Illustration Livyatan melvillei vs Megalodon. (these days known as Otodus megalodon).

Personal project, later used for the whale exposition in Historyland, Hellevoetsluis, The Netherlands.

The digital illustration is 40cm by 70cm on 300 DPI.

2019

The illustration itself took around one week per illustration but that does not include the sketch time.

The Livyatan melvillei was reconstructed in a previous project and used for this illustration. On this moment the consensus about the megalodon is that it was a shark that looked like the white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) but was bigger and stockier in build. It is, always, interesting to speculate about two big predators in one fauna and their relation to one another. This was the reason for making the illustrations.

All the information for the Livyatan melvillei was given to me by Mr. K Post. He is the person that has found the Livyatan melvillei in Peru.
Aquatic mammals, A. Brazier Howell.
Cetean Paleobiology, Felix G.Marx, Olivier Lambert and Mark D, Uhen,
The rise of marine mammals, Annalisa Berta,
The walking whales, J.G.M. Thewissen,
Die Cetaceen, E.J.Slijper,
Walvissen & dolfijnen, M. Wurtz and N.Reppetto,
Whales of the world, Spencer Wilkie Tinker.
The biology of sharka and rays, A.Peret Klimley,
Handbook of paleoichtyology, R.Zangerl.
Sharks in question, V.G.Springer and Joy P.Gold,
Megalodon, Mark Renz.