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| Palaeophidae | |
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| Topic Started: Nov 21 2010, 06:24 PM (985 Views) | |
| Carlos | Nov 21 2010, 06:24 PM Post #1 |
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Adveho in me Lucifero
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I feel somewhat sad that this goup has been so horribly overlooked. I mean, isn't it amazing that marine boas bigger than 9 meters long colonised the seas during the late Cretaceous and survived the KT event, surviving for yet several tens of million years until their extinction at the beginning of the Oligocene? Basically, in the age of mammals marine squamates that big weren't gone, and even if mosasaurs had died their serpentine relatives kept their reign going on in the oceans even when whales took the seas. Indeed, the Eocene's oceans were sauropsid infested, with dyrosaurid crocodilians and champsosaurs swimming around as well. What if palaeophids hadn't disappeared? What if marine anaconda relatives kept evolving, alongside cetaceans? At the very least, the result would be similar to this: http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&global=1&q=squamozoic#/dw1pnq However, I think they could go further. Recall Spec's Leviathan? ![]() I think this is a very plausible result for sea snakes. Modern anacondas and pythons retain vestigial backlegs, and in at least one palaeophid genus these backlegs were quite well developed, presumably because mating in the sea was harder. Thus, they could evolved flippers from these backlegs, using them to steer. |
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| dialforthedevil | Nov 22 2010, 03:58 PM Post #2 |
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Frumentarii Administrator
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Ahhhh perfect! Thank you John i have been looking for an ancestor for sea serpents
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| Scrublord | Nov 22 2010, 04:14 PM Post #3 |
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Father Pellegrini
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And what were these things eating? |
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My Projects: The Neozoic Redux Valhalla--Take Three! The Big One Deviantart Account: http://elsqiubbonator.deviantart.com In the end, the best advice I could give you would be to do your project in a way that feels natural to you, rather than trying to imitate some geek with a laptop in Colorado. --Heteromorph | |
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| Rick Raptor | Nov 22 2010, 04:25 PM Post #4 |
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Adolescent
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Great, another group of prehistoric reptiles which survived the non-avian dinosaurs I´ve never heard of Heck, it isn´t even on Wikipedia.I´m just wondering how did they manage to live alongside their Mosasaur cousins... Wouldn´t there have been some competition between them and smaller Mosasaurs (since they would probably both feed on fish and small sea reptiles)? |
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| Carlos | Nov 22 2010, 05:53 PM Post #5 |
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Adveho in me Lucifero
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Modern sea snakes are essencially sea cobras. These ones were sea boas/anacondas. Sadly, little is known about the habits of these critters (and even more sad is how few people are willing to study these underated animals; Darren Naish hasn't still posted his promised blog post about them), so I don't know how and what they hunted. The only genus of the Cretaceous known (courtesy of a poor fossil record) was a pelagic swimmer, so whatever niche they were occupying was compatible with the presence of mosasaurs. They obviously outlived their marine cousins, most likely thanks to the fact they could also live in freshwater habitats, and in the Eocene they reached quite a lot of species-wise diversity, the forms over 9 meters still common after whales got Basilosaurus big. My theory on their lifestyle is that, much like modern sea snakes, they were venemous, their poison likely having been redeveloped from non-venemous ancestors, since boas are their closest relatives nowadays; constriction is virtually useless on fish. Their tendency to reach huge sizes may also mean that they were capable of scavenging; few snakes do it, but it is plausible. The biggest ones likely were capable of swallowing the average sea turtle as well. Edited by Carlos, Nov 22 2010, 05:58 PM.
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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 | Dec 31 2010, 01:06 AM Post #6 |
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HAUS OF SPEC
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That's one thing that Terra Lacerta was lacking ! Sea snakes ! I wonder how they'd fair if the temperature was equal to that of today's (though I may just keep the world warm) . Imagine warm-blooded snakes ! |
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| Cephylus | Dec 31 2010, 01:29 AM Post #7 |
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Torando of Terror
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How about making a Terra Lacerta topic here? |
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Spoiler: click to toggle
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| Venatosaurus | Dec 31 2010, 03:54 PM Post #8 |
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HAUS OF SPEC
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I would actually like to start one, but I took a step back to really see what's going on in the world of T.L and grasp a new idea for it. Nemo gave me some good advice, but I see I'm gonna have to research a bit more, especially on the possible new leg-joint arrangement idea he told me I should try (he didn't give me an idea for for a new arrangement, he just told me try to figure one out). So yeah, it's gonna take a while, though I keep picturing these awesome sea snakes and possible new plants |
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