"I Left my Heart in Pikermi" | Awarded as "Honorable Mention" at the X CIID 2022, International Dinosaur Illustration Contest, Lourinhã Portugal.

You can't help falling in love with what you're studying.
This was the feeling that I wanted to give this painting.
Passion, and dedication, are two feelings that both paleontologists and paleoartists know very well.
We both spend plenty of time studying a certain species, or an environment, or a period of time that we create a unique and special bound to the subject of our studies.
While working on this painting, I felt something like that for extinct felids and for the Miocene.

The more I studied these subjects, the more I was forging a connection to them, leaving a "piece of my heart" in faded places that only my mind of paleoartist could reach, seeing wonderful creatures that now belong to deep time.

"I Left my Heart in Pikermi" was presented at the 10th edition of the International Dinosaur Illustration Contest, organized and hosted by GEAL Museu da Lourinhã, in Lourinhã, Portugal.
The painting was awarded with a Honorable Mention. During the summer of 2022 it has been exposed in the Museum's outbuilding. In 2023 a 1:1 scale print has been exposed in Dino Parque Lourinhã for an exhibition about Ice Age and Cenozoic mammals.

"I Left my Heart in Pikermi" depicts a scene of the fauna and flora of Pikermi (Attica, Greece) during the Late Miocene, around 9-5,3 million years ago.

At that time nature was quite different from modern Greek wildlife. Even if many plant species present at that time, still live in today's Europe, the majority of the animal taxa that inhabited the Mediterranean area during the Turolian, are today extinct.

During the Late Miocene, Greece was more similar to a mosaique of savannas and open woodlands, inhabited by an unusual fauna for Europe's modern standards.

The Pikermian fauna included giraffes, proboscideans, antelops, rhinos, wild horses, chalicotheres, monkeys, hyenas, sabretoothed cats and giant tortoises.

Here below are shown some of the species of that time.

Evening is the perfect time to spot big cats in their environment. Large felids tend to avoid the hottest hours of the center of the day, they become more active when, at sunset, it all cools down.
The European Miocene Safari starts with one of the most extraordinary encounters: a group of the sabretooth-cats Amphimachairodus giganteus, feasting on a fresh-killed subadult giraffe Bohlinia attica.
Amphimachairodus was a very widespread genus during the end of Miocene (Turolian). It inhabited Eurasia (from Greece to China) and North America.
The European species, A. giganteus was a huge big cat, that somewhat exceeded the size of a modern lion or tiger.
It also resembled a modern pantherine cat in the proportions and in the overall aspect.
Based of the fauna and of the type of vegetation present in Amphimachairodus environment, we can infer that it preferred open woodlands/to savannah habitats. It could also have a lifestyle more similar to the one of modern lions.
Open habitats are harsh environment, where competition for resources is fierce and where preys are often big and strong, and often mammal predators show pack behaviors to face these difficulties.
So I imagined Amphimachairodus to have lifestyle based on small family groups.

Below some details of Amphimachairodus pride.

From left to right:

- Subadult female snarling

- Subadult male snarling

- Subadult male eating

- Adult female eating

Sunset is a good part of the day to spot also large herbivores.
This Bohlinia attica is returning from the water pond where it refreshed from the heat of the day.
This Bohlinia is probably heading to a more repared place where it will spend the night. 
Modern giraffes don't sleep much, they sleep on average 30 minutes every night.
Being very close to modern giraffes it is highly probable that also Bohlinia giraffes used to take some real quick naps instead of sleeping for hours.
The reason why giraffes spend so little time sleeping is that, when they doze off they are exposed and vulnerable to predators, maybe more than other smaller ungulates that can find some protection from vegetation.
During the Miocene, the environment of Europe was more similar to the one we find in modern Kenya or India. The perfect environment for giraffes. 
Originated in Africa during Miocene, Bohlinia genus migrated also in Europe, where B. attica originated.

B. attica was pretty common in South western Europe. The site of Pikermi in Greece is one of the most rich sites in this giraffe's fossils.
Being the closest to modern ones, Bohlinia giraffes could be very similar in life appearance.
The most evident difference was is that Bohlinia giraffes had a more elongated muzzle and they had only two ossicones on their foreheads. Modern giraffes have from 3 to 5 ossicones on their heads.
Also in size, Bohlinia giraffes were pretty similar to moder ones. It is estimated a maximum height of 5 meters.

Elephants are pretty strange animals, they present unique and totally unusual features.
But back in the Miocene, there used to be even stranger elephants.
In the golden light of the sunset a huge Deinotherium proavum bull is taking a stroll, to reach the nearest water pond to have some refresh.
His huge and bulky body is covered in some pale dust, that makes appear the giant probiscidean like a humongous ghost walking around the savannah. 
Being so large keeps Deinotherium "safe" from predator attacks, but it is always better to keep an eye open. Today the Amphimachairodus pack killed a young giraffe, tomorrow who knows?
Deinotherium were not precisely elephants. They looked like elephants, they were related to elephants, but they weren't elephants.
They were Proboscideans, an order of mammals that includes modern elephants, which are the only living members left. 
The most striking feature of Deinotherium were surely the two massive curved tusks (lower incisors) that came out parallely from the chin of the animal.
The uses of these tusks could not be so different from the ones of modern elephants, so defense, digging, sexual display and pushing objects.
Instead we don't know much of the trunk. Of couse Deinotherium had a trunk but we ignore how long it would have been or the precise shape.
It is possible that, having a longer and more mobile neck than modern elephants, the trunk could have been shorter. This is the most modern interpretation.
Deinotherium proavum (maybe a junior sinomym of D. giganteus) lived in Europe during the Turolian (late Miocene). It probably coexisted with other Deinotherium species, but it is still uncertain.
In could reach 3.60 m in height and exceed 10 tonnes in weight.

