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Strange dinosaur adaptations; Who thinks these are plausible?
Topic Started: Feb 12 2010, 08:59 AM (8,960 Views)
Margaret Pye
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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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seascorpion
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Why Can't I Hold All These Mongols?

nice work
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Pando
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Finally, someone does therizinosaurs.
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Margaret Pye
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Have you read Specworld? It's got quite a few therizinosaurs.

I think mine are more fun :-) (I haven't finished the interesting ones yet), but the Spec ones are really beautifully illustrated.
My speculative dinosaur project. With lots of fluff, parental care and mammalian-level intelligence, and the odd sophont.
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Pando
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Isn't it the Speculative Dinosaur Project?

And what are the dominant herbivores of this world?
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Ook
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specworld is closed?so there are no any updates
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Margaret Pye
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They're redesigning it behind the scenes. Ask JohnFaa for details, he's involved.

Most of the herbivores over 5 kg are ornithopods, I just haven't written up the ornithopods yet. Therizinosaurs are also pretty common, and tend to be bigger, but they're not as diverse. There are just a few ankylosaur species left, and a few herbivorous ceratopsians (I mentioned flametigs), and probably a few giant mammals and herbivorous oviraptorids or troodonts somewhere but I haven't designed any yet.
My speculative dinosaur project. With lots of fluff, parental care and mammalian-level intelligence, and the odd sophont.
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The Dodo
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Are you going to use any herbivorous Notosuchians?
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Margaret Pye
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Yes, I'd better research the more interesting crocodilians.
My speculative dinosaur project. With lots of fluff, parental care and mammalian-level intelligence, and the odd sophont.
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Margaret Pye
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Otoraptors

Troodonts have always had excellent hearing. The otoraptors took things a step further by fashioning external ears out of small, closely packed vaned feathers. Since troodonts have asymmetrical ears, one ear (the right, except in occasional mutants and the Mirror Svart) points upwards and the other points sideways and often slightly downwards. The ears are attached to short muscular pedicles which allow them a wide range of movement.

Nearly all otoraptors are nocturnal small-game hunters, often with some omnivory thrown in, and they’re most successful at small sizes. They’re scrawny, scurrying things: long swan-like neck, long sharp goanna muzzle, long skinny arms ending in opposable thumbs and vicious hooked claws. Otoraptors have enormous forward-pointing eyes, and have reduced their colour vision in favour of excellent low-light vision. They all have vertical slit pupils.

Svarts, Noctoraptor

The onyx svart N. myovoris and the sooty svart N. phytodon are annoyingly hard to tell apart. In a dead or exceptionally cooperative specimen, the teeth are recognisably different: sooties have classic coarsely serrated teeth, whereas an onyx svart’s teeth are less serrated, sharply pointed, and point backwards. Otherwise you’re relying on the sooty’s brimstone yellow eyes versus the onyx’s chartreuse, or the sooty’s slightly heavier build. Only the voice is reliably different – onyx svarts have a loud, musical three-note whistle while sooty svarts have a rough, coughing bark.

Both are scrawny, lanky little things weighing about four kilograms. The sexes are identical. Svarts are entirely covered in short, silky black down, with long shaggy arm feathers and a fluffy bushy tail. They have long sharp faces with round, wide forward-pointing eyes. The ears are triangular, pointed and a couple of inches long.

Svarts are active at night and rest in burrows during the day. Onyx svarts eat rodents and insects, which they snatch with the hands or mouth. Sooty svarts eat about 75 % small animals and 25 % fruit. Both take occasional carrion and are a threat to poultry.

Svarts are monogamous, although they often change partners from year to year. They nest in burrows, laying four to eight round, white eggs in a pile of their shed feathers and their prey’s fur (they’ll often enlarge abandoned coney burrows, or kill a coney and then take over its burrow). The young are altricial and need to be fed and cleaned.
My speculative dinosaur project. With lots of fluff, parental care and mammalian-level intelligence, and the odd sophont.
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Toad of Spades
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Got more ideas to throw around.

- a crocodile-like ceratosaur that is semi-quadrapedal.

- small herbivorous armadillo-like dinosaurs descended from dwarf ankylosaurs.

- small burrowing ornithopods with short limbs and spade-like hands. They live in prairie dog-like towns.

- a rainforest dwelling theropod with short limbs and lives in deep leaf litter. When an adult, it lives a lifestyle similar to an antlion larva.

- an anteater-like theropod descended from alverezsaurs. They have longer arms, one large thick hook-like claw per hand, and get around by quadrapedal movement. They don't knuckle walk, but walk on their wrists.

