tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.comments2024-03-18T09:44:41.095+00:00ShukerNatureAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15628598508836601012noreply@blogger.comBlogger4337125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-47933157459015985532024-03-18T03:38:16.368+00:002024-03-18T03:38:16.368+00:00I'm a 62 year old Australian and that book was...I'm a 62 year old Australian and that book was a big part of my life in the late 60s. Thank you very much for taking me back to my childhood!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-2844011263496193012024-03-09T02:27:28.094+00:002024-03-09T02:27:28.094+00:00Dr Karl Shuker, it would be awesome to see a post...Dr Karl Shuker, it would be awesome to see a post in the future about the mysterious and quite incredible Urufere of South America’s Amazon jungle in Brazil and Guyana. Reported from the Wai-wai people the creature is said to be a very large land carnivore like a crocodile with big teeth and a powerful booming roar and very vibrant colors like a Jaguar. Not a lot I could find about this cryptid but likely still extant but critically endangered, also sounds like it’s a surviving land crocodile known as a sebecid like barinasuchus.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-14357542165089057452024-03-08T15:47:18.435+00:002024-03-08T15:47:18.435+00:00Indeed! Though it could be another type of crocodi...Indeed! Though it could be another type of crocodile that evolved a bipedal stance, very intriguing find. Also that is quite fascinating how rauisuchians looked more like the old fashion art of dinos, which is quite interesting.<br />Also I haven’t heard about this artist before, I’m surprised I haven’t yet because wow! This artwork is incredibly epic, and totally awesome! Also true that, that Cryolophosaurus art piece is really cool! Very awesome seeing snowy owl like plumage and coloration and marking inspiration for the Cryolophosaurus, very fitting. And the art style is also really quite awesome as well. Also really cool that the tyrannosaurs and microraptors are also inspired by distinct and cool bird species, also about the sauropods that’s amazing, lizards, swans, and geese inspiration sounds quite awesome, and looks really epic as well. Also on the topic of cryptids Wonder what the mokele mbembe might be? Sauropod? or something with Similar in morphology to a sauropod?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-30549484744215042482024-03-08T15:26:26.221+00:002024-03-08T15:26:26.221+00:00Very true indeed! There’s quite a lot more diversi...Very true indeed! There’s quite a lot more diversity of unique crocs during the Cenozoic than expected. And more to be discovered, there’s even a new ziphodont fully terrestrial crocodile from the Pleistocene related to Quinkana that is yet to be published there’s a preview paper on it called “A new ziphodont eusuchian from the Pleistocene of Queensland, and implications for Australasia's ziphodont crocodylian diversity”<br />https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336485688_A_new_ziphodont_eusuchian_from_the_Pleistocene_of_Queensland_and_implications_for_Australasia's_ziphodont_crocodylian_diversity<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-46161686196204908112024-03-07T18:07:18.236+00:002024-03-07T18:07:18.236+00:00"there is a common tendency among local non-s..."there is a common tendency among local non-scientific people who intimately share their lives alongside large, potentially dangerous creatures to give a completely separate name to exceptionally large specimens of such a species from the name that they give to normal-sized specimens of that same species, treating the outliers as a fundamentally different animal type from their typically-sized brethren."<br />I'm sure this is true, but I don't think science itself is not entirely immune to making this distinction. For how long was the grizzley bear classified as a separate species to the North American brown bear?Ethan Azariahnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-43240981422148916622024-03-07T12:47:46.518+00:002024-03-07T12:47:46.518+00:00Now there are even more youtube rabbitholes to go ...Now there are even more youtube rabbitholes to go down! It looks like you don't even have to go back to the Triassic to find unusual crocodile species that receive curiously little attention from popular culture.Simonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02957730344128441993noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-22159527291347950962024-03-07T12:26:08.616+00:002024-03-07T12:26:08.616+00:00I had no idea that any rauisuchians made it as far...I had no idea that any rauisuchians made it as far as the Cretaceous, someone joked in the comments to PBS Eons' video about rauisuchians that they looked more like old fashioned reconstructions of dinosaurs than it turns out that actual dinosaurs did. I guess a lot of people have a difficult time adjusting to imagining dinosaurs looking more like modern day birds than lizards?