#gastralia
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You know what messes me up?
This dinosaur skeleton is incomplete. But, it doesn't look that way to us, because the parts it's missing are parts we don't have.
See how there are ribs on the bottom? Those are called gastralia. That's right, dinosaurs had ribs on their stomachs as well, and modern crocodiles and alligators still have them! (Also, notice that the ribs keep going to the hips instead of stopping above the waist. This is also true of modern birds, and why a bird can't have a concave stomach!)
Next, notice that ring floating in the center of the eye socket? That's called a sclerotic ring! Fish, reptiles, birds--with the exception of mammals (and, oddly enough, crocodilians), pretty much all modern vertebrates still have them! It's literally an eyeball bone. Afaik we haven't found a T-rex specimen with any intact, but since we've found them in other dinosaurs, it's very likely they had them too.
So, keep that in mind next time you see a dinosaur skeleton.
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Thank you for you blog! I love it so much - I come here daily to read your latest posts.
I'd love to own a snake but alas, I currently live in New Zealand so no snakes for me.
Do you have cool facts about tuatara? I do but I'd love readers of your blog to learn about these cool little reptiles!
It's a huge dream of mine to work with tuatara one day! I've always loved the reptile life of Oceania and literally the only reason I haven't already moved to Australia or even Aotearoa/NZ is because of the limitations on keeping non-native species.
Anyway, aren't tuatara just the coolest? For those unfamiliar, tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) might look like lizards, but they're not! Tuatara are the only surviving members of Rhynchocephalia, the sister order to Squamata, the scaled reptiles (lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenians).
Rhynchocephalians used to be very widespread, but today they exist only in limited populations in Aotearoa. They were almost driven to extinction by habitat loss and pressure from invasive species, and for a long time the only wild populations were on offshore islands. In a huge success for tuatara conservation, though, populations were reintroduced onto the North Island and there are now hatchlings being born on the North Island for the first time in centuries. There's still so much work to be done to help these amazing reptiles, but it's worth celebrating! The Chester Zoo in England has also welcomed tuatara hatchlings, meaning tuatara have been successfully bred outside of Aotearoa for the first time and indicating possible future success for wider zoo breeding programs across the world!
Tuatara have many anatomical features that are unique among reptiles, and they tell us a lot about the extinct rhynchocephalians. Their teeth arrangement is unique among reptiles, and their lower jaws can slide to cut through bone. They're the only known amniotes who have hourglass-shaped vertebrae, and they have gastralia (belly ribs). Even if they might look kinda like lizards on the outside, their skeleton is wildly different!
Tuatara have the most well-developed parietal eyes of any vertebrates. These are "third eyes" that sit on top of the head, and in most reptiles who have them they're extremely primitive, but in tuatara they have well-developed retinas and a cornea-like structure! Parietal eyes are covered by a thin layer of skin and probably help with thermoregulation and day/night cycle regulation.
They are carnivores and eat a wide diet of insects, lizards, and birds. Juvenile tuatara will hunt during the day so they can avoid being eaten themselves by adult tuatara, who hunt at night.
The name "tuatara" comes from te reo Māori, and means "peaks on the back," a reference to the spines along a tuatara's back. Tuatara are sexually dimorphic, and the spines are larger and more rigid in males. They're used in breeding and defensive displays!
One of the challenges for tuatara conservation is how long it takes them to reach sexual maturity - about 10-20 years, and they tend to have very small egg clutches. They've been recorded to lay up to 19 eggs, but a more typical clutch is as small as 3-6 eggs or even a single egg. These eggs also take over a year to be laid and hatch. They have the slowest growth rates of any reptile, reaching full size at around 30 years and having an average lifespan of around 60 but lifespans closer to 100 not being uncommon.
The oldest known tuatara is named Henry, and he lives at the Invercargill museum on the South Island. He's at least 120 but may be as old as 150, and is still fathering healthy clutches!
Tuatara are simply incredible. They're so unique among living reptiles, and they have so much to tell us about a mostly-extinct order of reptiles. Plus, like, you can't deny they're so cool and adorable!
#not a rating#tuatara#tuatara anatomy#sorry for the long post. being asked to talk about tuatara awakens something within me#long post
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i was at the museum and I saw this cast of a dinosaur who had this. Interesting kind of second rib cage type deal? Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of the placard but i think it said it was related to the tyrannosaurs
looks like this. also if you know what that lower rib plate is its so cool to me and I’d love to know it’s name and purpose
That's a pretty cool skeletal mount, looks like a tyrannosaurid of some sort, I would guess Daspletosaurus?
To answer your question, those are called the gastralia, also known as the "belly ribs"! They seem to be present in all theropod dinosaurs but were lost in birds, and they also show up in prosauropods as well as non-dinosaurs like crocodiles, tuataras and plesiosaurs. Basically they form a more protective surface over the vulnerable underbelly.
The shape of the gastralia can actually give us a good idea of what the overall shape of an animal's belly was, in the same way that ribs define the shape of the sides! For example, some plesiosaurs have very flat gastralia which likely means they has a flatter belly, but others are more rounded.
The re-mounting of SUE the Tyrannosaurus involved closer study of their gastralia, and the way that the bones fitted together showed that SUE and other Tyrannosaurus had a much rounder "pot belly" that previously assumed!
So yeah gastralia are cool and they give us a neat insight into the shapes of prehistoric animals!
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Why don't modern birds have the belly ribs? (I'm sorry, I can't remember the proper name for name, but a lot of mesozoic theropods had them)
As the sternum expanded to increase breast muscles for better flight, the gastralia were lost (earlier protobirds still had gastralia, we only see the loss in the birds with better flight skills)
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weird and completely insignificant thing i've noticed is sometimes ppl tend to draw tyrannosaurs with big ol heads in comparison to their bodies which like i'm also very guilty of this but look how wide she is
like their heads aren't that big. the gastralia make suuuuch a big difference for size
pterosaurs were like that though
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The new 2022 Flying Wyvern tree, with much more in depth explanations for the families and an overview for every monster (this is a very long post). Some things had to be chosen or ignored due to the inconsistent nature of monster designs and wing anatomy. Links to the previous version and first pencil and paper tree.
The Common Ancestor
My hypothesized ancestor of flying wyverns and likely even most bird wyverns (or was at least closely related to it) would have been a small paravian dinosaur. This creature, related to troodontids, dromeosaurs, and birds, would have been fully feathered and likely very similar to its relatives save for its arms. The arms of this creature would have been a little more like those of Scansoriopterygids, with a styliform supporting a membrane, but with shorter, more robust hands like those of larger theropods and a little more flexibility in the forearm and wrist region. These adaptations would have allowed it to occasionally walk on all fours in a somewhat pterosaur-like gait or tigrex-like gait, and allowed it to climb trees and even burrow somewhat. This small jack of all stats creature would be one of the few dinosaur families to survive the KT extinction event (yes I think the same extinction events that happened irl happened in monhun), and would be destined for greatness. In later descendants many would lose the gastralia and have a proper waist, and the styliform would gain joints and even duplicate, forming false fingers in addition to the three true fingers. So I will be referring to the styliforms as “Pseudophalanges”.
The God Wyverns
Early on in the evolutionary history of flying wyverns after the KT extinction there was a split between flying wyverns that stayed somewhat small and able to climb and glide, and flying wyverns that became entirely land dwelling and fully quadrupedal. These entirely ground dwelling wyverns eventually became the family of long lived, massive, and powerful wyverns we know today as the god wyverns. These animals are so powerful that most elder dragons avoid them and some were mistaken as dragons as well. It was likely that they were more numerous in the past, but today there are only six genre alive.
The origin Wyvern: One of the most ancient flying wyverns, it shared a common ancestor with modern day god wyverns, but is a long since extinct species only known from sparse remains. What it looked like isn’t something scientists are 100% certain on, but it likely had many features in common with prehistoric and anatomically primitive wyverns like tigrex, Wyvern rex, and akantor.
Akantor: One of the most primitive flying wyverns species still alive in modern day. The species are held in reverence and fear by people who live close to akantor territory, and they are even called the “Infernal Black Gods”. It’s easy to see how these volcanic apex predators earn their reputation, but interestingly they have articulate spines on their back. This anti predator defense implies that in the recent past there was larger predators that preyed on akantor. What exactly these predators were are unknown, but likely were either powerful elder dragons such as black dragons or dalamadur, larger god wyverns, or massive tyrannosaur brute wyverns related to the owner of the massive skull in the Jurassic frontier.
