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Submitted: January 19
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The Rainbow Serpentby ~Qilong

Traditional Art / Drawings / Animals

Done partly in conjunction with my discussions on the possible oviraptorosaur affinities of the almost-certainly Aussie abelisauroid Kakuru kujani. Known from a broken and nearly complete tibia from southeast Australia, which was transformed into opal during fossilization, and thus preserved in many rainbow hues, this name honors the common Australian myth of the Rainbow Serpent, which in the language of the local native Guyani, was called Kakuru.

Ignore the horrible feathering and coloration, but damn! Biological exhuberance. The colors were alluding to both the name and hue of its fossils; there was a somewhat tongue-in-cheek reference to this creature being gay, but that had only to do with the Western convention of presuming "rainbows" are a gay "thing," when many cultures applied much more mystical and religious significance to them and the many hues. Indeed, in nature, the more colorful a creature, and the brighter, cleaner the colors, indicated healthiness and maleness. This was reconstructed as an avimimid back when I thought there was good evidence it was a dromaeosaur, but data currently points to it being a far more primitive, though possibly still fluffy, theropod, an abelisauroid not unlike Masiakasaurus knopfleri.

Discussion of this animal here: [link] and here: [link] (where the image was originally posted).

Edit: This was created back in 2003. I want to stress this, and note the technical skill is terrible compared to what I do now. Plus, you know, I stopped coloring about this time.

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~DinoBirdMan Jan 20, 2013 Student Artist

I just drew this one before you did.

~pilsator Jan 20, 2013 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

Awesome! I still remember this from your old qilong.8m site. I actually have to second previous comments - I really like the use of bold, flamboyant colors in this one.

Seems like, at the moment, oviraptorosaurs do have a forerunner role to advancing homosexuality-related topics in paleoart.

~Qilong Jan 21, 2013

I actually wonder why. Is it because of their more feathery, fan-like feather preservation? Short tail and feather fan seems to mean "turkey tail" or "peafowl tail" -> more exhuberant, the better! Oviraptorosaurs are odd duckies, and so often preserved in "domestic" activities, as opposed to more aggressive, "standard" dromaeosaurs, which are more popular in general.

~pilsator Jan 21, 2013 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

Interesting; this might well be true. OTOH, this might lead into a (hopefully) unintended paleoartistic rollback when homosexuality is once again identified with "peaceful, domestic" behavior. So maybe more gay carnosaurs and tyrants?

~Qilong Jan 21, 2013

Yes, that's an interesting point. Problematically, it's the birdy-types, the showy ones, that get the limelight in these affairs, because of that little trope about gays being flamboyant. Mind you, that's gay MEN. Bisexuality also occurs in nature, and there's the unsung flipside of this: When we talk about gay animals, we seem to peg on MALE-MALE homosexuality. FEMALE-FEMALE homosexuality is just as common, yet such creatures in nature might tend to be more drab, unless they involve animals that are more homogenous in appearance (coloration serves predatory or evasive purposes, less showy). Before I go for an obvious gay animal, I'm gonna want to figure out how to do with with female animals. A sort of reverse Hawkeye Test.

~pilsator Jan 22, 2013 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

I think that's a corollary of the semantics involved - most people use "gay" only when referring to male homosexuals; that's why I used the more inclusive term in my posts on your drawing; don't see why lesbian dinosaurs shouldn't be represented in paleoart. I think this would fall right into the territory of "draw 2 very big rexes if you go with the (shaky) assumption that there are 'robust' and 'gracile' sexual dimorphs, FMNH PR 2081 is the former, and female".

~Qilong Feb 4, 2013

I'm gonna have to think of an effective way to draw female-female couples, and sadly, it would not pass a form of the Bechdel test as it might require depiction of a male to distinguish the females. Who knows.

~pilsator Feb 6, 2013 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

Maybe - I do think that seeing two essentially same-looking conspecifics in any kind of sex-related behavior, by itself, is never readily understood as a depiction of homosexuality. So I guess if female-female couples require a male to understand the picture, the same would go for male-male couples, especially as cases for sexual dimorphism in non-avialan dinosaurs are dwindling anyway.

~Smnt2000 Jan 20, 2013 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

It's great to see such a flamboyant dinosaur nowadays. Maybe it's not very realistic, but damn if it's impressive

~TheRealZilla360 Jan 19, 2013 Student Traditional Artist

Absolutely love this. One of my favorite drawings you've done.

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