<br /><br />By the way if you are not familiar with palaeo-artist Johan Egerkrans, check out his work ASAP. He does complex, humourous and colourful illustrations of dinosaurs that look more bird-like than lizard-like, often focusing on less well known species. For example his tyrannosaurs are clearly inspired by vultures, his deinonychi look like giant roadrunners, his microraptors like a cross between rooks and magpies, even sauropods which he depicts as more lizard-like than other dinosaurs he gives still traits clearly reminiscent of geese and swans.<br /><br />My favourite has to be his illustration of Cryolophosaurus, a theropod dinosaur native to Antarctica, which he gives similar plumage and colouration to a modern day snowy owl!Simonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02957730344128441993noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-46799736536241518032024-03-07T05:34:22.738+00:002024-03-07T05:34:22.738+00:00I purchased this book from our school book fair wh...I purchased this book from our school book fair when it first came out in the late 70s. I still own my original copy and have read it to my children over the years. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-2561070146784210282024-03-06T20:14:52.928+00:002024-03-06T20:14:52.928+00:00Thanks! Yeah, dwarf crocodiles are quite an intere...Thanks! Yeah, dwarf crocodiles are quite an interesting croc species, there’s ones that live in caves and are genetically distinct from the dwarf crocs in the rainforest on the surface and are orange, eating just bats, alge, and crickets. A lot of mystery about those crocs. Also dwarf crocs are heavy armored and even have armored eyelids which is pretty cool. And the Congo dwarf crocodile is the most vibrantly colored species with copper golden yellow brown colors and bronze. And some are more yellow gold. There’s a documentary on YouTube about the Congo dwarf crocodile from living zoology and there is also cool footage of the dwarf crocodile, also some cool footage of the dwarf crocodiles from a documentary called cave crocs of Gabon, and there are some interesting clips on the smithsonian channel on YouTube with the dwarf crocs hunting on land and in the water like an alligator snapping turtle. Also very true indeed, certainly a peculiar name like the giant dwarf crocodile sure sounds perplexing, I guess the reason is that dwarf crocs Are the only modern representatives of osteolaeminae clade of crocs. Also another osteolaemine crocodile that is also sometimes called a giant dwarf crocodile is voay robustus of Madagascar, which was a 16 foot horned crocodile with similar ecology to the dwarf crocodile and Cuban crocodile, and spending a lot of time on land hunting terrestrial prey and prey in the swamps. Also voay robustus was also living with and coexisted with the Nile crocodiles which swam to Madagascar thousands of years go. Also Quite interestingly it looks very similar to a Cuban crocodile in morphology but being much more robust. Convergently evolved Similar niche as the Cuban crocodile and dwarf crocodile mainly hunting terrestrial prey, but also hunting in the water, Swamps, and streams. Though interestingly Cuban crocodiles in the Bahamas and Dominican Republic were living in fully terrestrial environments from stable isotopic data from the bones found in the blue holes. Wonder if voay robustus was living in fully terrestrial ecosystems or more so in certain localities were the water was less abundant with only terrestrial prey. Also it’s possible that voay robustus could still persist today in Madagascar in remote swamps, and evon hekkala research on the horned croc of Madagascar and other crocs found it persisted much more recently than thought, and that local people distinguished two distinct crocodiles species living in Madagascar. Also a paper on the most recent study on the horned crocodile which is quite intriguing https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.25367Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-74289012994584121182024-03-06T17:11:06.030+00:002024-03-06T17:11:06.030+00:00👍 Indeed! Also thanks, There sure is a lot of uni...