The Retreat

Final digipainting of Deinonychus in environment.

Rather than the cliche of hunting in a pack (which is only very weakly supported by evidence, it's more likely these dinosaurs mobbed prey in loosely coordinated groups like modern birds and reptiles), I've done a lone Deinonychus fleeing in the lumbering wake of another predatory dinosaur, the carcharodontosaur Acrocanthosaurus.

Recent studies have shown that the wing and foot claws of dromaeosaurs were ideal for climbing trees, a behavior probably restricted mainly to juveniles in larger species like D. antirrhopus. But that probably wouldn't stop a near adult Deinonychus from attempting to climb as high as it could to avoid the attention of a 6 tonne sauropod killer as it passes through a gully in search of fresh water.

This pose also allowed an homage to one of the greats of early Paleobird art: the Swiss ornithologist Manfred Reichel, who published in 1941 probably the most accurate drawings of Archaeopteryx to this day. You can see the images that inspired this painting here. [link]