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Unneeded Faunal Clades?; Maybe needs some cleaning.
Topic Started: Oct 25 2014, 10:25 AM (532 Views)
Troll Man
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So as this project progresses I've noticed lack of interest in some potential fauna groups; and as this project has progressed quite a bit, potential niches that could be filled from said neglected groups are beginning to be used up.

So I've made this thread to see if anyone has any ideas of unused groups that could be REMOVED due to lack of interest and/or animals that already fill their purpose have made them obsolete.

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Currently my votes are towards Tillodonts and Nothosaurs.

> Tillodonts mainly because no one has even mentioned them (I forgot they were even in this project for a while) and they're actually kind of boring compared to some other animals. Also the niches they can take are being taken (small herbivores currently mostly silesaurs and dichobunids and large ones are mainly non-mammalian synapsids and prosauropods).

> Nothosaurs because the niches they can take are almost nonexistent. The temnospondyls' grip on predatory aquatic niches seems to be absolute at this point.

> Phytosaurs as they have the same problem as with nothosaurs at this point; as well, they don't have much speculative possibility, especially with all these other groups currently blocking potential niches.
Isla del Mundo Perdido! Diyu! R'lyeh!

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LittleLazyLass
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I do currently have a ague idea for a phytosaur, but we could easily let the three of these go.
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Zorcuspine
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I have heard some murmurings of ideas for Phytosaurs on the Skype chat so perhaps we should leave them in at least for now. But the other two should probably go in my opinion.
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Caimännir
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Aw man, if the temnospondyls hadn't taken all the niches and we hadn't forgotten about them nothosaurs and phytosaurs could have had some interesting stuff descended from them. Oh well; I don't mind.

Also, we could keep those clades in case someone does come up with something for them in the future.
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LittleLazyLass
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There is one idea I had planned to use for nothosaurs.
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Troll Man
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Alright, I'm going to remove tillodonts from the official fauna roster, but tentatively keep nothosaurs and phytosaurs for now until further evidence and reasoning for definitely keeping or removing them.

Remember, you can suggest groups for removal in this thread, but only groups that do not have species that are approved.
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ÐK
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I recall we discussed some form of geographic partitioning between temnospondyls and phytosaurs, with phytosaurs being the more prominent semi-aquatic predators in the north and temnospondyls more prominent down south where it was colder. For example, Bog Reapers are only known from Dusa and Telu, so there's room for a large macropredatory phytosaur on Isa if this sort of partitioning is in effect, which is a concept I've actually got in the works if we want to stick with it.
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Even
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Let's stick with that (although we have to explain why the phytosaurs are localised to Isa...)
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Martin
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If they'll be a part of the project it's pretty easy to see why.They're reptiles and reptiles don't tolerate the cold as well as amphibians.
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Even
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Is the southern islands that cold though?
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Martin
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Yes.It's temperate.
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LittleLazyLass
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They should be warm enough for them.
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Even
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I would think so as well... Then again, the T-J extinction was likely caused by a cooling, and it didn't do the phytosaurs good..
Currently a part of Specworld's revival and The Dark Phoenix's Dinosaur Spec... Still open for idea exchanges and commentaries

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