👍 Indeed! Also thanks, There sure is a lot of unique species of crocodilians more than I initially thought.<br /><br />Also that’s awesome, PBS Eons’ video are really great, a lot of things I learned about as well with some of those unique crocodilians. Also those are some really cool types of crocodiles, <br /> thalattosuchians are a very cool and intriguing group of marine crocs, convergent with the famous mosasaurus, also interestingly there was a marine gharial that live in New Guinea during the Pleistocene and possibly the Holocene. Though wasn’t quite as specialized as thalattosuchians with the tail flukes, flippers, and more streamline with heavier reduced armor. <br /><br />Also the Rauisuchians are another really cool, and fascinating group of crocs. There was those Bipedal ones, and others that were herbivorous, terrestrial, heavily armored, and agile. <br />What’s also intriguing is that the Triassic Bipedal crocodiles actually made it to the Cretaceous from fossil track ways found that was made from a bipedal crocodile in South Korea called Batrachopus grandis. Ceruleannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-21092603766352546442024-03-06T11:56:49.734+00:002024-03-06T11:56:49.734+00:00Unfortunately I was only able to make my above com...Unfortunately I was only able to make my above comment trying to sign into my gmail account as anonymous. Mark AmbrusAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-49341513878104204002024-03-06T00:02:51.988+00:002024-03-06T00:02:51.988+00:00https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkwhKoJ_O1Qhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkwhKoJ_O1QAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-27875967313914470432024-03-05T18:36:06.449+00:002024-03-05T18:36:06.449+00:00Are there any academic papers on the Bronze Age tr...Are there any academic papers on the Bronze Age trade in Bird-of-Paradise skins? The title slips my mind, but I seem to recall that there was at least one, in an obscure, hard to get, journal.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-27209238738599674452024-03-05T17:31:09.649+00:002024-03-05T17:31:09.649+00:00Thanks for the links and more theories, it pleases...Thanks for the links and more theories, it pleases me to encounter someone who's an even bigger nerd about weird prehistoric crocodile species than I am.<br /><br /> I discovered the entire topic through PBS Eons' videos about thalattosuchians (When Crocs Took to the High Seas), rauisuchians (When Dinosaur Look-A-Likes Ruled the Earth) and others.Simonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02957730344128441993noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-92091482175641829822024-03-05T17:26:10.154+00:002024-03-05T17:26:10.154+00:00Don't worry about going on a tangent, I find a...Don't worry about going on a tangent, I find all the information about dwarf crocodiles quite interesting. And amusing that there used to be an animal people call a "giant dwarf crocodile".Simonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02957730344128441993noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-10201048273359927812024-03-04T17:38:53.510+00:002024-03-04T17:38:53.510+00:00Also regarding the possibility it could be a mekos...Also regarding the possibility it could be a mekosuchine crocodile, interestingly there was a fossils found of a mekosuchine relative based on phylogenetic studies. Called “Crocodylus" megarhinus from Eocene Egypt, though also through phylogenetic studies it’s placed outside the genus crocodylus in many recent phylogenetic studies. <br />Also could be as mentioned another unknown Crocodylomorph that is unknown from the Cenozoic era. <br />Also regarding mekosuchines which were present in Australia, New Guinea and Oceania. Mekosuchus itself was a fully terrestrial carnivore that had a similar ecology niche to monitor lizards and were even semi arboreal, or very good climbers like monitor lizards. It had very robust limb bones and muscle attachments, which resembles those of monitor lizards, and theirs a really cool video on YouTube about this, and talks about other terrestrial mekosuchines of Oceania called Bio-geographical questions of large reptile dispersal across Australia and the South West Pacific. Source <br />https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iMgaOexQuhI&pp=ygUYTWVrb3N1Y2h1cyBzb2lyaCBwYWNpZmlj<br />Shows and Talks about mekosuchus limb bones an it’s resembles and Similarity to monitor limb bones at 47:38 in the video <br />Also besides mekosuchus, volia, trilophosuchus, and Quinkana itself we’re also fully terrestrial