This map is from a recent study (https://scitechdaily.com/when-mega-el-nino-rewrote-earths-fate-the-untold-story-of-the-largest-mass-extinction/).
It makes me suspicious that the northern landmass is shown with very cold surface temperatures when this is the moment of extinction. In Siberia (this is apparently Siberia) at that moment there were eruptions. Shouldn't there be higher temperatures there?
…how would you rate the Lystrosaurus in the Great Dying episode of Animal Armageddon in terms of accuracy?
Normally I don't make posts or polls asking what series I should do, but now it seems inevitable. I'm running out of ideas for movie posters and such, and besides, I want to do something other than silly AI garbage now.
I need to know what kind of series you all would take interest in. Many of the series I've tried before don't seem to interest many people, because of the extensive reading involved.
Would you guys like me to continue the What If Dinosaurs Never Evolved? series or Prehistoric Dominion?
(Megastropheus by @KaijuNerd)
Or, I had an idea for doing a Hunger Games-like roleplay where users take the part of characters/creatures from my series on DBWC Wiki.
Please let me know what you think and give suggestions! Your help is much appreciated.
Pax pax
Wingspan: 2.3 meters
Length: 1 meters
Weight: 10 pounds
Age: Late Triassic (30,000,000 A.G.D.)
Group: Pterosauria
Family: Dimorphodontidae
Pax is a dimorphodontid pterosaur from the skies of North Western Pangea. It differs from other dimorphodontids with its unusual long and narrow wings. This makes the animal less agile, but in return gives it the ability to fly longer and farther.
The long, conical teeth of Pax he'll is grab onto slippery fish it likes to eat. Pax is a sea pterosaur and can spend hours in the air above Great Panthalassa. Occasionally, however, it will fly inland to feed on carcasses in the desert or large bugs like Myriacanthids.
Check out the episode!
Check out the series:
https://dinopedia.fandom.com/f/t/Permian-Triassic%20extinction%20event
Pax image by @Kaijusaur1954
@Nizaluddin @Just shi over here... @AcryAllofan150 @Ankysareawesome @Shieldon.BAH
Megastropheus tribelesodus
Height: 1.5 meters
Length: 7.5 meters
Weight: 420 pounds
Age: Late Triassic (30,000,000 A.G.D.)
Group: Archosauromorpha
Family: Tanystropheidae
Megastropheus is a bizarre reptile that live along every shoreline of western Pangea. It hunts fish, placodonts, and occasionally synapsids like Tyrannodon. While larger crocodilian predators rule the rest of Pangea, tanystropheids like Megastropheus rule the coasts.
Megastropheus is more lightly built than the raisuchians, but it has adapted several features to make it more formidable than previous tanystropheids like Tanystropheus. Its long neck extends longer than the rest of its body, so it can surprise fish and other prey.
Muscles between its neck vertebrae can expand and contract, allowing Megastropheus to control the length of its neck. While extended, its neck it more fragile, but it more ideal for hunting small prey. While pulled in, its neck is stronger and it can fight larger animal.
In Megastropheus' jaws are conical, interlocking teeth. Megastropheus is an adept swimmer, and it occasionally ventures into the water to pursue prey. There it comes face to face with the native ichthyosaurs and nothosaurs.
@Nizaluddin @Just shi over here... @AcryAllofan150 @Ankysareawesome @Shieldon.BAH
Catch up on the webisode: https://dinopedia.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000000123806
See what WIDNE is all about: https://dinopedia.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000000123630
The Tyrannodon hasn't stumbled across any old creature. This is Megastropheus, the terror of the coasts!
The Megastropheus snaps at the Tyrannodon, and the mammal runs away. The Megastropheus flashes its fangs and plods down the beach.
Megastropheus is a type of unique reptile called a Tanystropheid. Earlier in the Triassic era, they were bizarre lizards with ridiculously long necks and small legs, hunting fish in shallow water. Now, they have grown larger, their legs lengthening, and their jaws turning into the weapon of an apex predator.
