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| Strange dinosaur adaptations; Who thinks these are plausible? | |
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| Topic Started: Feb 12 2010, 08:59 AM (8,966 Views) | |
| Margaret Pye | Feb 12 2010, 08:59 AM Post #1 |
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So, as I said on the introduction thread, I haz a maniraptoran sophont. I've been fleshing out a world for them to live in. And I've been violating the phylogenetic bracket appallingly - in ways that strike me as plausible, but I've been doing it a lot and I wanted some second opinions on the plausibility of some of my critters. I've put fur on a lot of ornithopods, but that doesn't violate the phylogenetic bracket since Tianyulong. (I was writing furry ornithopods before Tianyulong, mind you - how else would Leaellynasaura have avoided freezing into a little hypsilophodont icypole? Especially since it didn't have growth rings in its bones, and therefore probably didn't hibernate.) Things I want criticism and suggestions on, mostly dinosaur-related: Opposable digits. I've been handing out opposable digits like candy, and with blithe disregard for phylogeny (I figured they could evolve repeatedly and independently.) Bipedal browsers get opposable digits with which to hold browse. Most of my small-game hunting coelurosaurs have hands like three-fingered hawk claws. Most of my grazers evolved from browsers, and most of my big-game hunters evolved from small-game hunters. Direct brooding by a lot of ornithopods (I don't know what the ceratopsians and ankylosaurs do, I'll have to figure that out: I think sauropods are extinct, perhaps very recently as a result of sophont activity, and coelurosaurs are the only surviving theropods). No, there's no fossil evidence for it. But it seems enough of an improvement on the megapode model that I'd assume, given enough time, it could evolve. Is this stupid? (The obvious way to get round "It's too heavy to sit on eggs!" is to have them lie next to the eggs rather than on top.) Pouches. I've given a lot of random dinosaurs (again, it seemed a simple enough and useful enough adaptation to evolve repeatedly and independently) some kind of skin pouch in which to incubate their eggs. A lot of the bipeds, including the sophonts, have "saddlebags" either side of the ribcage. Venom. I have a clade of venomous coelurosaurs. In most of them, the venom is quite weak: it's the slashing sharklike teeth that do the real damage, and the vasodilator, anticoagulant venom just makes the wound bleed more so that the prey collapses faster. (Yep, idea stolen direct from Komodo dragon.) I'm thinking about creating some with more powerful venom, and possibly with a fancier venom delivery system than "it's in the spit so it gets all over the teeth." In particular, I was thinking about cheetahs, and I came up with a concept for a Coelophysis-shaped creature adapted for camouflage, stalking and incredible sprinting abilities. Except when it caught up with its prey, instead of wrestling it, it'd bite it once and let go - and the prey would run for another minute or so, then drop dead. External ears. Yes, on dinosaurs. Specifically, on troodonts. Troodonts seem to have had very sensitive hearing, and asymmetrical ears like owls, so it seems reasonable to give them an external sound-focussing device. And yes, I could just give them an owly facial disc of vaned feathers, but external ears didn't seem that improbable. They aren't complex. They're strategically placed flaps of skin, plus a bit of cartilage stiffening and, if you're feeling fancy, some muscle. Asymmetrical external ears, obviously. One pointing up, one sideways. And a non-dinosaurian issue: I want to replace rabbits and hares with bipedal saltorial versions. Do you think I'm better off with wallabies, or with very large jerboas? (I also want some saltorial-biped mammalian predators and omnivores, most of them under 5 kg: they don't have to be related to the kangabunnies, and I don't know whether they're marsupials or rodents either.) |
| My speculative dinosaur project. With lots of fluff, parental care and mammalian-level intelligence, and the odd sophont. | |
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| Holben | Feb 13 2010, 10:34 AM Post #16 |
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Rumbo a la Victoria
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Owls? Haven't maniraptorans taken the nocturnal small animal eater niche? |
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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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| Margaret Pye | Feb 13 2010, 10:44 AM Post #17 |
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Only the flightless nocturnal-mouser niches. Cats and foxes do not displace owls: ergo, troodonts will not displace owls. I've been a bit lazy with the birds - half of them are just Earth species, sometimes with a dye job and a different name (for instance, the critter in my avatar got turned lurid crimson pink with black wings and renamed "leejay"). Some do have teeth, and I'm still figuring out what to do with the hesperornithids - I like hesperornithids. Edited by Margaret Pye, Feb 13 2010, 10:45 AM.