carnivores. Though Quinkana was larger at 3m to 6m and was far more specialist for life on land and had ziphodont dentition like theropod dinosaurs such as allosaurus and like sebecids such as barinasuchus. It also has a modified pelvis like postosuchus for a pillar stance, and like sebecids as well and plannocranids such as boverisuchus. Also mekosuchus, volia, and trilophosuchus has other adaptations for terrestrial predation. https://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app61/app001342014.pdf<br /><br />Also in the past Cuban crocodiles lived in fully terrestrial ecosystems in th Bahamas and Dominican Republic and preyed on ground sloths based on isotopic data from Cuban croc Bones found in blue holes <br />Source https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275271413_Domination_by_Reptiles_in_a_Terrestrial_Food_Web_of_the_Bahamas_Prior_to_Human_Occupation<br />https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329847371_The_Cuban_Crocodile_Crocodylus_rhombifer_from_Late_Quaternary_Underwater_Cave_Deposits_in_the_Dominican_Republic<br /><br />Also in regards to mekosuchus, it’s very likely mekosuchus could very likely still persist today in New Guinea, and perhaps even the Solomon Islands and other South Pacific remote islands. It’s small, fully terrestrial, and a very good climber, and a ecological equivalent to a monitor lizard. Also new species of monitors have been found in new Guinean as recently as 2023, and giant 3 foot arboreal rats found back in 2017 in the Solomon Islands. So it’s likely there might be a new species of persisting mekosuchus on one of these islands one day, would br an incredible find! Just as finding the gbahali. Also it makes sense there hasn’t been reports of mekosuchus since no one has asked local people of small land crocs, since land crocodiles are surprisingly obscure, and local in New Guinea call monitor lizards tree crocodiles, so that add to the confusion. <br />ceruleannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-87598536354106087002024-03-04T14:43:51.601+00:002024-03-04T14:43:51.601+00:00Great post about the gbahali ! Really awesome to h...Great post about the gbahali ! Really awesome to hear more about this cryptid, a very cool and unique species of unknown megafauna, would be Awesome discovery! Certainly needs more conservation surveys in Liberia, which could eventually find the enigmatic gbahali. On the identity of the gbahali or what kinda crocodilian it could be, it also could be a close relative of the dwarf crocodile osteolaemus, which comprises of three distinct species, the African dwarf crocodile osteolaemus tetrapsis from Gabon, parts of central Africa, and the cameroon, the Congo dwarf crocodile osteolaemus osborni from the Congo basin and parts of the Cameroon. And a third species osteolaemus sp. yet to be officially named from west Africa such as Liberia, Ghana, and Gambia. https://www.amnh.org/research/science-news/2008/dwarf-crocodiles-split-into-three-species<br />https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257796285_Genetic_differentiation_of_the_African_dwarf_crocodile_Osteolaemus_tetraspis_Cope_1861_Crocodylia_Crocodylidae_and_consequences_for_European_zoos<br />Dwarf crocodiles are the second most terrestrial, and also among the most terrestrial crocodilian species on the planet currently know, while Cuban crocodiles are the most terrestrial species yet known. Dwarf crocodile inhabit rainforest habitats, small streams in the rainforest, ponds, and sometimes adjacent rivers. And also forage on land in the forest looking for terrestrial prey and also eat a lot of millipedes, and other terrestrial prey, and also crustaceans, and freshwater species, more so during the wetter months, while during the dry season when no water is around continue to feed and forage on terrestrial prey, and or estivate until the rains return. <br />Also regarding the Nile crocodiles, I’m unaware of Nile crocodiles inhabiting west Africa, from what I’ve read only the west African crocodile crocodylus suchus is present in west Africa, though crocodylus niloticus could be inhabiting parts of the county in small numbers perhaps, or more abundant. There’s a book on crocodilians called “biology and evolution of crocodylians” which has the ranges of the two crocodylus species the Nile, and west African croc, as well as the three species of dwarf crocs, and the two slender snouted croc species on page 11 https://books.google.com/books?id=0mYlBgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=crocodiles+evolution+and+biology&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwilmZS-2NqEAxW0I0QIHb2YCicQ6AF6BAgNEAM#v=onepage&q=crocodiles%20evolution%20and%20biology&f=false <br />Also apologies for going an a tangent,<br />Regarding what the gbahali could be, it’s possibly it could be an evolved relative or descendant of the giant dwarf crocodile from Miocene Kenya called kinyang<br />https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/two-newly-discovered-giant-dwarf-crocodile-species?amp<br />The gbahali could also be a descendant of the fully terrestrial sebecid crocodiles which were present in Africa at a time, could be a species that evolved a more semi aquatic lifestyle.