Ukanlos and the Sand/Mountain wyvern: These are two very closely related wyverns, possibly even being in the same genus and having diverged from each other after the end of the most recent ice age. Both have very similar craniums and are adapted to deserts, albeit ones of vastly different temperatures. Ukanlos is adapted to polar regions and is even semi aquatic, using its large fat stores and extensive avian respiratory system to remain buoyant and carving through ice sheets with its jagged shell. The Sand Wyvern is adapted to the harsh equatorial deserts and is more lean and combats heat exhaustion via two organs protruding from its back, possibly being able to flush with blood like many primitive wyverns like akantor and tigrex. We have never faced a Sand Wyvern in any of the games.
Odibatorasu: A god wyvern with an extensive shell and chin like the aforementioned Ukanlos and Sand wyvern, and might even be related to them. To avoid competition with the sand wyvern, Odibas are durophages. Interestingly, they have modified their avian respiratory system by using some of the air sacks in their back to launch sand from the front of their shells like a canon. This is not the only time a flying wyvern has repurposed air sacks. Reports of this monster are greatly exaggerated, as is usual for any report given by a Mezeporta hunter. Hunters from Mezeporta have been a constant thorn in the side of the scientific community, as they seem to prioritize being seen as superhuman legends that regularly kill supernatural gods than being protectors of villages and scientific assistants. So far they have not been found guilty of illegal hunting activity, but the hunters guild is searching for any excuse to send Guild Knights after them.
Keoaruboru: A very poorly known god wyvern. So little is known about it that the guild still has it classified as an elder dragon, although its forearms betray its ancestry. Not much else can be said due to a lack of reliable information as they have only been encountered by Mezeporta hunters.
Bogabadorumu: Another poorly known god wyvern. It has modified its air sacks to spew explosive gas out from vents, not unlike magnamalo. Some individuals have 4 fingers, and the presence of four fingers on a maniraptorian is odd, but it is because of a mutation that sometimes occurs in quadrupedal wyverns. Some god wyverns and “pseudowyverns” are born with a second first digit, and in many cases this digit is so small it doesn’t even touch the ground.
Wyvern Rex and the Tigrex/Barioth Family
The other side of the first big split in the flying wyvern family, these wyverns that were able to climb and glide eventually became larger fully ground dwelling creatures just like the god wyverns, but didn’t grow as large as the god wyverns and kept their large Pseudophalanges and wing membranes.
Wyvern Rex: One of the earliest known member of this family and just like the origin wyvern it was already quite anatomically distinct from its more bird-like ancestors, indicating that there are gaps in the fossil record for flying wyverns.
Pariapuria: This wyvern is quite unusual and split off early in comparison to its non-god wyvern relatives. Parias are semi-aquatic and seem to have stayed that way for a large portion of their evolutionary history, and even evolved semi permeable skin covered in mucus in between their scales. They also have very strange and violent digestive systems and a unique way of processing poisons. Instead of using their liver they seem to be able to separate poisons from food in their stomach and then vomit them back up. This has resulted in their livers becoming smaller over time.
Tigrex: One of the most famous wyverns, the appearance of the nomadic tigrex has changed little over its evolutionary history. It’s behavior, size, and internal anatomy has though. Its ancestors likely weren’t as large or nomadic, and could have even been slightly feathered like many related pseudowyverns. Tigrex has also evolved a highly specialized larynx and syrinx in order to create and withstand their iconic calls, and their trachea loops far back into their body in order to provide enough space for their calls to resonate like whooping cranes. The calls of this wyvern, and other extremely loud monsters like Akantor, can actually cause hearing and internal organ damage in humans, and in some cases even hit the once hypothesized “brown note”; a sound frequency that makes a human lose control of their bowels.
Diorekkusu: A Wyvern genus very closely related to tigrex, “Diorex” are quite distinct in their anatomy and native range. Unlike tigrex, Diorex are only found in the great forest and have very weak shells with little in the way of pigmentation. Instead they protect themselves with electrical organs and ores they attach to their bodies via electromagnetism. As expected of Mezeporta hunters, recounts of this monster are unreliable.
Dyuragaua: These wyverns are distinct for their odd colorations and cryogenic abilities. Their colors are thought to be a warning against predators due to their toxins that induce sleep.
Mi Ru: Very little is known about these wyverns. Due to the fact they’re only found near the Tower (a megastructure built by the ancient civilization out of Kushala Daoras) and that they have shape shifting abilities, some scientists think they might have been modified from a now extinct Dyuragaua relative, although this has not been accepted by the larger scientific community. Despite the appearance of Mi Ru and Dyuragaua, they are actually closer related to Barioths than they are to Tigrex (although still closely related) due to their convergently more mammalian facial features and that Mi Ru has pinnae derived from cartilaginous skin extensions around the ear like Barioth.
Hyujikiki: A sister genus to Barioth, these fully feathered wyverns do not occupy an apex predator status in the areas where they live and have toxic quills as an anti-predator defense. They have a zigzagged tooth line containing tusks, not unlike their closest relative. Despite what Mezeporta hunters say, they do not instantly regrow spines, but they are occasionally launched at attackers.
Barioth: Apex predators of polar and desert regions, Barioths are expert climbers despite their size thanks to studs on their paws and Pseudophalanges. They have a single pair of tusks dominating their face and few other teeth. Barioth are organ and fat specialists who store oils from their food in their spiraling crop which are then spewed at opponents in a spinning gust of air. In polar individuals these oils instantly freeze in the cold air.
Magnamalo: An aberrant member of the Barioth/Hyujikiki group, these creatures are still misidentified as fanged wyverns by the guild. Magnamalo are heavily adapted for cursorial movement and normally hold their arms in an erect position as opposed to the sprawling arms of its relatives. They have lost their wing membranes and have repurposed their Pseudophalanges into swords. Magnamalo also have erectable spines and articulate spade-like thagomizers. These are extensive anti-predator defenses, although their violent life style wears these down, and old individuals can be identified by their unique scars and spine and shell wear. Males have elaborate horns and without them they cannot gain the attention of female individuals. Just like Hyujikiki and Barioths, magnamalo have tusks, however in magnamalo these are multicusped and can fold backwards like fangs. These tusks are for ripping out the throats of prey before folding back into protective grooves so that the anterior cusps can be used as normal canines. Magnamalo have dramatically repurposed many of their avian air sacks into various canals going across their bodies to specialized vent pores, and their large humpback houses a “holding cell” air sack. This extremely derived and separated portion of their respiratory system houses their hellfire, which is a mix of gasses extracted from their digestive system and the highly volatile chemical nitrogen triiodide. Their hellfire is kept from exploding inside their bodies thanks to vacuums and internal pressure, although in old individuals their vent pores are weaker and attacking them can cause the hellfire to go off in their canals.
Nargacuga and the evolution of Flying Wyverns with multiple Pseudophalanges
Another family of the non-god flying wyverns that adapted for life on the ground, these flying wyverns distinguished themselves from the tigrex/barioth line by duplicating their Pseudophalanges, and in many later groups these would form fully functional wings along with the fingers of the hand. After Nargacuga, members of this family are overwhelmingly bipedal.
Nargacuga: The most basal living member of the multi-pseudophalanges flying wyvern family, these feathered wyverns are notable for their Pseudophalanges and tail adaptations. Being animals that live in dense forested environments, Nargacugas have turned their Pseudophalanges into sharp biomineralized blades that can cut through underbrush and create game trails. Nargacugas have also turned their tails into powerful weapons. Their tail vertebrae are loosely connected and have nerves not unlike those in the mouths of baleen whales, able to stretch and snap back in place like elastic. Their tail feathers are also stiff and mineralized, and can be raised and even flung at attackers. Interestingly, both new world and Lucent nargs can secrete a debilitating compound onto their tails. It is likely that the ancestral Nargacuga could secrete poison and that this was retained in lucent nargs and turned into anticoagulants in the new world species, and that old world nargacugas only recently lost their ability to secrete toxins.