Thanks to @KaijuNerd for Megastropheus depiction!
The Tyrannodon keeps running until the Megastropheus vanishes from view. Out over the waves, a few Pax circle overhead, occasionally diving to skim the waves.
Pax are highly specialized pterosaurs. With longer, narrower wings, they can travel long distances and swim over the ocean waves, grabbing any fish near the surface. The paxids have given up mobility for size and durability.
The Tyrannodon turns away and moves on. It finds a large dead sarcopterygii fish on the beach and sniffs at it. Opening its jaws, it eats at the fish's rotting flesh.
Luck at last! A sea creature washed on the beach by the raging storm.
The Tyrannodon gulps down the last of the lobe-finned fish and turns. It plods further down the beach eyes always alert.
Under other circumstances, the Tyrannodon would be the top predator of the earth. But in this world, the giant crocodilians protect their title as undisputed rulers. And so these mammals, for the time being, must live under their shadows.
We move out over the ocean, with Pax swooping around.
The pterosaurs however, live under no animal's shadow. They rule the skies, unchallenged. The first vertebrates ever to fly.
A Pax swoops over the waves and dips its beak in.
They have it made, swooping over seas and lands teeming with food. But the way they catch this food is rather strange.
The Pax's beak hits a fish and its snaps shut.
It's primitive wings can't afford to get wet, so it grabs surface fish another way. A beak dipped in the ocean, snapping onto anything it hits.
The sun begins to dip behind the swirling ocean. The Pax soar into the sky above a land of new life.
Just 30 million years before, the earth had suffocated in a blanket of heat, killing nearly all life on earth. But from the ashes of the fire, life arises anew, stronger than ever. The first giant flyers rule the skies.
Below on the shore, Megastropheus creeps along, looking left and right for prey.
And new predators have taken the greatest bites of the animal kingdom. But this world is still subject from change.
A Fasolasuchus pads along beside the desert oasis, sniffing the air. Nearby a Desmatosuchid lies motionless, dried out and dead from starvation and thirst.
What is a desert now, will soon be flooded with water. The earth is changing, breaking apart. And when it does, the cracks will fill in with water.
A dark fin cuts through the surface of a new ocean.
And creatures will fill that water...
Pings: @Nizaluddin @Shi reincarnated @AcryAllofan150 @Ankysareawesome @Shieldon.BAH
If you so desire a pings let me know.
Catch up on the webisode: https://dinopedia.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000000123736
See what WIDNE is all about: https://dinopedia.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000000123630
This is a Myriacanthid. A descendant of the myriapods from a time long before the Great Dying. Myriapods are the group that contains centipedes and millipedes.
The Myriacanthid, oblivious to the Tyrannodon, inspects a spore on the side of a cycad and bites at it.
Centipedes and millipedes are small. This creature is a meter long, a size that was allowed by the special conditions of the Triassic. They are fast, easily able to outrun any crocodilian predator.
A growl escapes the Tyrannodon's mouth. It charges and confronts the Myriacanthid.
The Myriacanthid is not a predator. It feeds on detritus and ferns. But if it is attacked, it has one trick up its antennae.
A spray of a spore-like gas is emitted by the Myriacanthid. The Tyrannodon shakes its snout and steps back. The Myriacanthid flees.
The Arthropod emits a foul chemical. It is designed specifically to discourage Chordata, back-boned animals. This allows the the Myriacanthid to escape, and it move away as fast as its 50 legs can carry it. But in this world, another danger is always just around the bend.
The startled Myriapoda moves off course, and blindly flees from the ditch. Panicked, it shuffles out into the open desert.
Daylight during the wet season is what a Myriacanthid should avoid at all costs. But this unfortunate bug is to panicked to realize where it's going. When it finally regains its composure, it's far too late. The attack comes not from a ground hunter, but from above.
As the Myriacanthid blunders into the desert, it find itself in a colony of flying reptiles. The vicious things dive at the Arthropod, screeching.