<br />. ceruleannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-8170321670735619022024-03-04T13:57:28.807+00:002024-03-04T13:57:28.807+00:00I think that I have found the same paper online by...I think that I have found the same paper online by Schlawe and Wozniak from 2010 as was sent to you. The authors seemed to be unaware of the existence of the watercolour in the Yale Center for British Art upon which the engraving was based and because they were unimpressed by this engraving they suggested that the watercolour that you have shown should be the iconotype instead. I also see that they have reproduced this watercolour courtesy of the London Natural History Museum.<br /><br />I had not until now seen any reference to the NHM having had any of Smith’s work. According to Sotheby’s most of this was posthumously given to and then apparently sold by the Plymouth Institution (now Athenaeum). Rothschild might have bought this and perhaps other similar watercolours since he seems to have been particularly interested in the the horse family and then bequethed it to the NHM. I assume that the NHM still has this and maybe other watercolours by Smith.<br /><br />R.e. the specimen itself, it is referred to on page 276 in “Catalogue of the Specimens of Mammalia in the Collection of the British Museum” by John Edward Gray published in 1850 as follows: -<br /><br />“LeVaillant, as Col. Smith observes, only saw and did not possess the Ane Isabelle. The specimen in the collection of the British Museum described and figured by Col. H. Smith was certainly only a young Quagga in a very imperfect condition, having lost nearly the whole of its fur before it was stuffed. It was presented by Dr. Burchell as the skin of a Quagga.”<br /><br />https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/75207#page/300/mode/1up<br /><br />So perhaps it was destroyed on the grounds of it being in very poor condition, maybe after it was superseded by another specimen.<br /><br />Gray also refers to this specimen as being “pale brown” in pages 246 to 247 of Part Two of Volume One of the Zoological Journal published in June 1824.<br /><br />https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/88099#page/278/mode/1up<br /><br />Going on Smith’s watercolours and what he wrote about the specimen in his book on horses however, it seems that there were mutant yellow or golden quaggas just as yellow or golden striped plains zebras have been recorded more recently.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-82178079019653728402024-03-03T20:28:15.912+00:002024-03-03T20:28:15.912+00:00Never heard of the ghabali before, thanks for post...Never heard of the ghabali before, thanks for posting Karl! I find those weird Triassic crocodiles an endlessly fascinating topic, and consider them curiously underexposed in popular culture next to dinosaurs, pterosaurs, prehistoric marine reptiles and the like. It is hence extremely interesting that people today report seeing animals unattested to by mainstream science, that from descriptions sound extremely similar to those weird prehistoric crocodiles.Simonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02957730344128441993noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-28213250658224373072024-02-22T12:25:14.924+00:002024-02-22T12:25:14.924+00:00When my sister was still very young we lived in C...When my sister was still very young we lived in Cheshire in a semi detached house backing onto some bushes, then a broad field and trees in the distance. My sister, who was less than five, started talking about old doggie Whimpusha (she never spelled it so I'm going off memory of her pronunciation). She said he lived in the bushes at the back. Whatever it was, it was real to her and she was really fond of it. Once we caught her crouched in conversation with it. Odd thing was, none of the rest of us saw it, not even a possible glimpse through the bushes. Querying the neighbours came to the same result. My Dad, who could never leave anything alone, began to whack the bushes with a stout stick, only stopping when my Mum advised him it was distressing my sister. "Don't! You'll make old doggy Whimpusha leave"! My Dad than asked her to draw it, examined the results of her childish scrawling, and declared it was some kind of ferret. We moved out not long after and as we all grew, I asked my sister what old doggy Whimpusha was. She thought about it and said, "He was a dog, very small and white and used to murmur at me"! It was probably a ferret like animal. Still, it was a strange do!