Pukei, Paolumu, and the cave wyverns
Many members of this family of flying wyverns may seem unrelated, but are linked together by crucial anatomical features that some members have lost in their evolution. The common ancestor of this family was a brood parasite with a cloaca on the tip of its tail, a more muscular face than most wyverns, and a more extensive respiratory system with air sacks in its neck. Many members of this family have also incorporated their digits into their wings. This family grouping was influenced by @glavenychus’s own theory.
Pukei-Pukei: Odd new world wyverns initially thought of as bird wyverns, but are in reality flying wyverns. Pukei have lost the more muscular face of their ancestors, but are still brood parasites and have evolved arboreal and frugivorous adaptations. Interestingly, the colon of pukeis can retain poison from their diets or suck up liquids (depending on the species) and spray it at attackers in a mist or pressurized blast.
Paolumu: Unusual new world wyverns that look like massive bats. They have abandoned brood parasitism and their cloaca is located back at the base of their tail, but they have gone all out with their neck sacks and face muscles. Their muscles on their face allow for more precise suction feeding (as they feed on the floating eggs of terrestrial coral) and the air sacks in their neck can actually inflate with air and lighter than air gases to allow it to float and save on energy expenditure when flying.
Scale bats: Perhaps the smallest of the flying wyverns, they share common ancestry with the cave wyverns, but curiously have lost all three defining features of the cave wyvern/Pukei/Paolumu group. However it is not unusual for a member of a family to lose what defines it during evolution.
Khezu: The most common and most basal of the cave wyverns we know of. These creepy and sluggish wyverns show many of the adaptations that cave wyverns have. Non-ossified neck vertebrae, strong smell, vibration sensitivity (which are detected by small specialized feathers across the body), carbon dioxide detection, suckers on the ends of digits, slow metabolism, and wet moist skin. Khezu itself has large fat stores that fuel its electrical abilities. The third digits of their hands have also fused with their first Pseudophilanges. Khezu retains a muscular face and the air sacks in its neck are complex and can inflate to extend its neck towards prey. Khezu has also taken the final step in reproductive parasitism and have become parasitoids, shocking prey to stun them and implanting young into the victim through its toothy sucker-like cloaca, or dumping young on carcasses. Because cave wyverns likely will never run into another individual of their species, they reproduce via parthenogenesis.
Gigginox: Flying wyverns who have adapted into even stranger forms. Few bones in their body are ossified and as such they have reverted back into quadrupedal creatures to better support their weight. All three of their fingers make contact with the ground. Their quadratojugal and quadrate have become an extra jaw joint and another joint has developed between the surangular and prearticular and the dentaries and splenial. This gives gigginox three places for jaw articulation and allows them to make incredible gapes. They also lack any true teeth, and instead have keratin spikes lining their lips. Gigginox have also turned their entire undersides into something akin to the pads on gecko feet, allowing them to cling to walls and ceilings with ease. Gigginox have parental investment, and adult individuals often have several highly neotenous young living inside their vagina, which they feed through shedding specialized nutrient rich layers of the vaginal wall.
Qurio: Aberrant even by cave wyvern standards, these paraves have been so altered by the forces of evolution that they seemingly have abandoned conventional tetrapod anatomy. Qurio are also incredibly neotenic, to the point of being fetal, and seem to be social giggi capable of flight for all intents and purposes. They likely share a common ancestor with gigginox, but then adapted to the extensive worldwide cave network dug out by subterranean monsters before becoming parasites of elder dragons and then becoming symbiotes of the incredibly basal true elder dragon Gaismagorm. Qurio secrete compounds that allow them to calm or even appear invisible to elder dragon immune systems. They also have an endogenous virus that causes infected monsters to hemorrhage. Qurio often try to give nutrients to their primary host, and this backwash (aside from containing diseases) also contains blast ailment components, explaining how Gaismagorm has access to blast and the explosion “risen” elders create when reaching a risen state. They normally are not as active as seen on the surface, which was caused by the stress of being separated from their main host in a new environment. Qurio seem to be evolving towards eusociality, as certain Qurio in a colony specialize for different tasks, such as procuring food and being eaten by Gaisma after their first outing, to nuptial individuals who start new colonies.
Seregios, Legiana, Yurosus, and the evolution of excessive Pseudophalanges
One radiation of bipedal flying wyverns would take their Pseudophalanges to the next level, and actually lose some of their true fingers as they were no longer needed. Be it through evolving an overabundance of them, or evolving excessive joints on some to produce whips, these very aerially capable predators are defined by their unusual styliform adaptations.
Astalos: While an unusual Wyvern on it’s own, it isn’t immediately obvious how astalos qualifies for this family. This is partly because it has evolved more towards a more traditional bipedal flying wyvern appearance while also having unusual insectoid traits that distract from its odd hand anatomy. Surprisingly, many anatomical features suggest Seregios is actually the closest living relative of Astalos, despite what the flawed ramblings of the guild might say. Such odd anatomical similarities are a jointed crest, occasional quadrupedal tendencies (although obligate in Seregios), forked tails, the loss of the first finger (Seregios having evolved a palm spur to compensate for this loss), and a wing supported entirely by the Pseudophalanges with the leading one being quite robust. Astalos itself has many unusual characteristics. The feet of astalos have very large third toes while digits two and four are rather small, indicating that astalos could be evolving towards a foot configuration like that of an ostrich in order to run faster on the ground. Muscles in its crest, wrists, and tail are also rich in quartz crystals and have uniquely coiled DNA, and by rhythmic flexing astalos is able to take advantage of piezoelectricity. Astalos’s blood is rich in biliverdin, giving its flesh an unusual green color and bad taste. The insect-like appearance of this flying wyvern might also be an extremely unusual case of “you are what you eat”. Many large insects make up a sizable portion of astalos’s diet, particularly in its infancy, and it could be that the species might have picked up insect genes after fighting off an ancient virus that jumped from their food to them.
Seregios: Unusual desert dwellers with adaptations for nest raiding and predation of mesopredators in its environment. Seregios is linked to astalos by the aforementioned traits, but has many unique adaptations itself. The scales that cover seregios can be articulated so that they’re flat against the body for aerodynamic purposes or raised up in a threat display. These scales are jagged, brittle, and loosely connected to the body, allowing them to rattle against each other to intimidate rivals, cut anything trying to attack them, or even be flung at attackers. Any scales that break on attackers may leave small pieces embedded in wounds. The feet of seregios ore zygodactyl and both strong and flexible, and like an owl they are the primary way seregios dispatches prey. However, these adaptations for dexterity come at the cost of being able to fully support seregios’s weight, and so seregios also uses its wings when walking on the ground (unless it is running). The two existing fingers on their hands are small and recurved, indicating that they are primarily climbing instruments. The wings of seregios have four Pseudophalanges in total, one more than astalos, and these wings give seregios incredible maneuverability in the air. Both astalos and seregios’s aerial capabilities rival those of rathalos. During the frenzy virus outbreak several thousand seregios were seen fleeing from an unknown area in the desert occupied at the time by an individual infected with the virus. This area was possibly a nesting ground. Like many birds, seregios might have a communal nesting ground they return to every year in mass to raise young. If the infected individual attacked others in the nesting site and caused all the members to leave, then that individual likely caused the breeding year for that colony, if not the whole species, to fail.
Legiana: A flying wyvern with unique wing anatomy, legiana operates much like a supersized falcon. The wings of legiana are supported by four Pseudophalanges, and the only true finger left is the thumb. These Pseudophalanges aren’t actually joined by a membrane and instead support large lobes of skin that overlap with each other and give it slotted wings. This set up decreases drag and increases thrust. The hip and horn membranes also increase its surface area and allow it to ride updrafts and thermals. Indeed, legiana could potentially be the single most aerially capable flying wyvern. The feet of legiana are unique in that they’re designed for taking out other volant animals on the wing, with their massive talons and slim toes and legs. Legiana also have teeth near the rear of their mouth that resemble the tomial of falcons. This is an adaptation for snapping the neck or crushing the skull of small and difficult prey. Legiana is over-equipped to take down the raphinos in their environment, and this is likely because they ate more, larger prey in the recent past, and that these are now extinct and legiana survived by being generalists when it came to their prey choices.