Alarmed by the hustle and bustle of the Amphimachairodus pride, a small group of antelopes interrupts its browsing activity to check the situation.
The antelopes group is formed all by adults: a male and three females. 
Those are members of one of the most widespread genus of antelopes during the European Miocene: Miotragocerus.
Miotragocerus genus' distribution went from Spain to Iran, and it included at least 3 species.
Miotragocerus gaudryi, the one shown in today's post, was the most recent and it occupied the eastern part of the distribution (from Greece to Iran and Ukraine) but it has also been found in France and Spain.
Miotragocerus gaudryi was a medium sized antelope, around 100 cm at the shoulder and males were larger than females.
Being a Boselaphini antelope, it was probably close related to modern Nilgau, a cattle-sized indian antelope.
I reconstructed with a unique coat pattern similar to Nilgau and similar to Tragelaphus antelopes, in particular Nyala and Sitatunga.
Miotragocerus was probably a browser, it means that it preferred leaves over grass. We could infer this habit by studying the tooth morphology and isotopes. 
A 2010 study on the paleoecology of herbivores of Pikermi and Samos (Greece) analyzed the lifestyle and feeding habits of several herbivores including Miotragocerus and it concluded that the environment and faunistic composition of ancient Pikermi must have been very similar to modern Indian woodlands.

Some Miotragocerus details.

From left to right: 

- Buck close up

- Buck with does

- Does

Ciconia gaudryi lived in Greece during the Turolian (late Miocene).
We don't know much about it except that it is one of the first and the largest stork of genus Ciconia ever found.
It could have been somewhat larger than modern Ciconia storks, reaching maybe 150 cm in height.
I reconstructed it pretty similar to modern white storks but adding a glossy and iridescent plumage on the back and on the breast.
This feature is present in some modern days Ciconia storks like the Black stork for instance.

Mesopithecus pentelicus | Titanochelon sp.
As it happens today, some plants species can attract a large number of different species. This occurs in particular with fruit-trees. Not only large herbivores gather around these trees to eat their leaves, twigs ls fruits, also birds, monkeys and any other animal that can climb or reach the higher brances, take advantage of this important food source. 
The Carob tree (Ceratonia sp.) is one of the most abundant spontaneous (at least in the oriental part) fruit-tree in the Mediterranean basin. Its presence in the region dates back even before the Miocene epoch.
I imagined that also back in the days it could provide to a large number of critters some succulent and nutrient pods amd beans. 
Unseen by the Amphimachairodus pride and to the majority of the viewers, a male Mesopithecus pentelicus, is sneaking among the branches of a large carob tree, to have a snack. 
Mesopithecus was a genus of Colobinae monkeys widespread in Eurasia during the Miocene and the Pliocene.
It is possible that could resemble modern days rhinopithecus and douc langur. That's why I reconstructed with a unique pattern, similar to modern days Asiatic colobines.
The Carob tree not only provided the monkeys some snacks but also so tortoises. 
The area of Pikermi was inhabited by some kinds of tortoises, including the humongous Titanochelon.
Under the carob tree a subadult of this massive tortoise, lingered a bit too much eating carobs anf now it has drawn the attention of a huge Amphimachairodus, that curious, is now studying the giant reptile. 
The shell of a Titanochelon could reach 2 meters of diameter. This young individual is still half of the maximum size.

Below Some details.

From left to right:

- Mesopithecus close up

- Titanochelon sp.

- Titanochelon's shell close up

Usually when we think about an extinct environment we tend to give to the animals the priority.
We forget that an environment is an ensemble of multiple elements, and animals often are placed at the distal part of a larger system.
The silent and essential engine that moves an ecosystem is made by plants. 
Even when we reconstruct a paleo environment we spend the majority of the time paiting, sculpting, placing plant material.
Animals are often the cherry on top.
Pikermi's flora during the Miocene, was pretty similar of the one that we find in modern southern Europe, even if the climate was definitely hotter thank today's Greece. 

Genera like Ulmus, Platanus and Populus were pretty common in the Europe of Miocene and they surely were part of the diet of the giant herbivores of that time. 
The aspect of the vegetation that used to differ the most from today's southern Europe landscape was vegetal composition.
Even if many of today's taxa were already present, a hotter climate meant more open habitats like open woodlands and savannahs and less forests.

Below some species included in this Pikermian biota reconstruction.
From left to right:

- Ulmus sp.

- Planatus sp.

- Ceratonia sp.

- Populus sp.

- Taraxacum sp.