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| My speculative dinosaur project. With lots of fluff, parental care and mammalian-level intelligence, and the odd sophont. | |
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| Holben | Feb 13 2010, 10:52 AM Post #18 |
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Rumbo a la Victoria
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Don't make carnivores analogous to troodonts, troodonts were much better adfapted to small animals and had larger eyes. |
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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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| Margaret Pye | Feb 13 2010, 11:18 AM Post #19 |
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Better adapted to catching small animals than, say, Felis silvestris? How? And yes, the troodonts do have better eyes and worse noses, but I think that'd make only minor differences to the ecological niche, and I don't think it'd bring them into competition with owls. Different hunting method, perhaps, but I think it'd be roughly ecologically equivalent. |
| My speculative dinosaur project. With lots of fluff, parental care and mammalian-level intelligence, and the odd sophont. | |
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| Holben | Feb 13 2010, 11:24 AM Post #20 |
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Rumbo a la Victoria
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I'm not so sure. While felines (your example) can climb trees and often take down birds, troodonts would be much more limited to the forest floor and slightly larger animals. |
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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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| Venatosaurus | Feb 13 2010, 01:01 PM Post #21 |
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HAUS OF SPEC
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Actually I don't see why some species couldn't venture into arboreal habits, they could inherit zygodactyl feet. Some venturing in arboreal cat-like niches similar to Ocelots, or the non-feline Fossa,Maybe with some bigger Jaguar and Leopard-like forms... hell one lineage could even specialize as Woodpecker/Aye-Aye-like forms. |
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| Holben | Feb 13 2010, 03:02 PM Post #22 |
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Rumbo a la Victoria
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Quadropedal or semi-quadropedal troodonts, are they what you're suggesting? |
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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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| Carlos | Feb 13 2010, 03:22 PM Post #23 |
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Adveho in me Lucifero
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Also note troodonts were OMNIVORES; most likely they occupied the same niches as modern foxes |
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Lemuria: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5724950/ Terra Alternativa: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/forum/460637/ My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Carliro ![]() | |
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| Holben | Feb 13 2010, 03:29 PM Post #24 |
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Rumbo a la Victoria
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City foxes have a different niche to rural ones, do you mean they were scavengers, like urban foxes, or omnivores like rurals? |
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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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| Carlos | Feb 13 2010, 03:32 PM Post #25 |
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Adveho in me Lucifero
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Troodontids were pretty much omnivorous, with genera like Troodon being quite herbivorous appearently |
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Lemuria: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5724950/ Terra Alternativa: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/forum/460637/ My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Carliro ![]() | |
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| Venatosaurus | Feb 13 2010, 03:47 PM Post #26 |
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HAUS OF SPEC
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No, they're bipeds, their arm and shoulder structures were too specialized to adapt to a quadrepedal stance. |
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| Holben | Feb 13 2010, 04:01 PM Post #27 |
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Rumbo a la Victoria
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I was pondering a feline-analogue troodont. |
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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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| Venatosaurus | Feb 13 2010, 04:22 PM Post #28 |
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HAUS OF SPEC
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It can still analogolous to a cat, just with a dinosaurian design. |
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| Holben | Feb 13 2010, 04:23 PM Post #29 |
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Rumbo a la Victoria
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Okay. So like a troodont running along branches and jumping from tree to tree?
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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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| Kamidio | Feb 13 2010, 06:00 PM Post #30 |
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The Game Master of the SSU:NC
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The sauropods were on the way out after the end of the Jurassic. Seems okay that they died off.
Edited by Kamidio, Feb 13 2010, 06:00 PM.
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SSU:NC - Finding a new home. Quotes WAA
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