Zenaserisu: These wyverns are part of a radiation that lost their third fingers or fused them to their second fingers and hypertrophied their first pseudophalange, giving it several joints and claws. These tassels trail behind the body and are good indicators of fitness while also functioning as whips. Zenaserisu itself seems to eat small animals and fish, tracking the movement of small terrestrial prey with its ears and pursuing fish with its webbed toes and fluked tail. It then incapacitates prey with a pressurized blast of water from its crop. Zenaserisu is likely just now evolving into a more aquatic lifestyle. Hunting records of this parave have been exaggerated by Mezeporta hunters.
Berukyurosu & Doragyurosu: Sister species of one another that live in canyons and elevated habitats, these seldom seen wyverns are contenders for the smartest wyverns and are known for outsmarting hunters and changing tactics on the spot, showing that they have advanced problem solving skills and can strategize and plan ahead. Berukyurosu itself has electricity generating cells and unique insulatory tissues. Doragyurosu has dragon element, suggesting a lifestyle necessitating a strong immune system; possibly switching to obligate scavenging in times of scarcity. Most information we have to go off of these wyverns is unfortunately from the hunting reports of Mezeporta hunters, and is thus somewhat unreliable.
Poborubarumu, Diablos, Raths & and the evolution of hard shelled flying wyverns
A sister family of wyverns to the seregios/doragyurosu family, these wyverns are defined by their tough shells, wing structure, and ancestrally toxic and flame based abilities as well as metabolism control, although many members have secondarily lost some of these features. The ancestral member of this family had a tough spiny shell, cranial ornaments, fire breath, defensive toxins, “mandible” crests, thagomizers, control over its metabolism, three pseudophalanges, and the second and third fingers forming the leading edge of the wing (which would either fuse together or come back to join the thumb in making a proper hand in its many descendants). Interestingly, the raths and espinas genus are rather close in appearance to this ancestor.
Poborubarumu: This cetacean-like wyvern split off from the rest of its family quite early and has reverted back to a pseudowyvern body plan. Competition with a now extinct aerial competitor forced the ancestors of Poborus into a fully terrestrial lifestyle, and from there they became apex predators of the highland. Growing so large and front heavy that their second and third fingers reverted back into non-wing bearing digits in order to join the thumbs in bearing the immense bulk of this parave, and losing a pair of their now vestigial pseudophalanges. So large is it that the guild thought this species was another god wyvern upon its initial discovery. The unusual mouth and tooth rows of Poborubarumu are built so that any prey they ambush cannot escape and is swallowed whole. This wyvern incapacitates prey by using its specialized air sacks. In the evolutionary history of Poborus they modified the air sacks in their respiratory system to create a variety of sounds for long range communication; turning their whole body into a bagpipe of sorts. Today this is also used to disorient and even kill prey, as the loud sounds burst ear drums and the vibrations rip internal organs. These constant vocalizations are responsible for the more outlandish claims hunters make when recounting their experiences with the reptiles, as the frequencies can cause humans to hallucinate. They may sometimes even reach the “brown note” frequency. The presence of a fluked tail and symbiotic barnacles imply Poborubarumu were semi aquatic and lived along coastlines in their recent evolutionary history.
Espinas: Basal shelled wyverns who live life in the slow lane, they are defined by their spiny appearance and toxicity. Espinas have wings of similar structure to raths, with a wing supported by three pseudophalanges and digits two and three which have fused like in the distantly related aves. The thumbs are free and blend in with the various spurs on the leading edge of the second digit, which could potentially be modified from the flight feathers that attached to the finger in their distant ancestors. Espinas is the shelled wyvern equivalent of a bear; eating a wide variety of animals, carrion, and flora and spending a lot of time sleeping while their large guts process their meals. In emergencies though they can accelerate their metabolism and flush various body parts with blood to aid in oxygenation. Espinas also emit two toxins, but only one of them is one they produce themselves. The other is stolen from the various carapaceons, frogs, and plants they eat.
Meraginasu: Close relatives of espinas who may even be within the same genus. These wyverns have adapted to live both on the surface and in the extensive cave systems dug out by ancient subterranean monsters. They were thought to be extinct but were recently discovered alive and well.
Karagumosu: This extinct shelled flying wyvern shares ancestry with gravios and monoblos line wyverns, and has many of the hallmark adaptations of the subgroup. Loss of flight, wings supported only by pseudophalanges while the fingers are used for digging, horns, a diet mostly consisting of plants and minerals, and tough biomineralized shells.
Gravios: Wyverns with some of the toughest shells and slowest metabolisms, these paraves go through an ontogenetic niche shift as they grow from basarios to gravios. Juveniles spend decades eating plants, animals, and dirt to carefully grow their gut biome. If they survive long enough to complete this they migrate to volcanic regions as their body changes to a gravios, and for the rest of their life they will subsist mostly off the waste products their gut microbes produce as they slowly break down minerals the gravios ingests. Their shells are the most biomineralized of any wyvern and most of their poisons are derived from the plants they eat. Different diets result in slightly different shell composition. The third finger is the leading edge of the wing in this genus, and the membrane is supported by two pseudophalanges. Interestingly, some individuals around the kamura region have a mutation giving them an extra pseudophalange.
Gureadomosu: A poorly researched sister genus to gravios, these desert dwelling wyverns include more plants in their diet than their relative. They reside in underground waterways where they have a steady supply of minerals and plants, but when these dry up or they need to leave, Gureadomusu can suck up water into many of their air sacks to use as an internal reservoir as they travel to new feeding grounds. Records of this monster are unfortunately mostly from Mezeporta hunters.
Monoblos: An iconic species that is unfortunately the target of many illegal or cultural trophy hunts. These violent wyverns can tackle almost any plant in the desert thanks to their tough beak and teeth batteries. They use their hands to dig elaborate tunnels across their territory so they can travel great distances away from the heat of the sun, and their highly vascular wing membranes allow them to shed excess heat. The hump on their back anchors many powerful neck and wing muscles that make facing this wyvern a death sentence.
Varusaborosu: Not much is known about this elusive, fire breathing, volcanic blos wyvern, other than their penchant for meat, minerals, and a cactus species with high caloric content. Their low population size might be due to decreasing numbers of this special cactus, and Varusaborosu may be on its way to extinction. Many of the air sacks of this species have been adapted into combustion chambers, and when angry, purple flames spew from vents across their bodies. This serves to make incredibly intimidating displays and burn attackers, but also burns the wyverns themselves. It’s unknown if this species or monoblos are the closest living relatives to diablos. Accounts of the behavior of these wyverns is mostly from Mezeporta hunters, and so is exaggerated.
Diablos: A blos wyvern nearly as iconic as their single horned relatives, diablos are cactus specialist. Due to their more restricted diets in such harsh environments, they have heavily competitive lives and often engage in physical ritualistic combat as opposed to the display based competitions of monoblos. Not even mated diablos are spared from this hostility as males must leave the female’s territory after mating or she will make him. Females spend their entire pregnancy surging with testosterone and other hormones, which gives them their iconic black color. Diablos lay eggs and so must steadily give their embryos these crucial hormones over the course of the pregnancy and cannot give the young a last minute hormone dump like live bearing animals. Some individuals huff smoke when angry, indicating that the species has a vestigial flame sack.
Gurenzeburu: This dangerous shelled wyvern of the highlands is one of uncertain taxonomic affinity. Whether or not it is a basal rath or blos line shelled wyvern is unclear, but current evidence supports the rath hypothesis. Physical features that define this wyvern is an unusual pubic bone, loss of a pair of pseudophalanges, and a tail similar to that of rath wyverns.
Anorupatisu: Another shelled wyvern of unknown affinity but currently thought to be the closest living relative of Gurenzeburu due to the singular large nasal horn, exposed teeth, and loss of pseudophalanges (in the case of anorupatisu it has lost all of them). Some records of it are highly exaggerated. These are from the obvious Mezeporta culprits.
Canopus: Little is known about this recently extinct shelled wyvern but from the incomplete fossil remains it seems to have been a strange rath relative. It did not go extinct for the reasons the guild says, as that’s not how evolution works.