A colony of Pax, giant pterosaurs. Their name means "peace", but they seldom live up to it. It's over for the Myriacanthid. These reptiles are insectivores.
A few Pax flip over the Myriacanthid, and the group proceeds to tear into the bug until nothing is left. It is all very gruesome.
After a great deal of infighting, biting, scratching, and screeching, the bug is devoured by the Pax.
The Pax strech their wings and take off, screeching to one another.
Pax are 2 meter wide pterosaurs that have migrated inland from the coast for the wet season. They are here to feed off of carcasses and insects.
The pterosaurs fly off into the desert sky. Day and night they travel, toward a shape in the distance.
The pterosaurs leave the desert, flying towards cliffs on the horizon. Coastal cliffs.
The Pax reach the cliffs and roost.
These craggy cliffs provide needed protection from predators like Tyrannodon and Fasolasuchus. Later in the wet season, the Pax will perform mating ceremonies on this very spot. Life in this pterosaur world will go on.
We move from the cliffs down to the shoreline. As far as the eye can see, waves swirl on the ocean surface.
This ocean, called Panthalassa, stretching over nearly the entire planet. It is the only ocean, and it has been surrounding Pangaea since a hundred million years before the Great Dying.
We move to the seashore, where bits of shell and seaweed wash up.
The shores of this ocean are bombarded with torrential storms. Thousands of sea creatures and other life are killed or broken apart. Some land creatures take advantage of this and search for easy pickings left over from this natural disaster.
A Tyrannodon is stalking the beaches, sniffing and looking around.
This Tyrannodon is scavenging the beaches for a bite. These mammals are very opportunistic creatures, finding food wherever they can. Whether it's a rotting carcass, a freshly killed cynodont, or a beached cephalopod, they don't care.
The Tyrannodon sniffs as a shell with an oozing substance around it. It is a small cephalopod, but unfortunately nothing of it is left. It then pads up to a large tide pool and peers into the murky water. It can see bits of debris, like broken sponges and urchins.
A coastal Tyrannodon has stumbled across a tide pool. This large puddle is likely a result of the storm. Soon it will be teeming with new life, from fish to crabs to sea sponges. But now, something lurks in the depth of the water, looking up at this mammal.
With a splash a large creature stirring in the tide pool, and a bizzare reptile scrambles out, flexing a scary, but vulnerable, neck.
To be continued.
Pings: @Nizaluddin @Shi reincarnated @AcryAllofan150 @Ankysareawesome
If you so desire a pings let me know.
Fasolasuchus yasui
Height: 2.9 meters
Length: 10 meters
Weight: 4,500 pounds
Group: Loricata
Fasolasuchus atroxi is the largest species of terrestrial carnivore up until it's time. With its powerful size and strength, it can hunt even the largest herbivores in the Upper Triassic, 30 million A.G.D., such as aetiosaaurs and dicynidonts.
Its build is similar to other pseudosuchians of today, such as the raisuchian Postasuchus. It's four, muscled legs are perfect for travelling great distances and for holding down prey. Although it is to large and center-balanced to walk bipedally, Fasolasuchus can rear up for a few moments, perhaps when fighting herbivores.
The jaws of Fasolasuchus tall and wide, perfect for delivering crushing bites into bone. In fact, we have estimated it can inflict a bite force of over 35,000 newton's, easily crushing the bones of Desmatosuchid necks. This is around the same crushing force as the Tyrannosaurus, which is a mighty feat for a crocodilian to achieve.
Wait a minute, Tyrannosaurus? What's that? Never heard of it. 🤷♂️
250 million years ago, the Great Dying decimated life one Earth. 95% of all creatures died in one swift wave of fire. Then here we are, 30 million years later, and the environment is left with open niches to fill. We all know the story about how the dinosaurs rose from small beginnings to fill in these niches, dominating the world for 160 million years.
But what if they never made it? What if a different group beat the mighty dinosaurs to it? What would happen if prehistory changed its course and Dinosaurs Never Evolved?
