My mum keeps getting worried. I don't know why.... She says that no such things exist, they look real to me.
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24 Votes in Poll
For me it's:
Endlessly looped footage. Clash of the Dinosaurs shows the clip of Quetzalcoatlus swallowing a Tyrannosaurus chick like twelve million times per each episode, not to mention that azhdarchid stands on hind legs during this.
Comparing every dinosaur to Tyrannosaurus, even the ones that aren't theropods. Monsters Resurrected compares Spinosaurus and Acrocanthosaurus to it every sentence. Clash of the Dinos endlessly berates Sauroposeidon for abandoning its nests and not having a Moon-sized brain while also praising Tyrannosaur even though there's no actual fossil evidence of it raising its chicks.
Shrink-wrapped and naked dinosaurs with pronated arms and exposed teeth. Sauroposeidon from Clash of the Dinosaurs is basically a nightmare fuel with how bony the head is, how thin its limbs are, and how horrible teeth look.
When narrators hate their subject and endlessly berate extinct creatures for not having brains the size of a Moon and praise a dinosaur that existed for two million years for having a slightly larger brain than the rest.
When they make up ridiculous stuff like Tyrannosaurus having an expandable mouth or Parasaurolophus shooting sonic blasts at its predators.
What are your pet peeves on this subject matter?
23 Votes in Poll
The Lost Isles
3 - Attack
The large creature flapped its massive wings, coming down with a giant slam before lowering its enlarged head. Sam tried to immediately shoot at it before the beast screamed, raising its head back up, only to slam back down, pecking near Sam. Robbie ran toward it and slashed its arm with the bent tail rotor. It immediately yelped in pain before turning around and grabbing Robbie’s leg with its hardened beak, flinging him into a large tree. Robbie’s dead weight crashed down onto the hardy roots, which hardly took any damage. Robbie, however, groaned and moaned, pushing his arm to push over the root. A red wash trickled from his mouth as he observed the creature continue to peck at Sam nearly 7 metres away. He grunted, pushing himself upwards to pull out the guide, flipping to the WINGFINGER section. There, he found it. “Wingfinger - Variant B”
“Colossal pterosaur and the largest Wingfinger variant Walker has engineered. They tend to stick to the inner parts of the island, attacking small prey that they sense as helpless. It has no teeth, so it often mangles prey with its sharp beak to swallow chunks whole. If the prey is small enough, they will swallow it entirely, leaving the prey to slowly digest in its slow-working stomach acid.” It read.
“Shit,” Robbie groaned, trying to get up he couldn’t even spot John anywhere.
Sam cried out in terror as he began climbing a vine up to 2B0681. The Wingfinger, with its 3-metre height and elongated, stalk-like neck, merely raised it to continue pecking. Robbie finally got back up, though limping, to reach his tail rotor, which had the Wingfinger’s blood on it. As Sam ascended higher and higher, the Wingfinger grabbed the vine with its beak, yanking down the vine and Sam. Its feathery coatings fluffed as it felt Robbie slashing its leg, grounding it. It shrieked in aggravation, nipping at Robbie before it felt another bullet fly into its skin. Sam quickly ascended once again, dropping onto his helicopter and climbing inside for safety. Robbie tried to cut the Wingfinger again, but it climbed up the tree and then onto 2B0681, trying to tear it open to get Sam.
Robbie approached the helicopter from below, then noticed an empty knife-holder. Robbie perked back up when he heard vines snap, the helicopter crumbling under the massive Azdarchid’s weight. Robbie managed to roll out of the way just as 2B0681 crashed down in a crushing impact. The Wingfinger managed to fly upwards just as the helicopter crashed, avoiding the impact, just before landing once again to continue its assault. Robbie crawled to a tree and hid behind its root as it watched the Azdarchid whine before trying to get into it again. Was it– was it starving? Before Robbie had a chance to contemplate this sudden thought, Sam began screaming as the Wingfinger managed to squeeze its head inside. Sudden slashes could be heard, then a few gunshots, one even flying out of the cabin, zipping right past Robbie’s face.
Robbie turned back to see the Wingfinger exit its head from the cabin, trying to swallow Sam’s body. It suddenly took off into the sky, flying high above the crash, before dropping Sam. Robbie’s eyes widened in horror as Sam crashed onto the cold metal frame of the helicopter that once shielded him. A red wash spilled from the back of Sam’s helmet, and a similar wash also gushed from his mouth, his eyes and limbs twitching briefly, before falling silent, just as the Wingfinger crashed back down somewhat desperately to begin to eat.
