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Neoteric dinosaurs

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Neoteric dinosaurs

And the next ballpen-compilation! This time I designed some dinosaurs, which survived the mass-extinction 65 million years ago and became neoteric or "modern". Of course, this is just another tribute to Dougal Dixon and his book "The new dinosaurs". Unfortunately I never read it, just saw some illustrations - they kicked my mind!

I don't really know, why Dixon's dinosaurs survived, but I think he just elided the world shocking KT-event. I had another (or the same) idea: what if the asteroid would have been much smaller? Maybe just 4 or 5 kilometers, not 10? Would that be enough to smack down the old empire, but less enough to let some smaller and more agile dinosaur species survive? Would mammals be the winners though? I said: NO!

I let survive only small dinosaur species, like Coelurosaurs, little Ceratopsians like Protoceratops, or daintily Pachycephalosaurs like Stegoceras. How did they survive the global winter? Well, first: the winter was not as extreme as that one that wiped out the original dynasty. Second: these small dinosaurs learned to handle the situation, some became insectivores, some became even smaller, or they just adapted to that niches the mammals would capture. And here we go! (btw I don't give a guarantee for correct name giving, cause in most of the cases I mixed greek and latin only by my school knowlegde)

a. Insopteraptor - termite predator, an descendant of a survived coelurosaur species. Cause anteaters not existed, their niche was completely free. The Insopteraptor has developed strong claws to crack termite colonies and a long, gluey tongue to catch those nutritious critters succesfully. Looks kind of uninspired, but I think it's a good example for convergent evolution.

b. Fodioceratops - digging horn face, even if it has got no horns . . . anyway, small ceratopsians survived the global winter by hiding in caves and eating roots. After food resources became rare some of them started to develope into insectivores. Finally they developed claws for digging and now look just a lot like recent moles. But there are differences: Fodioceratops' don't live in colonies yet, and they're much bigger than moles. And they lay eggs - and they have a neck shield - and they are just weird, damn!

c. Pseudohippus - wannabe horse, I definately like that one! It's the descendant of the small ornitopode Hypsolophodon. That creatures were biped, but after the big herbivores extinct they got much bigger. They became quadroped, stronger and adapted to a new food resource: grass. Cause there are no horses, zebras, gnus, cows and all that other cattle, they extremely spreaded out and developed hundreds of species. This one here is just as big as a horse, but it's digestion works like the one of a cow - so, the Pseudohippus is a dinosaur ruminant!

d. Feravenator - cruel hunter, I hate that one! It's just a humanoid raptor, the legs look so crappy and the whole thing is just bad drawn. Argh, but some facts: it's not the descendant of a Raptor, but of a much smaller Coelurosaur, so it's a violent and carnivorous relative of the Insopteraptor. It hunts in packs and has got a highly developed social structure. Just like today's lions or wolves, which never existed. They terrorize the steppe of Afrika, some sub-species have reached Amerika and Siberia. But they look much better than these bastard . . .

e. Perrectosaurus - outstretched lizard, the second descendant of a small survived ceratopsian. These ones captured the niche of sauropods, or our elefants and giraffes. Like them they developed long legs and big bodies with a massive digestive system. Although they became so big to resist the attacks of the Feravenators or other aggressive predators (which unfortunately aren't shown here).

f. Ericiomimus - hedgehog mime, descendant of the pachycephalosaur Stegoceras. As effective defence against the Feravenators they developed spikes on neck, back, arms and tail. Although they live in big herds of more then 50 animals, which is even more defence. Like their anchestors they use their thick forehead to fight against rivals.

g. Saurocervus - lizard deer, OK, bad name. As well a descendant of Stegoceras. But this species adapted to the niche of antilopes or (like the name says) deer and became quadroped. Diffent sub-species have a different number or a different shape of horns. Like deer they use their horns for rival fight, just as their relatives, the Ericiomimi.

h. Polyphagus minor - tiny glutton, muahaha, my favourite! That extremely small insectivore is a distant relative of the Feravenator. Sub-species fill the niches of shrews, lemurs and monkeys and damn, they're hungry! Just imagine creatures like this could become sapient! Surely they would be as efficient as we in exploiting our planet!

l. Ornithocetus - the bird-whale! OK, that idea is definately not new, think most of you have already seen some visions of future penguin-whales (known from "After Man"), but I choosed a different anchestor: Hesperornis, a fast, diving water bird. It used it's hindlegs to gain speed. After the big sea reptiles extinct, it captured the niche, got much bigger and developed fins and a big, hungry beak. It gives birth to already living offspring and doesn't need to lay eggs.

j. Comatoceratops - hairy horn face, or maybe feathered? When the ice-age invaded the nothern regions the reptilian dinosaur descendants had to adapt to that hard conditions. Some of them developed feathers and bigger bodies, but ain't it possible that some of them even developed hair? This third descendant of a ceratopsian has it! Looks like Styrakosaurus had sex with a bear, but I just wanted to draw that idea. Would like to know your opinion if dinosaur descendant could survive in polar regions!

But, almost forgotten, what happened to the mammals? They just have to wait for the next mass extinction! Come one, only 100 million years more to go! You will make it! (Losers!)

So, that's it! Like always I bet for your comments and critiques and to tell me which ones your favourite! (I prefer C, G and H) So, keep on watching and please comment!
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Pizzaman2015's avatar
*teleports the dinosaurs to Chaosrealm*