It is the Triassic period, 30 million years A.G.D. We are here in North Eastern Pangaea, the super continent of the world.
We are in a desolate desert wasteland, with only a few scorched trees in sight.
In the last 30 million years, in the absence of the giant Permian synapsids, we have seen an explosion in new giant forms of live.
A massive predator runs past on 4, powerful legs.
This is Fasolasuchus, a 30 foot super killer of the modern age! It is the largest terrestrial predator the world has ever seen, up until now.
The Fasolasuchus stops and sniffs the air.
And it hunts large reptiles.
Nearby, a smaller, herbivorous crocodilian nibbles at a dried bush.
A Desmatosuchid is the most massive herbivorous reptile in these lands. At over 5 meters long and heavily armored, it poses a great threat to its few enemies. Fasolasuchus is in fact one of these few enemies.
The Fasolasuchus snarls at the desmatosuchid, and rears on its hind legs. The desmatosuchid turns and groans. It crouches, ready to defend itself with its large shoulder spikes. The Fasolasuchus turns and leaves.
These new forms of giant life will likely set the cornerstone for even larger giants. We must prepare for a new chapter in the story of life.
The deserts of our planet are vast, stretching throughout most of Pangaea's interior. In North Eastern Pangaea, they are particularly brutal. But it is not completely void of green.
We arrive at a large desert oasis. Ferns and cycads adorn the small speck in the desert.
It is the beginning of this world's wet season, and this oasis boasts a wide variety of new plant life. Tall cycads and numerous but weak ferns.
A small mammal-like creature moves from the bushes, twitching its whiskers.
This probainognathid is a cynodont. A proto-mammal. It spends its days searching for small primitive lizards to eat.
The probainognathid scratches at the ground and sniffs the air. It peers at a odonopterid flying around a nearby fern.
Mammals? An insignificant small life form. Have you even heard of them? Up until now, they never even really existed.
A larger creature bursts from the bushes and kills the probainignathid. It is a clawed and bares sharp canines. It snarls viciously.
Tyrannodon. A true mammal. But isn't this predator before its time? Today, we look back and barely see a glimpse of mammalian life.
The Tyrannodon bites the probainognathid in the thoats, restraining it with its terrible claws and weight.
With the lack of fast predators, the mammals have evolved quickly. Their efficient reproduction and nurturing system give them an advantage overother animals. And, due to lack of competition, they have left their burrows to become vicious terrestrial predators.
The Tyrannodon drags its kill into the bushes of the now silent oasis. Small flying reptiles appear in the skies above.
But where do they find enough food? Prey can't be too quick, as Tyrannodon has forfeited speed in favor of killing weapons and bulk. Well, the large herbivorous crocodilians have little competition, but they aren't suited for the newly evolved species of ferns and other plants. Therefore, to adapt quickly enough they grew drastically smaller, requiring less bulk to fuel with their malnutritional diet. But, they have yet to become speedy escape artists, as running fast using up energy they do not yet possess.
The Tyrannodon drags its kill into a small ditch. A squealing sound can be heard below. Insects buzz out of the animal's path.
Because of this, the Tyrannodon's common prey is crocodilians. But it will hunt proto-mammals given the chance.
Mammals are only taking their first bites, and they cannot diversify quite yet. This scorching Triassic climate does not providethe environment they need for rapid adaptations, so the mammals will have to wait a while to grow larger bodies.
The Tyrannodon snarls as a small flying reptile dives toward the carcass, and swats the air. The reptile flees.
This Tyrannodon is a male, and he's bringing his kill back to his family. These mammals are monotremes, meaning they lay eggs like their therapsid ancestors. But upon hatching, the young are fed and raised by their parents. It increases their chance of survival, but also means only a few young can be cared for at a time.
The Tyrannodon gives the probainognathid to the mother, and she uses fearsome fangs to rip it apart.
