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| Alterniverse; A world where dinosaurs, mammals, notosuchids, pterosaurs are dominant | |
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| Topic Started: Aug 5 2010, 05:55 AM (4,698 Views) | |
| Cephylus | Aug 5 2010, 05:55 AM Post #1 |
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Torando of Terror
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Okay here is a project I've been working on for some time. It has a very common theme, what if the asteroid never crashed at the end of Cretaceous and if dinosaurs had survived as the dominant clade on Earth. I already have a website on wikidot but I haven't yet discussed it much on this forum. I've been working on it alone except for some help from by paleontology crazed friends but now I'm posting it here for some suggestions and corrections since I want to make this project as plausible as possible and my ideas are limited. So here are the general settings for this project: - First, most importantly, the asteroid missed and so dinosaurs went on as the dominant clade. Although many dinosaurs were killed off during many extinction events in the Cenezoic, they still are the dominant land vertebrates in the present. - As you can guess, mammals don't fare well as they do in HE but they are still one of the secondary major clades and a successful group. They fare far better than their Mesozoic ancestors with dinosaurs. However, mammals are still the prey and dinosaurs are still the predators..... with some exceptions - Pterosaurs are one of the other successful clades. They fill various flyer niches occupied by birds in HE. There are some flightless animals that fill large omnivore/carnivore niches. - Mosasaurs aren't so lucky in this New World. They survive and thrive in some places, but they are not the dominant sea vertebrates and their diversity reduced as they are more and more pushed off the stage by marine mammals and penguin-like sea dinos. - Champsosaurs are still around and some managed to quite successfuly establish themselves in semi aquatic/ marine niches. - Notosuchids are another successful clade and they range from small insectivores to gigantic dinosaur guzzling sabre toothed apex predators. All of them are heterodont and they distinctly resemble mammals. So what do you think of this world? I'll be posting more specific stuff when this draws some attention..... Also I need help with those Latin names for classfication.....
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| The Dodo | Aug 7 2010, 01:23 AM Post #31 |
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Prime Specimen
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On the subject of Unenlagiines, are you going to have any flying theropods descendant from non-avian dinosaurs like with Rahonavis? |
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| Cephylus | Aug 7 2010, 02:28 AM Post #32 |
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Torando of Terror
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I haven't thought of that yet.... I only focused on the pseudo-tyrannosaurs and some small omnivore Unenlagiines.... but flying ones should be possible since some unenlagiines were very bird-like. I don't think truly flying like birds, but gliding probably. thanks for the idea! And also does anyone have suggestions? suggestions are welcome... |
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| Cephylus | Aug 7 2010, 09:46 AM Post #33 |
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Torando of Terror
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Okay... got some more ideas for this 1. a hyena sized carnivore looking like a cross between a civet, creodont and canid, adapted to scavenging and taking down middle-sized herbivorous dinosaurs. 2. small anurognathids fast-winged and with sharp triangular teeth that eats small animals and invertebrates usually but will swarm in packs to devour far larger animals such as small to middle-sized dinosaurs (got this from primeval season1..... I loved those flying piranha pterosaur critters) 3. gigantic apex-predator hypercarnivorous heterodont notosuchids with double sets of sabre-teeth and a hunting style similar to that of tyrannosaurs. The animal hunts megaherbivorous therizinosaurs, ramming its armored snout into the prey's side and taking a single bone-crushing powerful bite to fell the prey. 4. an alternate group of neornithe terror birds inhabiting the Americas, with a battle-ax beak and shrunk forearms to grasp their prey and long legs for long-distance running. |
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| dialforthedevil | Aug 7 2010, 02:13 PM Post #34 |
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Frumentarii Administrator
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How about feline-like oviraptors? |
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Please come visit A Scientfic Fantasy http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/3433014/1/ ALSO!!! JOIN THE NEW RPG SITE!!! FOR ALL MEMBERS!!! IM GOING TO RUN MA GLOBAL SIMULATORS THERE!!! http://s4.zetaboards.com/jasonguppy/index/ Join the Campaign to save minotaurs from extinction!!! (include this in your signature to show your support!) | |
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| Rick Raptor | Aug 7 2010, 02:37 PM Post #35 |
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Adolescent
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Hyaena-like Oviraptors would be better. The feline niche would be taken by dromaeosaurids or tyrannosaurids. |
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| Toad of Spades | Aug 7 2010, 10:05 PM Post #36 |
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Clorothod
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I have some ideas. - A nocturnal nightjar-like pterosaur - A large-eyed flying nocturnal dromeosaurid - A small burrowing notosuchian with mole-like forelimbs - A pig-sized insectivorous ceratopsian that uses a very strong beak to break open termite mounds then laps them up with a long tongue with a sticky spoon-like depression on the end |
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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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| Cephylus | Aug 8 2010, 12:59 AM Post #37 |
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Torando of Terror
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I agree with RIck that oviraptorosaurs would occupy more hyena like niches than feline ones... I have pseudo-tyrannosaurs and other large dinosaurs to occupy the feline niche and a clade of arboreal dromaeosaurs to occupy a jungle feline niche. However, I still really like the idea of tyrannosaur-like dromaeosaurs... And thanks Toad for the suggestions!! I think that nightjar pterosaur would probably be an anurognathid.... I have those in my project mostly cause Johnfaa had that topic on anurognathids surviving into Cretaceous. I should prabably have Unenlagiines to occupy that nocturnal dromaeosaur niche. and I like that insectivore ceratopsian idea!! it seams plausible enough, since I once designed an armadillo analogue ceratopsian for another project. I'm probably going to use it. |
