The seasons are changing here in the Texas hill country.
The nights are cooler, the leaves on the pecans and sycamores are falling, yellow wildflowers like broomweed and ragweed are abuzz with busy bees and huge monarch butterflies, and everywhere you go the world is aglow with the golden hue sunlight seems to get at this time of year.
It’s my favorite time of year, and everyone is getting excited for the coming holidays.
Halloween is just around the corner, and we like getting all dressed up for the spooky holiday, even the dinos and other paleo-critters at Pete’s shop. Which one is your favorite? 😀
Count Fragilis! This fearsome master of the night is a rare coloring for Allosaurus called Axanthic, which means there is no yellow in the skin. Someone has painted the tiny horns above her eyebrows a deep red to match her costume. In the wild, this color variant is extremely rare because the yellow to red coloring on their heads is reduced to silver or black, which is not very attractive for most Allosaurus. It is a little more common for pet Allosaurus, since a lot of people think it looks pretty awesome bro.
Who’s that Pokemon? A Camarasaurus (I’m thinking his name should be Snickerdoodle) enjoys a sporty green jacket for the cooler weather. He doesn’t mind the flappy things at all, though he has tried eating them off his back once or twice already. He quickly discovered they are not tasty. Do you know which grass Pokemon he is?
Steggy Princess Ballerina! Steggy loves dressing up and having kids paint on her plates. Well, at least as much as a tortoise can “love” anything, which means standing there and letting you do it. 😀 Give her a ballerina tutu and some ribbons, though, and she’ll show off her Stegosaurus pirouette. It’s not very likely that Stegosaurus could stand on its hind legs for long, but they are masters of quick, graceful turns!
These critters were drawn for fun with no references, so inaccuracies abound. But they make up for it with cute! My personal favorite is Steggy of course. 😀
Thank you so much for stopping by! See you on October 15th for a new Fossil Friday critter! 😀
Pete's Paleo Petshop 
I had a little inner squee moment when I scrolled down and saw Ballerina Steggy. 😀 Flashback from the first Paleo Petshop illustration! She looks very dignified, haha. And that’s so cool–I’ve never heard of the term “Axanthic” before. Pretty amazing how we can discover even little details in coloration through fossils. Allosaurus totally owns the “Count Fragilis” look with her flashy red horns. 😉
Who knew Tropius and snickerdoodles could make such a great combo! I can just see all these characters in a mini Halloween edition of Pete’s Paleo Petshop.
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Thank you so much! I’m so glad you love her too! This Steggy is basically a redo of an old sketch I posted on Instagram once, and I’ve been wanting to revisit the idea for a while now. She absolutely loves the extra glitter sparkles 😀
The color for Count Fragilis is speculative, since we don’t have any fossil evidence of pattern or color yet. I really like playing with the idea of different color patterns for my pets at the shop, and I’d love to make color variation charts for the more popular ones. 🙂 I discovered the Axanthic color variation in animals from a book of ball pythons I have. It has pictures of all the variations in the ball python’s color pattern, and there’s a ton!
Heehee, I need to make more of these dressed up critters. I could do holiday specials for Christmas or Easter lol, people dress up their pets all the time! 😀
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I’m here. It’s a nice time to get to honor the Jurassic critters in costumed form I would also imagine a Bradycneme dressed as Dracula, a Meganeura appearing to look like a Yanma, a majestic Miragaia, an Archelon/Protostega dressed like a Tirtouga, and a Gigantopithecus customized to resemble a yeti. What else would you imagine, Ms. PBS?
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Hi Angel, thank you for stopping by! I think those are great costume choices. 😀 I would love to see a T. rex with a tiny cowboy hat and a bandana wrapped around his neck lol. Gargoyleosaurus painted gray and given little wings for a gargoyle costume, a prickly Heterodontosaurus with a flower costume (bonus points if it’s a grumpy critter. I would stick bunny ears on it for Easter lol ), and I would put a witch hat on Skittles. 😀 Skippy would need a dragon costume, because he’s so fierce. 😀
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This post is a bit early! When publishing a post you have to be very careful to schedule it before clicking the “publish” button, otherwise it puts the post up immediately. Lol. I hope you like the critters! 🙂
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That’ just me though
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Snickerdoodle is Tropius, and Snickerdoodle is a good nickname for one, although I tend to name the ones that I catch Snick Shack or Snackasaurus
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As I said above that’s just me though, (the whole Snack Shack, or Snackasaurus thing)
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Yes! He’s a Tropius. 🙂 Snack Shack and Snackasaurus are cute names. I named mine Snickerdoodle because his colors make me think of a cookie of that name. It’s a delicious sugar cookie with all the flavors of fall, so is even better than a regular sugar cookie. 😀
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