The mother Tyrannodon must constantly be fed, to keep her milk supplies high. The babies, thankfully, are almost ready to move out on their own. They've been under their parents protection for almost 10 months now.
The babies squeal and move to greet their father. Whiskers twitching. Small stubs, growing canines, poke out from between the younglings' lips.
This small ditch is cool and peaceful, perfect for a mammalian predator like Tyrannodon. However, safety is often a misconception in nature. A large creature is approaching.
The sound a crunching can be heard from outside the ditch. A hissing, almost sizzling sound can be heard. The Tyrannodons look up.
A meter long animal peers over the side ditch, antennae swishing in the air. It's mandibles clatter together and it hisses a ferocious hiss.
To be continued.
For the main WIDNE post:
https://dinopedia.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000000123630
250 million years ago, the Great Dying decimated life one Earth. 95% of all creatures died in one swift wave of fire. Then here we are, 30 million years later, and the environment is left with open niches to fill. We all know the story about how the dinosaurs rose from small beginnings to fill in these niches, dominating the world for 160 million years.
But what if they never made it? What if a different group beat the mighty dinosaurs to it? What would happen if prehistory changed its course and Dinosaurs Never Evolved?
What if Dinosaurs Never Evolved is a speculative series describing possible events in a different reality where dinosaurs never dominated the Earth. New imagined creature will evolve to dominate in their absence; from highly adapted crocodilians to bizzare mammalian predators.
So step into an reality where giant dinosaurs, me, and you never existed.
This series will feature 5 periods:
30 million A.G.D. (After Great Dying)
50 million A.G.D.
100 million A.G.D.
110 million A.G.D.
180 million A.G.D.
(So... episode 6: synapsid domination only takes place in the early permian because i don't want to make the episode longer or anything but yeah but lets get into episode 7: permian demise...)
We are in the lopingian epoch of the permian 259.51-251.9 mya in what's now russia
Most of the pangea subcontinent is barren with few vegatation and arid theres also forest here but the number of greenery on the supercontinent is much less than today.
but creatures have adapted to survive in this(mostly)deserted world.
(shi's depiction of scutosaurus karpinskii)
Like this scutosaurus over here. he's a distant ancestral relative of modern turtles, over 2.5 meters long and probably weighted 1,160 kg
Scutosaurus normally travel in herds but this one is wandering alone...and he has sensed something, vulnerable to a fearsome therapsid.
(shi's depiction of inostrancevia alexandri, shi often refered inostrancevia as ino for some reason) the attacker was a fearsome inostrancevia. she evolved saber teeth. she's also a gorgonopsid, the first animals to evolve these kinds of teeth.
Inostrancevia is a fast powerful predator of the late permian. she bites into her victim with her saber teeth. the scutosaurus couldn't stand a chance againts this predator...
It seems like the scutosaurus is weakened by his wound and waits for the killer blow...
These cainine teeth that can reach up to 12-15 cm long are lethal weapons that predators who came after the permian will later use including the infamous saber-toothed smilodon of the still currently-ongoing cenozoic era. temperatures from volcanic activity in the permian climate is heating up the planet which triggered the largest mass extinction on earth's history.
We then traveled to south africa. where we saw a small synapsid who lives in burrows...
(shi's reconstruction of diictodon feliceps)
Smaller animals like the dicynodonts can survive the permian mass extinction. these burrowers are called diictodons.
like other dicynodonts they have a tusk and beak. they lived like a modern gopher digging spiral-shaped dig deep underground burrows which allowed them to hide from predators and sandstorms and even keep them warm even in the heat of the permian supercontinent.
to create a burrow. diictodons push dirt to create an entrance then dig deep in a spiral pattern until they made the chamber where they rest and sleep for the day. inhabiting the south african oasi is isn't a synapsid, it's a temnospondyli amphibian called rhinesuchus
(rhinesuchus whaitsi art by:shi)
Rhinesuchus fossils are found in south africa's karoo basin'. they are about 3 meters in length and weighted over 100 kg. while in other parts of south africa...