Bazelgeuse: The largest volant flying wyvern known, this shelled wyvern has abandoned tough shells in favor of the production of a highly explosive chemical that is secreted from its underside and a life lived primarily on the wing. Bazelgeuse are obligate scavengers and are found anywhere in the world where thermals can be ridden (with the exception of individuals that become trapped in the frost isles). Bazel is very closely related to raths, and has a similar wing set up and a tail thagomizer. Bazel wings are composed of a free thumb, digits two and three fused together and forming the leading edge of the wing, and three pseudophalanges that were only visible upon dissection as well as cartilaginous rods. These wings are proportionately more like the active soaring wings of many seabirds, as opposed to the more elliptical wings of raths. Bazelgeuse can alter the speed of their metabolism depending on the situation, just like espinas. Eldest individuals are known as seething bazelgeuse.
The Raths: The flying wyvern, this fire breathing genus is extremely adaptable and widespread, boasting a worldwide distribution. These Kings of the Skies and Queens of the Land have captured the imagination of cultures everywhere. Raths have distinct sexual dimorphism and different hunting strategies between the sexes. The female rathians are green and spend more time on the ground, and have defensive feather derived quills on her tail and shoulders. The red males spend more time in the air and have larger mandible crests and thagomizers. Raths produce venom, which is delivered through the claws in males and the tail quills in females. While it’s agreed that venom production is ancestral to shelled wyverns, it is also entirely possible that venom convergently evolved in the group multiple times. The wings of raths are much like those of bazelgeuse and espinas; a free thumb and fused second and third fingers (and in some populations both still grow claws) forming the leading edge of the wing, which is further supported by three pseudophalanges. The wings of raths are elliptical, which allows for their aerial maneuverability and high speed in short bursts at the cost of needing to be constantly flapped to stay airborne. There are three recognized “species” living across the world (new world, old world, and Val Harbar), and each has its own pink/blue and gold/silver “subspecies”. Whether or not these are actually different species or regional variants and color morphs is the subject of intense academic debate, as while the numerous subspecies rarely breed outside their own kind (greens of Val Harbar only only mate with reds of Val Harbar, blues of the new world only mate with pinks of the new world, etc) they have occasionally interbred and produced viable offspring. It is highly likely that the Raths collectively form a species complex. Single nesting rathian might slow her metabolism down when guarding eggs to better preserve energy in an environment with less prey and to lessen the amount of times she needs to leave the nest, as eggs and hatchlings can be easily preyed upon and in desert regions seregios is often the perpetrator.
Zerureusu: A poorly researched sister genus to the raths, but its widely agreed that the more fantastical events that happen in the stories of the few who have fought it were likely illusions brought upon by the bright flashes of light it produces, and the exaggerated stories of Mezeporta hunters. It’s likely both male and females display the male phenotype.
Unknown Black Flying Wyvern: Another sister genus to the raths whose abilities have been exaggerated and possibly hallucinated by the Mezeporta hunters who have hunted it due to intense fear and envenomation. The few individuals found resemble black rathians with red extremities and rathalos-like tails.
Halks, Remobra, & Wing Drakes
While technically shelled wyverns, these smaller flying wyverns collectively known as wing drakes have lost their extensive armor and large size as adaptations for social life, flocking behavior, communal nesting, and less carnivorous lifestyles. It’s unknown if wing drakes evolved small size on their own or if the common ancestor of wing drakes and raths was a small mesopredator and raths re-evolved large size.
Halks: Wing drakes with a resemblance to the closely related raths, there is no longer wild halks as the species has been domesticated since the fall of the ancient civilization or perhaps even before. Much like kinsects (although not as drastic as them) halks have a variety of different phenotypes that can be activated upon eating certain foods. This activation of genes in response to environmental conditions is called epigenetics. It’s possible that this was an adaptation that allowed halks to live in any environment, and that this was taken advantage of as they were domesticated. But there are others who theorize that like Mi Ru and kinsects, the halks are genetically modified organisms. The wings of halks are like those of raths, but with one less pseudophalange.
Remobra: Wing drakes erroneously classified as snake wyverns by guild quacks due to their superficial snake like appearance. Remobra are viewed by many cultures as bad omens due to their habit of following elder dragons and scavenging off their kills. The wing anatomy of remobra is like that of halks, but their proportionately massive wings have vestigial pseudophalanges. The massive wings of remobra and the related bazelgeuse has sparked theories as to if the ancestor of bazels, raths, and wing drakes had massive wings for riding thermals. The closest living relative of remobra lives in the new world, while remobra itself can only be found in the old world. It’s possible that its recent ancestors lived in the new world but rode thermals or the backs of massive migrating elder dragons like Zorah or dalamadur to the old world or migrated through the worldwide cave network.
Cortos: Hardy wing drakes living in the hoarfrost reach. These scavengers and predators of small creatures survive the freezing conditions thanks to antifreeze in their blood. Their wing anatomy is similar to halks, but their snake-like head puts them firmly as the closest living relatives of remobra.
Regitrice: These small old world wing drakes are only found in the sandy planes and are known for the lustrous colors on the males. Interestingly, the second digit has unfused with the third.
Barnos: Aggressive new world wyverns, barnos do whatever they can to survive in the harsh environment of the everstream and elder’s recess and display pack hunting and swarming behaviors. Their wing anatomy is like that of halks and cortos, but they have lost another pair of pseudophalanges, leaving them with a single pair left.
Raphinos: Skittish new world wing drakes endemic to the coral highlands, they feed on coral eggs and a variety of “flora” using their beak. Their wing anatomy is nearly identical to that of a barnos, making them their closest living relatives.
Mernos: Timid new world wing drakes endemic to the ancient forest. Unlike raphinos and barnos, their wing anatomy is more like those of other wing drakes like halks and cortos. Mernos proved to be very easy to tame, take care of, and train, so they have become vital modes of transportation for the Research Commission.
Noios: These close relatives to Mernos are defined by their vulture-like appearance, distinctive calls vaguely mimicking diablos roars, and the fact that they’re only found in the wildspire waste. Noios are more omnivorous than their relative, and take advantage of what resources they can in the harsh desert. It’s thought that the common ancestor of the mernos and noios lived in the ancient ancient forest, and that during tropical storms the winds carried some individuals into the wastes. Those that became stranded became noios.
#Monster hunter#monsterhunter#monhun#monster hunter biology#speculative zoology#speculative biology#speculative evolution#cladogram#cladograms#phylogeny#phylogenetics#taxonomy#monster hunter iceborne#monster hunter sunbreak
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The Evolution of Dragons Pt 1
Okay, so me and @arourallisreborn were discussing how the dragons from HTTYD might have evolved, and my research has led me to an exciting discovery. To start off, I am making two assumptions for this. One: HTTYD takes place in an alternate version of Earth. Two: the prehistory of this version of Earth followed a similar path to our own, except for the dragons of course.
Evolution of Flight
Now you might think that dragons evolved from some mutant six limbed ancestor, but arourallis came up with another hypothesis. Namely that the ancestors of dragons were gliding reptiles with wings supported by elongated ribs, similar to modern ‘flying lizards’. If you look at the Bewilderbeast’s wings, for example, you’ll see that the wing-struts run from the wing edge to its torso.
In most dragons, the wing struts all converge at either the ‘shoulder’ or the ‘wrist’ of the wing, depending on how articulated it is. For example, a Thunderdrums wing is like a giant fan that only articulates at the ‘shoulder’, whereas a Rumblehorn’s wing clearly has a ‘shoulder’, ‘elbow’ and ‘wrist’.
So, that exciting discovery I mentioned? It turns out there was a family of flying reptiles called Weigeltisauridae that lived during the Permian period, between 260 to 251 million years ago. Like this little guy, Coelurosauravus:
To quote Wikipedia: “They are characterised by long, hollow rod-shaped bones extending from the torso that probably supported wing-like membranes…These have been proposed to be modified gastralia or otherwise a novel bone ossification.” In other words, these guys had wing bones. They also had lightweight skeletons thanks to air spaces within the bones.
What I’m saying is that these reptiles were already two fifths of the way to a dragon lol. The first major divergence from IRL prehistory is this: instead of going extinct, at least one genus of this family survived the Great Dying and then split in two, with one group staying arboreal and the other becoming aquatic; perhaps to avoid competition with the ancestors of pterosaurs.
As for the arboreal group, a chance mutation might have made their gliding wings more flexible. This would make them a bit more manoeuvrable, just enough to give them an edge. From there they could have evolved true powered flight. I think these proto-dragons would fill out a similar niche to insect eating birds, millions of years before birds evolved from dinosaurs.