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-4866484835253025442024-02-21T21:12:21.085+00:002024-02-21T21:12:21.085+00:00I've now obtained the 2010 German paper (court...I've now obtained the 2010 German paper (courtesy of German friend Markus Hemmler - thanks Markus!), which confirms that the painting is indeed an undated watercolour by Hamilton Smith, and which remained unpublished until it appeared in this German paper, so I've now updated my above article accordingly.Dr Karl Shukerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06222845702628862829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-11806839331916432322024-02-21T19:42:59.698+00:002024-02-21T19:42:59.698+00:00Yes indeed, thanks for your interesting thoughts a...Yes indeed, thanks for your interesting thoughts and information. Yes, I saw the Messybeast inclusion of the two images but it contains no source info or background details for them. There is a German paper that includes the second illustration, which I hope to obtain, as that might give an original published source for it; alternatively, as you suggest, it may indeed have remained unpublished throughout the 19th Century.Dr Karl Shukerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06222845702628862829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-79956561216836125492024-02-21T19:41:02.996+00:002024-02-21T19:41:02.996+00:00Thanks for the wonderful article. I have seen this...Thanks for the wonderful article. I have seen this beautiful animal LITIGON. <br />LITIGON was extremely big and was quite astonishing to watch. <br />I wish to see the species back once again. <br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-50536589716974830802024-02-21T17:42:24.569+00:002024-02-21T17:42:24.569+00:00I remember seeing it (or a facsimile) in a magazin...I remember seeing it (or a facsimile) in a magazine imported from the US when I was young sometime in the 1970s! The story was it came flopping and croaking out of a hole dynamited in some rock to make room for a railway. The men shot it and then put it up against the hut where they ate and rested and stood showing off with it, carrying the weapons they used to carry out the deed. It seemed to be stretched out, it's wings were unnaturally expanded. I remember showing my now late Dad and him drily commenting what marvellous things they can do these days with camera trickery. It's an odd do, people remembering things that never were! Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-70538240657090313702024-02-21T14:13:49.082+00:002024-02-21T14:13:49.082+00:00I believe that the second illustration of the “isa...I believe that the second illustration of the “isabelline quagga” that you show here is not actually an engraving but an original <br />watercolour. It also looks to be very much in the style of Charles Hamilton Smith himself. Finally as an original watercolour it seems to have remained unpublished during the Nineteenth Century at least. Hence I do not think that there is any book that it actually came from.<br /><br />I see from Wikimedia Commons that the original watercolour by Smith of the engraving is now held by the Yale Center for British Art.<br /><br />I also see that both the engraving and the watercolour of the “isabelline quagga” that you show appear on the website www.messybeast.com<br /><br />I do not know where this watercolour is now held but perhaps the owner of this website might be able to help you.<br /><br />I was made aware through an online newsletter from the Rhino Resource Centre by Kees Rookmaaker that several similar Smith watercolours of other animals with the background blocked in have been and are being sold by the Arader Galleries in Philadelphia. Yet more were presented as the Coulton portfolio to the Zoological Society of London by their former secretary the late Professor McNeill Alexander.<br /><br />As to the fate of the specimen it might just have been passed onto a local museum but who knows.<br /><br /> I hope that this helps!Mark Ambrusnoreply@blogger.com