(abdalodon diastematicus art by:shi)
An abdalodon and her young are resting in the floodplains. these small cynodonts are are known from a crushed skull discovered in the karoo basin of south africa. it's name means abdala's teeth, right now her young are under their mother's protection
In south africa, we saw another dicynodont synapsid
This is pristerodon mackayi, a dicynodont who's fossils are found in south africa, zambia and india. they are among the earliest animals able to hear airborne sound to opposed via hearing vibration along with diictodon.
We traveled back to russia to see another synapsid
Proburnetia viatkensis is a biarmosuchusn therapsid of russia. she had bizzare bumps even in the protrusions of her skull. she's 1.5 meters long with a 20 cm skull, another predator is eating a carcass of an temnospondyli amphibian
This is scylacosuchus orenburgensis. a predatory eutheroceohalian of orenburg oblast pf russia. he's a distant relative of moschorhinus
(life restoration of moschorhinus preying on a dicynodont lystrosaurus)
251.9 million years ago. the great dying occured. caused by flood basalt volcanic eruptions and carbon dioxide. this is the largest extinction life on earth has ever seen....
Diictodons hide in burrows, food become scarces, and 90% of the planet's species that lived during this time go extinct. theres still hope that a few species might survive like therapsids, and a few fish, it seems our ancestors are evolving to become more mammalian a few million years later after thw great dying
we finally reached the beginning of the dinosaurs....
This is where i'm going to end this series
Because the series mainly focouses on the paleozoic and not the mesozoic and cenozoic.
So yeah
34 Votes in Poll
THE BIG DIE
I just wasted like an hour of my life playing this, it's pretty cool. I love how there's diffirent text under the title each time you start the game like: Dude, where's my biodiversity?; Prehistoric Thanos; The rather large F or The smallen't liven't. In this game you play as a Lystrosaurus and you run from a big wave of lava until you reach the Triassic period. I managed to get 2 screenshots while playing it:
The Great Dying:
250 million years ago, something happened that lead to more than 90% of life dying including all the trilobites, this event was known as the Permian-Triassic extinction event or the great dying, out of the few creatures that survived there was a group of small animals known as the archosaurs, after the extinction the world was left empty and full of niches to fill in.
The Earliest Dinosaurs:
It was the Late Triassic, the world was ruled by the survivors of the great dying, but another creature was about to join them, around 233 million years ago, the earliest known dinosaurs appeared, they evolved from the small archosaurs that survived the great dying. The dinosaurs were different, they stood and walked on their hind legs, they had long snouts and tails, these adaptations helped the early dinosaurs like Eoraptor and Herrerasaurus to rise in the food chain.
The Saurischians:
Millions of years later, the dinosaurs diversify and fill in niches, among the new dinosaurs were the saurischians or bird-hipped, they were like the early dinosaur but faster, more nimble and more adapted, one kind of saurischian, the sauropodomorphs, started growing to enormous sizes, sauropodomorphs like Plateosaurus grew 4 m tall and weighed up to a ton while the Theropods like Coelophysis stayed small.
The Ornithischians:
While the Saurischians were thriving, another group of dinosaurs evolved, these were the ornithischians, there was a major difference between these two groups, there hips, in saurischians the pubis bone(one of three bones making the hip) was pointing downwards, but in ornithischians the pubis bone was pointing backwards, after the end triassic extinction event these two groups became the dominant life form during the start of the Jurassic, predators became larger than ever before and their prey became even larger, they were the largest land creatures to ever exist.
The Early Birds:
While Dinosaurs were dominating the land, a group of theropod dinosaurs known as the maniraptorans figured out a way to fly, they had long flight feathers, hollow bones and a keel, Archaeopteryx is often tolled to be the first bird, a missing link between birds and dinosaurs, these early birds gave rise to the millions of species we know today, which many consider to be the last surviving Dinosaurs.
Permian extinction: I prefer the better name
The great dying: I said the better name
The big die: perfection
