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Vabmojer; Dinosaurimimidae now online. Go to Vabmojer to find out more!
Topic Started: Sep 27 2009, 03:37 PM (4,946 Views)
Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

First of all... hi! This is my first post on this forum (wow). Um, yeah. So anyway, about Vabmojer...

Vabmojer is an alien world which I have made with several of my friends. It is an earthlike planet, but we have done our best to make the animals as un-earthlike as possible. We are working on a website, although right now it is not complete. Still, feel free to have a look! (And I apologise in advance for the artwork - I'm not the best drawer ever)

Type this in the address box;

www.vabmojer.bravehost.com

See what you think!
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Rick Raptor
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1. Stop spamming.


2. I think the Dinosauromimids are a little bit TOO similar to Earth´s dinosaurs. Yes, I know what convergent evolution is, but I mean, they even have the same number of toes on their feet and even have that one small toe that doesn´t touch the ground, just like dinosaurs!
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Holben
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1. Spamming? Where?

2. Not all dinosaurs had the same amount of toes showing.
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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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

Quote:
 
I think the Dinosauromimids are a little bit TOO similar to Earth´s dinosaurs. Yes, I know what convergent evolution is, but I mean, they even have the same number of toes on their feet and even have that one small toe that doesn´t touch the ground, just like dinosaurs!


I see. Yes you're right. Sorry! I guess I was drawing too much influence from dinosaurs overall. When I update these pictures (may take a while), I'll try and de-dinosaur them. Thanks for the constructive criticism! :)
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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

But more groups?
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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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

More groups of what?
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Empyreon
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Are you plausible?

Quote:
 
I mean, they even have the same number of toes on their feet and even have that one small toe that doesn´t touch the ground, just like dinosaurs!


I just saw that as a common trait on Vabmojer, seeing as how the maws have similar feet.

I still can't shake the feeling that these critters are heavily influenced by Spore, though (nothing wrong with that). Do you guys build them in spore for reference, or something?
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food for thought
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

One critique.

This time about your taxonomy.

You say that the tree-biters and related species all constitute one genus, united by the prescence of ocelli. Yet the members of this genus are so widely varied that they seem to need to elevated to order status. They just seem too genetically dissimilar to be placed in a genus, which is the second most confining of the eight more common taxonomic rankings.

Just my two cents.
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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

Quote:
 
I still can't shake the feeling that these critters are heavily influenced by Spore, though (nothing wrong with that). Do you guys build them in spore for reference, or something?


In actual fact, no. The Novu's and Marh were influenced by hands - long story - but the rest were simply imagined by my friends and I. It's been my job to try and make them work.

Quote:
 
This time about your taxonomy.

You say that the tree-biters and related species all constitute one genus, united by the prescence of ocelli. Yet the members of this genus are so widely varied that they seem to need to elevated to order status. They just seem too genetically dissimilar to be placed in a genus, which is the second most confining of the eight more common taxonomic rankings.

Just my two cents.


Fair enough. However, I still haven't posted all of the Occellidae, so I hope you can reserve full judgement for when I do, which hopefully will be reasonably soon.
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Well, if you've got more Occellidae planned, you definantly should expand it to order.

On average, genuses have about five species. Plus they must live and act fairly similarly. I could understand if genus Occellidae was made up of about fifteen creatures with different colors and slightly different beak variations. But, based on your description, the members of Occellidae seem to be too divergent to be classified in a genus.

I'll wait for the full write-up. Hopefully that'll shed light on this subject.
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Ddraig Goch
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You're right, Canis. My fault. (Although I partly blame this on my biology lessons, in which the subject of classification was skimmed over in under a lesson.)

The order Ocellidae contains many species, but these are the five selected;

Delapors - amphibious sealion equivalent, which hunts "fish" off the coasts of Wettham.

Flappers - distantly related to the Rocksprinters, these are small herbivores with large ear flaps, used in mating rituals.

Rocksprinters - scythe-clawed herbivores, which inhabit the rock-plains of Northern Rovelin.

Tree Biters - skittish, horse-sized beasts, with massive mandibles, from the rainforests of Matulande

Bristlehairs - rodent-like burrowers, covered in coarse, spiny "hairs", whcih can be found in the Chozo Wastes.
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

If you want help with your taxonomy, feel free to give me a shout!

On that note, another taxonomy related thing: I just looked over the life that you had listed. You've placed the sordicocephalids, novuphysids, and dinosauromimids as orders. But, in my mind, I'm seeing these creatures as being way more varied and having a lot more species.

Therefore, instead of orders, may I recommend you make the three things a class under a vertebrate-like phylum? They seem to all be united by the prescence of three toes on each foot (though, in the novuphysid's case, I'm talking about their arms) and they seem to have a chordate-like body plan.

Might I suggest the phylum name Xenovertebra ("alien vertebrate")?
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Ddraig Goch
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Well, I had a "vertebrate" phylum, containing the following orders;

Uduceratoicthydae - Vabmojers "fish"
Coelorhinidae - Unique to Wettham, nectar drinkers
Pterodae - Similar to the Trunksuckers from Darwin 4, drink tree sap
Stegorhamphidae - Ground dwelling scavengers from Wettham
Novuphysidae - Strange, primitive beasts, usually omnivores
Profanidae - Repugnant herbivores, including the massive titans
Sordicocephalidae - Maw-headed carnivores
Icthyodae - Aquatic ocean-dwellers, some freshwater
Ocellidae - Varied species, united by presense of ocelli
Pteroneurodae - Winged insectivores, almost equivilent to birds
Pstticocephalomimidae - Herbivores and Omnivores with parrot-like beaks
Chelonomimidae - Shelled herbivores
Hydrosauridae - Aquatic carnivores (with the exception of the Kangarooasaurus)
Sauridae - Reptile like creatures

And other extinct "vertebrate" orders.

(PS The Dinosaurimimidae is a suborder within the Sauridae order. It can be found with the Lacertidae, Cephalaspidae, and Dicephalodae genuses)
Edited by Ddraig Goch, Nov 30 2009, 03:39 PM.
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Well, thanks for the info. That changes everything.

You're taxonomy is pretty well solid. Just remember:

Domain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_(biology)
Kingdom: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_(biology)
Phylum: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phylum
Class: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_(biology)
Order: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_(biology)
Family: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_(biology)
Genus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genus
Species: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species
Edited by Canis Lupis, Nov 30 2009, 07:39 PM.
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Empyreon
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Are you plausible?

Do those links talk about how many different kinds of a smaller category are usually found in a larger one, or how much differentiation can be expected between categories? Because that's something that I'm hoping to brush up on myself...
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food for thought
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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

That link doesn't really explain what a domain is ...
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