expeditions to Madagascar has just been published! The citation is: Samonds, K.E. (2007). Late Pleistocene bat fossils from Anjohibe Cave, northwestern Madagascar. - Acta Chiropterologica, 9 (1): 39 - 65. My three illustrations of Hipposideros besaoka, A. lingual view of right maxilla B. labial view of right dentary and C. occlusal view of dentary can be found on page 50.