The Last Flight of Sordes Pilosus

The Last Flight of Sordes Pilosus
from the Pterosaur Series of Paintings
by Anthony Egan 1920 - 2003
Acrylic on board

Shortly after my art purchase from the British Heart Foundation I splashed out the cash once more on this original painting by the British Surrealist Anthony Egan.  On his death Mr Egan donated many original works to the 'Age UK Suffolk' Charity.

Now I know surreal and abstract art is not everyone's cup of tea but I know what I like and bearing in mind my passion for ancient life and fossil artifacts, this painting meets all my intellectual and artistic needs.

Anthony Egan was born in Haslar, a small village in Hampshire but spent most of his childhood with his four siblings in London.

During the Second World War he enlisted in the Royal Air Force and served his country for twenty five years.  Anthony studied art at the Ipswich School of Art and went on to teach at Westbourne High School.  During this period of his life he produced hundreds of completed works.  He drew influences from a wide range of subjects, notably the two Great wars, the micro and macro nature of organic cells, black holes in space and other wonders of the natural world.  He travelled extensively in Africa, the Middle East, the Greek Islands and mainland Europe.  He was a noted historian, particularly of the American Civil War and loved the Theatre, Jazz and classical music. He was clearly interested in fossils and must have been aware of the discovery of the pterosaur Sordes Pilosus which was made in 1960's

Sordes had a 0.63 m (2 ft) wingspan. The wings were relatively short. It had a slender, not round, head with moderately long, pointed jaws. The skull was about 8 cm (3.2 in) long. Its teeth were widely spaced, small and slanted. It had a short neck. It had a long tail, accounting for over half its length, with at the end an elongated vane. Unlike many pterosaurs, it had no head crest..

The genus is based on holotype PIN 2585/3, a crushed relatively complete skeleton on a slab. It was found in the sixties at the foothills of the Karatau in Kazakhstan. The fossil shows remains of the soft parts, such as membranes and hair. This was the first unequivocal proof that pterosaurs had a layer of fur. The integument served as insulation, an indication the group was warm-blooded, and provided a streamlined flight profile. The hairlike structures (pycnofibres) are present in two main types: longer at the extreme part of the wing membrane and shorter near the body. Sordes probably ate small prey, perhaps including insects and amphibians.  

Sordes Pilosus
Late Jurassic (Oxfordian - Kimmeridgian)

Credits: Information concerning fossil Sordes Pilosus from Wikipedia.