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Biology of a Fantasy Earth; Mammals and dinosaurs together?
Topic Started: Jul 22 2009, 07:17 PM (6,101 Views)
Black_Panther
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Hi, people.
As some of you may know (specially the ones who have seen my DA) i'm working in a fantasy world. So, in a way similar to that of 'The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island' or whatever that's called; i would like to bring some 'realism' into the project, while still keeping some of the fantasy aspects.

As a brief thing, i shall describe a few aspects of this world, that i want to focus on, to add a few realism to this thing:
-The K-T event didn't happened. So, as you may take account; dinosaurs are still around...but, during the last million years of the cretaceous, a disease swept through all the globe, killing dinosaurs except in the Americas.
-Surviving dinosaurs include dromaeosaurs, oviraptors, abelisaurs and only a surviving tyrannosaur species, the Nanotyrannus (i know it's probably a real dinosaur species; but, again, i'm sticking into the fantasy stuff), while herbivores include pachycephalosaurs, the Magyarosaurus, smaller hadrosaurs, small ceratopsians and a few ankylosaurs.
-Yes, Pterosaurs and mosasaurs are still around.

Now, the fantasy, inaccurate stuff that i hope some of you might find interesting:
-Marsupials manage to evolve, due to full extinction of dinosaurs in Australia.
-Mammals DO evolve; although, creatures like elephants, primates (with the exception of carnivore, baboon-like forms adapted to trees and a small species of lemurians that eventually evolve into humanoid creatures), horses, bears, elk, goats, cows, whales, rhinos and hippopotami never evolve.
-Creodonts are present, although, they're restricted to a small, wolverine-like species inhabiting islands in the sub-artic North America.
-Pigs are diverse, from analogues to warthogs and razorback pigs, to beasts similar to hippopotami and rhinoceros.
Also, a family of carnivore pigs inhabit eastern Europe and the Balkans: the Gorgonidae.
-Deer are present in a variety of forms, most of them inhabiting the northern hemisphere; while stocky, jungle dwelling species live in the depths of african rainforests. Gazelle-like forms inhabit the savannah.
-Felines are present in Eastern Asia and the Americas, filling the niches of extinct, larger predators. Felines range from arboreal species, to panther-like creatures as big as a Smilodon.
-Monitor lizards in africa gave rise to a family of lion-like reptilians: Manticores.
-Mustelids are way more diverse than Real world. From analogues of ferrets and martens, to bear-like species.
-South America is home to gigantic teratorns.
-Tropical coasts are inhabited by fully marine birds and penguin-like descendants of Hesperornis.
-Flightless, moa-sized birds are common in the Southern hemisphere; along with predatorial, flightless herons.
-Pinnipeds are present with a large variety of species; from seals similar to those in Real earth, to big, fully marine creatures filling the niches of antartic whales and dolphins.

And finally, civilization manages to appear due to some magical mumbo jumbo that i won't discuss, because it's totally fantastic and doesn't have anything to do with evolution.

So, what do you think?
Should i fully describe this bizarre and impossible world?
http://spidervenom022.deviantart.com

Go in there for some odd stuff that could make you puke, and ask for some free sketches. :)
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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

Also, the eggshell-thinning at the end of the cretaceous will have disencouraged large theropod forms.
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

"It is the old wound my king. It has never healed."
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Black_Panther
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cephlaken
May 28 2010, 02:15 AM
Yeah I think maniraptorans may outcompete tyrannosaurs in many places
so I think most tyrannosaurs may get a bit smaller in their size, more formidable and fast-running predators.
But larger prey CAN allow tyrannosaurs to retain their gigantic size in some corners, like your Black Dragon. Unless raptors all get as large as utahraptors, it'll be kind of hard for them to hunt gigantic hardrosaurs, therizinosaurs and ceratopsians, and since your hardrosaurs are larger than elks at the least, that'll allow larger tyrannosaurs to survive
Tyrannosaurs are divided throughout North America.
Most avityrannids (feathered ones) are restricted to colder areas. A couple of species managed to cross the Bering Strait, and are found in the Easternmost areas of Siberia, feeding off therizinosaurs and large, stocky mammals similar to rhinoceroses, known as Ice Horns (interesting point: the Siberian Ravager is a predator that possess toxic saliva, killing on a similar way that the one attibuted to Komodo Dragons).
Dracotyrannids are adapted to hunt large prey (krizanoceratopsians, macrohadrosaurs and larger cornohadrines like the the Imperial Grassbull, these ones being the size of parasaurolophus, filling a niche like that of Sabertooth cats and other large predators that rely on heavy prey), and they're mostly found in open areas like the wastelands in Montana, the great american prairies and areas in southern Mexico; with the exception of the Tezcatlipoca's Dragon, found only in mexican rainforest and being like a smaller version of King Kong's V-Rex.
Theriotyrannids are like a mid point between the other two families, being large and agile predators with lots of stamina. The only two surviving species are restricted to opposite points of the world: one being found only in the Eurasian Steppe, and the other found in Southern Mexico and Central America.