Now for millions of years, the draconids as we’ll call them would have stayed relatively small, to avoid competing with all the other reptiles in the Mesozoic era. Perhaps they’d have evolved slightly more articulated wings by the late Jurassic/early Cretaceous, as well as diversified into the main groups of short necked or long necked air dragons or sea dragons. It’s difficult to judge.
As for how more articulated wings would evolve, from what I can tell it would start with the bony rods supporting the wing moving from being at right angles to the spine, to converging at the inner crook of the wing. Or maybe at a point further along the leading wing bone. As their wings got larger, the leading bone would get stronger and more flexible, evolving an ‘elbow’ and ‘wrist’ joint.
I also think the dragons stomachs would be full of symbiotic bacteria that produce lighter than air gases. These, combined with hollowed bones, would allow them to fly even as their bodies got larger. Since we’re using SCIENCE, let’s assume that gravity is slightly less strong on this alternate Earth, to explain how even massive dragons are able to fly with relatively short wings.
If all this seems a bit far-fetched, keep in mind that it would take millions of years. Besides, whales evolved from weird little hoofed deer things in about 8 million years, so evolution can be pretty fast (by geological timescales).
Some of these early dragons might have grown large enough to directly compete with pterosaurs, but those species would likely have gone extinct when the asteroid came along. It’s possible that the remaining species survived by feeding on carrion or even on fish that also survived the impact.
(Arourallis has a theory that dragons took shelter in the Hidden World when the asteroid hit. Whilst I have issues with the ‘hidden world’ cave system existing in the first place, I like the idea of them taking shelter in cave systems.)
As @arourallisreborn put it, once the other large reptiles went extinct, dragons would have rapidly diversified and grown larger to refill that niche. I also think they’d mostly be living on what would become Europe and Asia. Thus giving our own ancestors in Africa time to evolve before the huge flying fire breathing reptiles showed up. As for how fire breathing evolved in these dragons…
That will have to wait for part two ;)
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@cflight inquired: BRUSH
For Miri to play with your hair - Accepting
From where Ekira lay, they would have stared upwards at Miranda's underside: the gently bowed expanse of scales that plated over her stomach, her gastralia providing light ridges here and there beneath her abdomen like a second set of ribs, connecting back up and against her ribcage up top. No peeks of her paler underbelly, a lighter pink than the ruddy hue that shaded her topside, could be glimpsed beneath her clothes, pinned into place and well-fitted as they were, but the decorative fabric siding hung down, on either side of their horns and beneath their chin, creating a small, dark, warm cave beneath her.
She shifted her feet, curling into the cushion beneath her, at the response to weight across their webbing. Up front, more towards Miranda's head, her arms lifted and repositioned themselves, as if she was glancing about to try and discover where it was they had went.
As Miranda leaned back, having to shift her weight back and onto her latter half, against her hips and her tail, Ekira would feel it. The way the hidden expanse of her stomach contracted inwards, the way the light filtered in from the far end, the great and looming presence of her body growing nearer in one direction and further in the other. The couch compressed down near Ekira's head, creating more of a cavity that her body nested inside of, displaced from the shift of her weight, and it took more slight movements for Miri to glance down, to poke her nose down at Ekira to see what they were doing.
"Are you enjoying yourself?"
Her fins tipped back, more beside herself than any other gesture, even as she glanced over Ekira to try and guess at some purpose to this, to stretching beneath her. With nothing else to compel her, there was a half-smile on her face, not sure how else she should be expected to emote or what might be proper for such an exchange.
It did feel strange. Not for reasons Miranda knew to explain, of course — even she had started to feel the urge to explain herself, explain her customs, begin to fade. It was a contentious place, and without anything more than Miranda's foot and perhaps the last portion of her calf to rest against, there wasn't much to soften her lap or even to rest against. From how she was sitting, most of her body was above Ekira, and if she laid down then they would be pressed beneath her.
Miri reached down, not without some difficulty and tilting her body to the side, and brushed her hand over the top of Ekira's head, still trying to look down and see what they were doing down there. It was more of a ruffle, but she drew the edge of one claw over their brow and pressed the padded end of one of her fingers against the horn-bed on their right side, where the hair grew short and fine, and her touch was as delicate as ever.
#Glory and Gore || IC#Dreaded rumors || Asks#cflight#(( mmmm devil's trick.... miri doesnt really have a lap#(( but she is a mobile pillow fort so like
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A comparison between skeletons of some of the inhabitants I’ve posted about so far. A simple aozoan, a complex one and a phony. Simple aozoans don’t really have much in the way of structure, just two triangular rods with eye sockets on each vertex. Complex ones have more structural supports and more triangular segments. Phonies look, for some reason, like aliens in comparison to the actual aliens they live with. They do, however, retain a vaguely triangular body plan with their two somewhat vestigial spinal structures along their sides. They kind of act like gastralia.
Bones here are often made from aggregates of microscopic silica crystals. All of these animals partake in geophagy to reinforce them.
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one of the funny facts about merfolk is that they have fucked up armored gastralia with notches that their osteoderms "slot" into to form an impenetrable wall, because evolutionarily the risk of disemboweling each other was that high
#all the care guide says is 'biomass'#and eventually they got armored enough and deadly enough that it was impossible to pick fights with each other#without both parties dying horribly#so now they either have to be passive-aggressive with each other or they have to fuck their problems out#still funny to think that#miri still has an armored stomach solely to prevent possible disemboweling#that she doesnt even fear in the first place#(though probably because of the armored stomach)
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Update to the biology chapter of my Cardassian world building fic
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The "spoons" (tear drop shaped scale formations, known as chu'en in Kardasi) are sensory organs allowing an individual to sense EMF. These function in part due to a higher density of nerve endings (electricity), which as a consequence makes them sensitive. The erotic connotations of the sensitivity are partially cultural much in the way kissing is in some human cultures. The chu'en probably developed as a way of compensating for Cardassians impaired vision- while nothing indicates a great difference regarding the structure of the eye, their ocular ridges limit their range of vision, and they can't twist their necks to see around them. The sense the chu'en use is called electrolocation, or electroreception, and magnetoreception.
Cardassian electroreception is passive, and operates by picking up on the electrical field produced by living things, most notably that generated by muscle contractions. There are specialized canals under the skin in the chu'en filled with mucus that surround the ends of specialized nerves similar to Ampullae of Lorenzini that increase the nerves ability to sense electric signals. None of these are pores in the skin.
The medial ridge pulls double duty of protecting a major artery and the connecting line of the specialized nerves in the chu'en (the vertical nasal ridge serves a similar purpose). These nerves are exposed in a similar manner to the pariteal eye in the chu'en, with skin covering the area. This is obvious in the skeletal anatomy with holes appearing in the forehead of the skull and sternum of both rib sets (abdominal ribs and transverse ribs aka gastralia). The skin here is somewhat thicker than humans, but necessarily still more sensitive than the skin on most of the body. The reason why Garak's technique of holding still and adopting a very specific breathing pattern works to functionally make him invisible is he is decreasing the electricity produced by muscle contractions to the point of it becoming background noise. Plants and planets give off electricity, and practical observation indicates that Cardassians using electrocamoflague are effectively dropping their body's electric frequency to blend in around them, similar to intentionally jamming other beings electroreception (see Jamming Avoidance Response).
Another way to disrupt a Cardassian's electroreception is to cover their chu'en with certain kinds of metal, particularly if they've been magnetized. Disrupting this sense while leaving the eyes uncovered leaves a Cardassian unable to tell there are living things around them- they can look directly at a person, but instinctively don't register they are a person and not a very realistic mannequin. Holograms and robots do not function sufficiently to train a Cardassian to operate with this sense inhibited because they also put out electric signals, though the frequency they put out tends to be described by Cardassians as noticeably different to biological organisms, and sometimes has an uncanny valley effect.
#Cipher talk#Talked with someone who knows more about biology than me about electroreception and this is what I've come up with so far#Ds9#cardassians#World building
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Could you tell us more about tuatara? That’s really interesting that they are their own branch and I have never heard of them before.
(Can they be kept as pets?)
Thank you!
Oh, I will ALWAYS talk about tuatara! They're' INCREDIBLE!!