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| dialforthedevil | Aug 8 2010, 03:49 AM Post #38 |
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I thought maybe a Mussasaur descendant would also make a good anteater equivalent
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Please come visit A Scientfic Fantasy http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/3433014/1/ ALSO!!! JOIN THE NEW RPG SITE!!! FOR ALL MEMBERS!!! IM GOING TO RUN MA GLOBAL SIMULATORS THERE!!! http://s4.zetaboards.com/jasonguppy/index/ Join the Campaign to save minotaurs from extinction!!! (include this in your signature to show your support!) | |
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| Ook | Aug 8 2010, 04:13 AM Post #39 |
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not a Transhuman
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i doubt that dinos will fit all these niches..anteatng lizard could be easily sme squamate,or land croc,armadillo like insectivore also dino,squamate or something like that what about hawk like pterosaur(with hawk like beak) which live on some isolated island?(hawai,NZ,etc.) also pengun like pterosaur,which live on tropical coasts |
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| Rick Raptor | Aug 8 2010, 09:17 AM Post #40 |
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I think JohnFaa once said that a penguin-like pterosaur would lose too much body heat over its wing membranes (or something like that). Birds have better chances at becoming penguin-like. How about marine non-avian dinosaurs? Spinosaurs look like good candidates, as they were already semi-aquatic during the Middle Cretaceous. And from the places where they were found (Africa, England, Brazil) we don´t have any Late Cretaceous rock formations, so we don´t know whether they really went extinct during the Middle Cretaceous or possibly survived till the end. |
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| Cephylus | Aug 8 2010, 10:23 AM Post #41 |
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Torando of Terror
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History of Alterniverse: Paleocene The Early Paleocene is a bit drier and cooler than Creataceous, although the temperatures started rising sharply at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary. The climates became generally warm and humid worldwide, with subtropical vegetation thriving worldwide. The Poles are cool and temperate, the Equator is tropical, the areas north and south of the Equator hot and arid, more northern and more southern areas warm and temperate. The fauna of Earth is generally similar to that of late Creataceous, with few differences, since the fatal asteroid that caused such a catastrophe in Home Earth did not impact Earth in Alterniverse. The Earth is more or less completely dominated by old-world dinosaurs similar to Creataceous dinosaurs than those of the present. Herbivorous dinosaurs are very like the very familar forms from the Cretaceous; lambeosaurine hardrosaurs, extra-large titanosaurs, large chasmosaurine ceratopsians with astoundingly colored huge frills and proud horns. There are no browsing herbivores yet as grass won't be around for a long time and all herbivores have a primitive digestive system, which serves as a disadvantage for these ancient group of dinosaurs and cause the emergence of new herbivorous groups and some herbivorous mammals as well. For carnivores,late Cretaceous lineages of therapods reach the peak of evolution and reach never-before-seen gignatic sizes. Carcharodontosaurids rule as apex predators in the Southern Hemisphere, gigantic carnivores similar to their Cretaceous ancestors like Giganotosaurus. These gigantic Carcharodontosaurids hunt the impressively extra-large titanosaurs and ceratopsians dominating the Southern Hemisphere. The Northern Hemisphere is dominated by the extinct tyrannosaur lineages such as Tyrannosaurines and Albertosaurines. The most impressive of the Vastatoeversor Imperator, the last and the largest of the great tyrannosaurines. Abelisaurs still occupy the niches of middle-sized and smaller carnivores under the reign of Carcharodontosaurids. Pterosaurs are present, the group also not too different from Cretaceous ancestors but a bit more diversified and faring better in their habitats. The seas are still dominated by the ancient mosasaurs with their elongated bodies and fierce teeth. Mammals are still a diminuitive clade, with some ancient marsupials and placentals. |
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| dialforthedevil | Aug 9 2010, 11:35 AM Post #42 |
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Nice the thought of absolutely gigantic dinosaurs is just awesome
Edited by dialforthedevil, Aug 9 2010, 11:35 AM.
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Please come visit A Scientfic Fantasy http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/3433014/1/ ALSO!!! JOIN THE NEW RPG SITE!!! FOR ALL MEMBERS!!! IM GOING TO RUN MA GLOBAL SIMULATORS THERE!!! http://s4.zetaboards.com/jasonguppy/index/ Join the Campaign to save minotaurs from extinction!!! (include this in your signature to show your support!) | |
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| Toad of Spades | Aug 9 2010, 11:56 AM Post #43 |
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Clorothod
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How big do these huge titanosaurs and carcharodontosaurids get? |
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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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| Cephylus | Aug 10 2010, 09:45 AM Post #44 |
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Torando of Terror
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Thanks Dial and Rick marine non avian dinosaurs are interesting and might fit but I dunno what clade they should be in; I think spinosaurs would still have a hard time surviving cause of the fish-eating Unenlagiines, like Austroraptor The titanosaurs and the carcharodontosaurids and the tyrannosaurs all reach the peak of their size in Paleocene, since Paleocene belongs almost entirely to the dinosaurs. However, no dinosaurs as large as this are seen on Earth from then on, as the titanosaurs, carcharodontosaurids and tyrannosaurs get a lot smaller and the lambeosaurines and chasmosaurines are slowly driven to extinction by new browsing herbivores later. The titanosaurs get as large as 27 tonnes and the carcharodontosaurids grow up to 8~9 tonnes and 15 meters. |
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| The Dodo | Aug 10 2010, 07:23 PM Post #45 |
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How about a marine non-theropod dinosaur? Maybe a sea-cow like descendant of a hadrosaur or a ceratopsians. |
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