- a blind cave theropod the size of a medium-sized dog descended from primitive coelurosaurs that lives deep in desert caves. The caves are stable and have been around for an extremely long time. They also extend for hundreds of miles. Because of this it has had plenty of time to survive and adapt extremely well to cave life. It has pale featherless flabby skin with thick fat stores. It has tiny almost non-existant eyes not visible under the skin. It senses prey with highly developed whisker-like feathers on the snout, acute hearing, and various heat sensors. Its hips are adapted to able to walk in an errect gait or in a sprawling lizard-like stance. The arms and legs are of equal length. It has large hooked claws to climb on cave rock and to grasp prey. It crawls along walls and cave ceilings to eat various other cave dwellers by dropping on them or by pouncing on them from behind. It occasionally makes trips to the cave entrance to eat those that try to escape the desert heat during the dry season. However it rarely does this because there is plenty of prey when compared to other cave systems. 50 million years of stable caves have produced a large scale cave ecosystem based on bacteria eaters and root systems from the surface. Though it doesn't eat that often and is often forced to survive on its fat stores during times of hardship. It is the top predator of these cave systems.
Edited by Toad of Spades, May 10 2010, 12:37 AM.
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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The Dodo
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I like the Otoraptors, their like toothed owls.
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Margaret Pye
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Tsasaka, Pseudotitan rufus and P. viridans


Thanks for the idea, Toad!

Some art

The last true sauropods were hunted to extinction a thousand years ago, but these quadrupedal therizinosaurs do a pretty good impersonation. The 15-ton red tsasaka is found on prairies and the 10-ton green tsasaka on the tundra, and the two can apparently interbreed to produce fertile offspring.

Tsasaka resemble tailless, beaked sauropods covered in long fluffy down. Their necks are highly flexible and long enough to groom every part of their bodies, and are normally held vertically when not feeding (again, independently evolved accessory hearts in neck.) All four legs are graviportal pillars. The hands are reduced: the second and third fingers are little inward-pointing stubs, but the outward-pointing thumb is still powerful, with a long slashing claw used to deter predators. Both species are nondescript dark brown apart from a small head crest. The red tsasaka has three modified feathers, resembling iridescent scarlet discs bouncing on wires, arranged longitudinally along the top of its head. The green tsasaka has a complex arrangement of similar feathers, creating one large green circle supported transversely above its head by several wires.

Both species are gregarious, nomadic grazers. Think “titanic flatulent lawnmower” and you’ll have a rough idea. They generally pair for life, and will often continue to hang round with their parents as adults, but other social bonds are loose and temporary.
Tsasaka incubate only two basketball-sized eggs at a time. They are laid and hatch a few weeks apart, giving one chick a head start in growth: the older chick is always fed first, and the younger one often starves in bad seasons. Young tsasaka are fairly helpless for a few months. Once they’ve grown to pig-size, they start walking and eating grass. They’re finally weaned and more or less independent (although still only a quarter of adult size) at two or three years, and reach puberty at 10-15.

Adult tsasaka don’t have many predators. Dakirs - large packs of dakirs - are the main threat. Red tsasaka are occasional prey for tundra Snow Queens, usually in the middle of winter. Other predators are only a threat to young ones seperated from their parents.
Edited by Margaret Pye, May 10 2010, 05:01 AM.
My speculative dinosaur project. With lots of fluff, parental care and mammalian-level intelligence, and the odd sophont.
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The Dodo
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Why did it lose it's tail?
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Margaret Pye
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A) If it walks on all fours, the tail's not necessary for balance.

B) Therizinosaur tails were getting shorter and shorter anyway. I felt like extrapolating a bit.

C) Makes a fun change, and why not?

The Nightstalker, Apterostrix noctivagus

The nightstalker, Vistland’s third otoraptor species, is bigger and less cute. In fact it’s downright disturbing-looking – a gaunt black theropod with huge, bulging pale eyes and needle-pointed teeth so long that they interlock and project out of the closed mouth. And it communicates by screaming, usually in the middle of the night.

It’s only thirty kilos or so, but between the stalky legs, the elongated neck and tail and the generally hypergracile build it’s over two metres long and more than a metre high at the hip. The ears are a good six inches long, oval with pointed tips. Apart from the weird teeth it’s basically a svart elongated and scaled up.

Despite the looks and voice, nightstalkers are harmless to anything bigger than a rat. They stride through long grass at night, snatching small animals and picking fruit, and sleep in thickets during the day.
My speculative dinosaur project. With lots of fluff, parental care and mammalian-level intelligence, and the odd sophont.
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Carlos
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Quote:
 
A) If it walks on all fours, the tail's not necessary for balance.


But even modern birds keep their tail. For a dinosaur, it is rather necessary since it is there were the leg muscles that pull the leg down/backwards are attached
Lemuria:
http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/5724950/

Terra Alternativa:
http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/forum/460637/

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