So, like I said in the last post, tuatara are the only surviving rhynchocephalians. Rhynchocephalians used to be pretty common, filling a lot of the same niches as lizards, but today the only representatives are a single species of tuatara in New Zealand.
They look pretty lizard-like, right? There are a ton of big differences between tuatara and squamates, though! They've got some weird skeletal features that make them unique among reptiles - tuatara have these funky hourglass-shaped vertebrae, which are unique among amniotes, and they have ribs over their abdomens called gastralia. They also have weird teeth - they have two rows of teeth in their upper jaw and one in their lower (weird!) and have pretty good hearing but no external ears like lizards. It's thought that, due to those skeletal oddities, they've retained structures from fish that other reptiles have long since lost.
They also have a very well-developed parietal eye, a third eye on top of their head, the most well-developed of all extant tetrapods! The parietal eye probably helps with day/night cycles and thermoregulation. In adults, it's covered by opaque scales (its main function is probably just seeing light), but you can still kinda see it:
Tuatara exist as only one species, Sphenodon punctatus, and today they have a pretty small range mostly on islands off New Zealand's North Island. They used to be widespread across both main islands, but their population took a serious hit during colonization, and serious efforts are still underway to re-introduce them to the rest of their historic range.
Because their range is so limited and they're considered so fragile in conservation terms (especially the Brothers Island tuatara, S. p. guntheri, the single subspecies), they're considered absolutely protected under New Zealand law. That means commercial trade is strictly prohibited, and it's a major process to even export them to international zoos - there are only four zoos in the US that have been able to go through the process to get them! Because of this, tuatara absolutely cannot be pets, in any way, shape, or form.
Tuatara are just so stinkin' cool! They're super unique among reptiles. It's one of my biggest dreams to be able to work with them one day!
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What do you think about the walking with dinosaur trex? As a kid I always thought the head looked really boxy, it looks very distinct from other trexes I’ve seen around.
Walking With Dinosaurs Tyrannosaurus is,,,, Bad
I'm not sure what it is about WWD and large theropods but both the Tyrannosaurus and Allosaurus look really Weird, especially in the head. Allosaurus's horns got placed directly over its eyes, and the whole shape of the head is really triangular.
With the Tyrannosaurus, the head is just. a Block.
Proportionally it's shorter and thicker than a real Tyrannosaurus skull, and while the shape of the lower jaw is actually pretty close the back of the skull is where issues really start to crop up.
They've ticked all the boxes in the abstract: big brow ridges, wide back of the skull, heavy lower jaw. But the execution of them really falls flat. Mark Witton's reconstruction from the recent theropod lips paper actually makes a very good comparison here since it's almost at the same angle:
The body itself is oddly proportioned too, with very long legs, and shorter thinner tail, long arms, and a thin neck. Overlaying Scott Hartman's Tyrannosaurus skeletal over the top of it really brings out the Weirdness
In some areas, like with all of WWD, the inaccuracies here are due to Science Marching On (the lack of lips and the shallower torso due to differently-reconstructed gastralia). But most of the problems with how the head is shaped were just at inaccurate in 1999 as they are now, and it's a little baffling to me how such a famous and well-studied dinosaur ended up looking so... Off?
On the other hand, the actual behaviour of the Tyrannosaurus is fantastically naturalistic, and the colour pattern is very appealing and absolutely iconic. It's just kind of a shame that it got combined with this odd, lumpy anatomy
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Skeletals of generic members of the three Cierian lindwyrm families. While they are all called lindwyrms, they are not actually closely related and are a result of convergent evolution.
Vathydrakidae, Almadrakidae, Trexidrakidae respectively. More info under the cut.
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Wingless Lindwyrms
Vathydrakidae
Wingless lindwyrms are the middle ground between an eastern-type dragon and a slithering wyrm, and what is most notable about them is that they lack the extremely powerful arcane magic of their eastern-type ancestors, as well as a pair of functional hind legs. However, like their ancestors, they have a small keel bone in their chests which protects their lungs, and remnants of their rear legs remain as vestigial bones in their skeleton or spurs by their cloaca.
Wingless lindwyrms are almost always ground-dwelling dragons, with no flight and very little swimming capabilities. They move much like snakes, slithering across the ground and using a combination of their arms and stomach muscles to get around. Wingless lindwyrms are known to build underground civilizations, making them quite uncommon to meet face-to-face as a human traveler.
Wingless lindwyrms almost always have scaly integument, with smoother bodies and very few spikes or decorative frills. Most of their interesting features come from their colorations and occasional scutes along their spine.
The way to differentiate a wingless lindwyrm between smooth-winged and frill-winged lindwyrms, aside from an obvious lack of wings, is present in the shape of their ribs and spines. Wingless lindwyrms have very long and mobile ribcages and short tails, smooth-winged lindwyrms have very stunted and fused ribcages and long tails, and fill-winged lindwyrms have gastralia and otherwise normal-length ribcages and tails.
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Smooth-winged Lindwyrms
Almadrakidae
Smooth-winged lindwyrms, unlike the other two variants of lindwyrms, do not represent the typical definition of a lindwyrm as much as they appear to. As such, they are frequently referred to as false lindwyrms, and are instead extremely stunted descendants of wyverns. While they appear to be a snakelike dragon with a pair of wings and arms, their "arms" are actually modified legs and their ribcages are nearly entirely fused together, much like that of a bird.
Smooth-winged lindwyrms are referred to as such due to their wing shape and style; unlike their wyvern ancestors, they only have membranous pterosaurian wings, and none have been discovered with feathery wings.
Their gait is mostly bipedal, using their false arms to hop or run along the ground and occasionally giving themselves an extra push with their large wings to take off. Smooth-winged lindwyrms have a notably awkward gait, and prefer to move solely in short bursts instead of long strolls.
Smooth-winged lindwyrms are not particularly any more sociable or arcane than other dragon families, and can be found in most climates with a particular favor for plains and other open spaces. They are usually nomadic, and quite enjoy racing alongside humans who are in vehicles or on mounts.
Like their wyvern ancestors, smooth-winged lindwyrms can have nearly any integument, but are most commonly seen with scales or short hair-like protofeathers.
The way to differentiate a smooth-winged lindwyrm between wingless and frill-winged lindwyrms is present in the shape of their ribs and spines. Wingless lindwyrms have very long and mobile ribcages and short tails, smooth-winged lindwyrms have very stunted and fused ribcages and long tails, and frill-winged lindwyrms have gastralia and otherwise normal-length ribcages and tails.
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Frill-winged Lindwyrms
Trexidrakidae
Frill-winged lindwyrms, also known as old world lindwyrms, are the only family of lindwyrm that have two pairs of true forelimbs, instead of just one pair of forelimbs or a pair of wings and hind legs. Despite their rather snakelike appearance, they seem to have the same skeletal shape as their winged longbody ancestors, minus a pair of back legs. Like all old world dragons, they have gastralia bones on their stomachs.
Frill-winged lindwyrms are referred to as such due to their wing shape and style; like their ancestors, their wing types can vary, most often appearing as lobed fingerless pterosaurian wings but can also be feathered like a bird.
Their gait is awkward and sluggish, and frill-winged lindwyrms spend most of their time moving through powered flight, gliding, or a seal-like shuffle or hobble.
Frill-winged lindwyrms are, much like their ancestors, extremely sociable and friendly, and spend much of their time lazing about in the company of other creatures. They are usually quite peaceful, and prefer to run or fly away over fighting; however, they usually have arcane magic strong enough to fling threats away from themselves if need be.
Frill-winged lindwyrms can be found in all environments, most often by the coasts or lakes where there is plenty of water to swim and play in. Of all the lindwyrms, frill-winged lindwyrms are the most adept at swimming.
Like their ancestors, frill-winged lindwyrms are exclusively covered in thick coats of fluffy feathers, though their feathers specifically are oily and waterproof.
The way to differentiate a frill-winged lindwyrm between wingless and smooth-winged lindwyrms is present in the shape of their ribs and spines. Wingless lindwyrms have very long and mobile ribcages and short tails, smooth-winged lindwyrms have very stunted and fused ribcages and long tails, and frill-winged lindwyrms have gastralia and otherwise normal-length ribcages and tails.
