Abysm of Ages
Added 2025-08-28 02:30:20 +0000 UTCLaelaps, (now Dryptosaurus), was one of the first theropods to be discovered along with Megalosaurus. Unlike Meg, however, Laelaps was reconstructed fairly early on as being bipedal, already a step in the right direction in regards to the modern understanding of theropod anatomy.
The first panel of page two is a little compositional reference to master Charles R Knight's 1897 painting Leaping Laelaps, often credited as the first "naturalistic" painting of prehistoric animals as dynamic and active. While a beautiful painting, and a landmark in paleo-culture, I think this read rather discredits how alive and equally dynamic the depictions from even ten years before often found themselves being. Not always, but certainly often. It wasn't until Knight, however, that any depictions of prehistoric animals felt tangible, or like they could possibly be real animals, and not just phantasmagorical dragons of a bygone, primordial age.