Most maniraptorans are small or mid-sized predators that fill the niche of wild dogs, jackals and hyenas; or have become scavengers, leaving large carnivore niches to big cats and Dracotyrannids.
A extremely fast dromaeosaur named the Speedah relies only in fast prey (pronghorn-like ungulates, smaller cornohadrines and deer), and it fills a niche similar to that of cheetahs.
While larger north american species are restricted to the eastern seaboard and the boreal forests, filling the niche of wolves (real wolves, actually, dire wolves; do exist in the Western seaboard and in the colder areas north of Montana and western canada, places without significant maniraptoran competitors, and having only a large tyrannosaur species, the Alaskan Saber Tyrant).

Large north american maniraptorans (the Huntsdrake, the Swamp Drake, the Jersey Devil and the Jabberwocky) are specialized in mid-sized prey (therizinosaurs, elk, large ungulates; though Jersey Devils and Jabberwockies are actually omnivorous) and are mostly found in the Eastern seaboard. Piscivore maniraptorans do exist, restricted to swamp and coastal areas.

Two larger, Utahraptor-sized (and bigger) maniraptoran species live only in South America, in the open prairies and pampas, only facing competition in the shape of large terror birds (currently developing them), large bear-like sabretooth cats and the Patagonian Dragon. A large maniraptoran has even evolved a tyrannosaur-like form, the Hell Knight; roughly the size of an Allosaurus, while the Horse Killer rivals the size of utahraptor.

Now i need to define the mammalian predators of the Americas. xD
http://spidervenom022.deviantart.com

Go in there for some odd stuff that could make you puke, and ask for some free sketches. :)
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Ook
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amazing,i like this :)
i saw somewhere picture of north american predators ant there was strange dinosaur with bat or pterosaur like wings,could you write something about this species?
Posted ImagePosted ImagePosted ImagePosted Image
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Pando
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What? That ought to be interesting.

EDIT:
My 2,800th post!
Edited by Pando, May 29 2010, 02:00 AM.
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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

(I'm still winning, Pando ;) )

I thought that pterosaurs were still around? Albeit reduced...
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

"It is the old wound my king. It has never healed."
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Pando
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(remember, I joined in February and your post count reset was in September, and we're only 400 posts difference so I'm going to overtake you soon)

Don't let JohnFaa read that!
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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

(You shall never overtake! Darn timezone advantages!)

Nah, buit i'm talking about post-KT here.
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

"It is the old wound my king. It has never healed."
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Pando
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Maybe the North American predator Bexi saw was a flightless pterosaur losing its wings.
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Ook
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thats not looking like pterosaur,i think its a theropod,maybe maniraptor,who loose feathers

Posted Image
Edited by Ook, May 29 2010, 02:25 AM.
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Pando
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Oh. What the heck is that?
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Black_Panther
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Pandorasaurus
May 29 2010, 02:27 AM
Oh. What the heck is that?
That's a wyvern.
My excuse to have dragons. Descended of maniraptorans that took the concept of base jumping, living in mountain areas and gliding to the extreme.
While most of them are endemic to the European and African mountain ranges, though the gigantic one seen in the image is an invasive species that lives in the Rocky mountains...or maybe it'll be scrapped, leaving wyverns (eurodraconians) as species only found in the Alps, the Pyreenes, the balkans, the Atlas mountains and the Urals.

And i have pterosaurs. Both flightless giraffe-like species and classical flyers. Though pterosaurs are found only in Southeastern Asia, with the largest, flightless species found in New Guinea. Think of them filling lots of niches...from piscivores, to insectivores, scavengers and large aerial predators.
http://spidervenom022.deviantart.com

Go in there for some odd stuff that could make you puke, and ask for some free sketches. :)
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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

Ah. Giraffodactyls. Oh dear.

How did they evolve?
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

"It is the old wound my king. It has never healed."
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Toad of Spades
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Are the giraffe-like forms herbivorous like giraffes too, or are they just giraffe-shaped.
Edited by Toad of Spades, Jun 1 2010, 04:55 PM.
Sorry Link, I don't give credit. Come back when you're a little...MMMMMM...Richer.

Bread is an animal and humans are %90 aluminum.
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Black_Panther
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Toad of Spades
Jun 1 2010, 03:53 PM
Are the giraffe-like forms herbivorous like giraffes too, or are they just giraffe-shaped.
Giraffe-shaped.
Kinda like this one:
http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/flightless_azhdarchid_Naish_2008_resized.jpg
http://spidervenom022.deviantart.com

Go in there for some odd stuff that could make you puke, and ask for some free sketches. :)
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Toad of Spades
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Oh. It would be interesting to see herbivorous flightless pterosaurs too. How large do the giraffe-pterosaurs get and what do they feed on?

I like the wyverns. Its a neat take on flight in a group dinosaurs that also produced feathered flight. Does it rely soley on gliding, or is it or smaller species capable of some powered flight?

Also with wyverns, does the one in the picture have really short, fine body feathers or none at all? If it doesnt have any feathers, why did it lose them?
Sorry Link, I don't give credit. Come back when you're a little...MMMMMM...Richer.

Bread is an animal and humans are %90 aluminum.
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