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@cflight inquired: oh they’re begging alright—
She exhales hard, the hot cloud of breath stirred up from the bottom of her lungs, whistling through her nostrils. There, sitting against her gastralia like a stingray spine lodged there, is the persistent feeling of discomfort, the edge that turns her thoughts sour and her blood pallid. It is a stubborn thing, this. It is also something that she is much too familiar with in all walks of life, as ever-present as the roles of her throne demand her be, as someone who passes among crowds of many and cuts a certain image above them.
She leans her head over their shoulder, behind them. The mass of it, the weight that it carries, all solid bone and muscle, looms over Ekira, skirts just over their skin. It takes no guesswork to know what that head could do. The way the neck that connects to it could swing down in an instant, what jaws built like guillotine blades could sever from any meat left inside at the wrong moment.
Her teeth are insistent, when she latches them to the back of Ekira’s neck. There are four at the front that are smaller than the larger killing implements that fill the rest of her mouth, restricted by space and made useful for delicate work, such as scraping the last pieces of a meal from the bone. The points of them press down hard, persistent as the sensation of overstaying one’s welcome, not tearing into the skin but impossible to ignore.
Miranda has to be firm and courteous. This is proper, as is all of her teachings in this matter, even if she feels no better for it. She is a princess, no matter the civil barbarism her title demands live in her very marrow itself, and princesses are swift in such rejections, pointed, to-the-matter.
She lifts, pulling their weight up and onto her teeth, lifting them from the ground. It’s an effortless gesture for the main limb of her body, limited though it is in dexterity or swift work. Even moreso it helps reveal the extent of which she can be misjudged, thinking her arms and legs are her primary method of interaction with the world, and disregarding the amount of nerve endings lining her lips, her tongue.
From there, it’s a short walk to the door. Being carried there makes it shorter, every step purposeful and set as though in stone, moving with an air of finality that those who do not understand the act they must play cannot grasp. Their hooves touch the mahogany floor just on the outside of the threshold, steady and stern and lacking in any extravagant comfort, any gentleness to soothe the bruise of rejection. She is not someone to dance around the issue. Not when she’s made up her mind, as Miranda already has.
Her hands are on the door, moving it inwards as she speaks. She does not slam it, which makes the soft click of the knob fit back into place hurt all the more. “Good night, Ekira. I will talk to you tomorrow.”
#IC.#ASK.#cflight#(( well. it could have gone worse. but it also could have gone a lot better.#(( im so sorry miri is. well. shes miri-#(( SHE'S A FICKLE BEASTIE-#(( YOU KNOW THIS. SHE SURE FUCKIN IS. A MIRI.
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The night is quiet and the night is long.
Somewhere, there are insects calling. Faint and chirruping, calling out their early songs to the Spring nights, braving that last hold of winter before the heat of Summer rolls forth like a wave. The stars above are silent, unbothered by the dark wisps of clouds that hang here and there, lifted up by the humidity in the air. Branches and leaves shiver in the breeze, dark shapes that move outside the windows and yet betray nothing.
For a vampire like Liam, the night does mean sanctuary. But it is also important to remember that there are other things too, other things than vampires that call the night their home and move under the veil of darkness.
It is not a point of humility to remember that no one is the best hunter out there, that there is always someone or something better.
It is a point of common sense.
There is no sound that preludes the noise at the door, no indication that something has stepped up to his place of residence.
When it comes it shatters the quiet so firmly that it is almost a shock to realize that there is something, someone else there. That maybe the noise was just Liam's ears playing tricks on him, something else that he misheard, a noise that wasn't really a noise at all.
But then it comes again. A hasty, quick scratching sound, claws upon the front of his door, pawing fervently, feverishly at the cracks, at the knob, desperate to get in. Desperate for him to let her in, forgetting all protocol and all common sense and all basic decency and lost to something that she did not speak of.
She hopes he's in. That's all Miranda can do, really. It's not that she has nowhere else to go, but that this is the only place she can think to go to, her mind running in frantic circles all around the shape of his home even as she lays slumped against his door.
The smell of blood stings in her nose, but its not what scares her. Half of the blood flattening her clothes down to the front of her body and sticking to her in red sheets isn't even hers. The wound on her shoulder, at the very base of her neck, dark and deep and still coughing up chunks of semi-congealed blood and oozing more down her spine barely even hurts compared to everything else.
Her teeth clack together. Her salt organs stream tears down her face. Her body burns hot and cold both in shame, in anger, in guilt, in self loathing that lodges under her gastralia and wedges her apart. Everything comes unraveled at the seams, and all she can think of is how this is her fault. All her fault. Always her fault. She was always the fuckup of the family.
"Liam," Miranda begs, quiet, voice raspy and aching and throat burning, as she keeps scratching at the door. She'll find a way in. If he's not there, she'll find some way in, break some window, pick some lock, leave him the blood and the tears and the mess to find later. Going back isn't an option right now. "Liam, Liam, I know you are there, I know you are, please, Liam."
the comfort of the night, and the shine of the moon after the gloomy cover of cloud had been so nice for the vampire. stripped already of the day's outfit, dressed in clothes more fitting for curling up in his bed and scrolling for hours on his phone. hair down on his face, cascading over his eyes as the thin black pupils darted back and forth over the messages he was currently reading.
he had the doors of his balcony open, though he did not stand outside. resting against the cushions of his lounge chaise, slender legs stretched before him as he simply enjoyed the cool, warming breeze that blew in the night.
it was often what he did at night, curled up in either his room or his lounge, the doors or windows open to enjoy the air, loving the far fresher scent of spring over the bitter cold that came with winter.
with the heat of summer on the rise, and the sun's unrelenting heat and rays that dared threaten to burn him alive less he stand out in it for too long, an action he'd done once — after witnessing something he'd believed to be underground on someone else, his only resolve was to burn. polina had put him out quickly and slammed the hat onto his head to prevent it. he still felt a little bitter.
ripped from his thoughts, the silent planning of what he would do that summer, liam's ear twitched. his head snapped up, eyes darting quickly to the small archway leading out into the hall, towards the foyers where the door would be held. the sound of scratching, like a creature attempting to get in — or perhaps one that was already in, marking his floor that would cause such a nuisance to fix.
liam lived in this home for many centuries, and he would not have it ruined by some pest.
then it comes again, and liam can place for certainty that the sound is not coming from inside the house, but out. his movements are silent, a near perfect predator, able to stalk his prey and stalk around his house without making so much as a squeak in the floorboards.
there is no sign that he is in, liam likes to have light solely by candle most of the time, and through the thick doors and curtains, it is impossible to see if he is in. the low light not a hindrance to the vampire, but a blessing. a much needed rest from the achingly bright florescents used in schools, and stores to keep the place brightly lit for those unfortunate enough, to not have darkvision.
so the only solace miranda will get, is the sound of him unlocking the door.
the vampire smells the blood before he even reached the door. the smell of it causes those pupils in his eyes to expand, the richness of how tauntingly fresh it is brings worry over the initial spike in animalistic hunger. not even liam can fight his initial instincts as a predator, as one whom feasts on the plasma and energy of others.
the next thing he notices, he hears, when he has finally reached the door, the steps far quicker than he intended them to be once he caught the whiff of something delicious, was the whispers. the raspy voice of miranda, that nearly makes him freeze. hand grasping rightly onto the doorknob, ready to move and pull the door open for his friend, knowing it could be dangerous to do so, hearing the voice sound so much like her, and yet so much not like her.
liam knew he was not the perfect predator, and could become prey just as easy.
in the end, liam's care for the princess overtook, and tentatively, the vampire pulled the door open. peering one golden eye out of the doorframe, staring down for a moment to where he knew miranda would be. seeing her soaked in blood, blood he truly hoped was not hers, and quick he was to pull the door open further.
caring not how she saw him.
"miranda?" surprise was ever present in his voice, widened eyes staring at the bloodied form of the merfolk before him, body still tense from his earlier apprehensions, but slowly they melted. his hand slipped from the thick door he'd opened for the two of them, and out his arms extended.
"come, come hurry inside. i'll help you."
#royalreef#ask#long post#fangs & filters 「 liam de lioncourt 」#content warnings#cw blood#blood#comfy liam at home#but also now high stress bc it's not often someone shows up#BLEEDING#and covered in blood#on your doorstep
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