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Mastodon

Mastodon line art illustration (click image to enlarge)

Mastodon full color illustration (click image to enlarge)

Artist's notes:

The Mastodon was completed on 6.18.2010. It is one of the first extinct animals I'd ever drawn. In general, there's a odd freedom when drawing extinct animals, because there's no real consensus on what their fur, skin or coloration might have been. Although the anatomy is pretty much set. The drawing is based on a foundational sketch by the talented paleoartist Carl Buell.

Information about the Mastodon:

Mastodons are extinct mammals from the order Proboscidea. They are believed to have lived up until about 11,000 years ago. Just exactly why they went extinct is a matter of debate, but it seems a number of factors, such as climate change, hunting by primitive humanoid races and perhaps even a small meteor strike may have factored into their demise. While they were alive, the Mastodon inhabited much of the world, including what is now Asia, Africa, Europe and North and Central America. In recent years, there has been much talk about the possibility of resurrecting the species, because scientists have worked out part of the genetic structure of the animal.