The Lost Isles
2 - Grounded
John’s vision blurred as he ached to get up. His darker tones blended in with the dark earth beneath him. His bones ached and his ears rang, but he managed to push himself over, to see 2B0681 just above him, suspended by the tree and vines. John nearly passed out again before he saw Robbie climbing the tree to help Sam out of the helicopter.
“Hey, you okay?” Sam asked, jumping down onto the ground beside John.
“Yeah, can barely feel anything, though.” John groaned, getting up.
“You took one hell of a fall.” Robbie pointed out.
“So now what? We stick to the mission?” John asked, looking at Sam.
“Even if we collect the samples, we have no way of safely transporting them off the island. We had a container to keep them fresh, but that was in my chopper, and she’s-” Sam looked up at the damaged helicopter, encased in vines that wrapped into every crack and crevice. “Not exactly coming down.” He sighed.
“Robbie, did you find out what those things were?” John asked.
“Yeah, Wingfinger Variant A. Codename WFA, they are the medium-sized Wingfinger variant. C’s smaller and B’s larger- much larger. It says here that the first clones were hatched in 1989. They are particularly territorial and stick to the outer water sources of the island. They’re also known to mob if threatened.” Robbie read.
“Wonderful,” John sighed. “Any idea where to go? Maybe a facility around here?” He asked.
“This doesn’t come with a map,” Robbie explained.
“No, the map was with the container, in my chopper,” Sam explained.
“So, we’re on an island with dangerous, genetically engineered amalgamations, no map, no way off, does anybody even know where we are?” John asked.
“Last time I successfully transmitted to Walker Airstrip was letting them know we were approaching Deinonia,” Sam informed.
“Is there like a precaution? Like, if you don’t transmit within 24 hours, they send a search party or something?” Robbie asked.
Sam shook his head.
“No. The most we did was two teams in case one was killed. They’re approaching from the east side.” Sam explained.
“And we approached from the west… Do you have any idea where a facility might be?” John asked.
Robbie rolled his eyes and began climbing the tree.
“I have no idea how deep we are. We could be southwest of the facility, or west of it, or even east, I have no idea.” Sam acknowledged.
Sam’s eyes drifted to Robbie, but widened when they didn’t find him. John turned around and then also wondered.
“Wait, he just- left?” John asked.
Above them, Robbie quietly snickered.
“I never saw him leave. Where would he have gone?”
“Shit, always trust Robbie to go on his own.” John sighed.
Suddenly, a few drops of blood fell on John’s shoulder. The two dreadfully looked up, just to see the helicopter rocking side to side, with Robbie climbing atop. Blood from the windshield was being shaken, dripping down the fuselage and falling on John.
“Hey, be careful up there! The debris could fall if you put too much pressure!” Sam yelled.
“Whatever, heads up!” Robbie yelled, tossing the dented container down to Sam.
John anxiously ran forward to catch it. He finally let out a sigh of relief, seeing the container safely in his arms. The glint of the metal reflected onto John’s dark skin, contrasting greatly. Sam looked up, covering his eyes from the peering eyes of sunlight through the dense canopy. Sam’s hairs perked outward as the sunlight was suddenly intercepted for a moment. As the massive sheet of shadow blanketed flashes of light, Robbie perked up from inside the damaged cabin, hearing the shrill screams of a beast from above. Sam anxiously awaited an attack, but the only light returned, causing Sam to have to shield his eyes once again. The shriek echoed through the air once again. Robbie immediately climbed onto the open cockpit door, attempting to jump down. As Robbie nudged closer to the edge, the hinges gave way, causing Robbie to fall to the ground with a sickening thud.
“You okay? Did you grab the map?” Sam asked, running to Robbie.
Robbie only groaned, but his hand released, revealing a half-torn map of the island.
“Dammit,” Sam groaned.
Behind them, John screamed in terror, causing Robbie to immediately bolt upwards.
“Something’s hunting us…” John muttered, throwing his fists up.
Robbie observed him before scoffing.
“What, you’re gonna fist-fight it?” Robbie chuckled before grabbing a part of the tail rotor off the ground and wielding it like a battle axe.
Sam laughed at both of them before pulling out his standard-issue pistol. Another shriek echoed through the chasm of trees surrounding the trio like a group of bobbies. Then, they saw it.
Just when we thought 2025's track record in paleontology couldn't get any crazier, a paper has been released regarding azhdarchids and Quetzalcoatlus in particular. More on the latter in a moment.
Reconstruction included in paper by Kyra Zhuravel. Cryodrakon boreas, Hatzegopteryx thambema, Arambourgiania philadelphiae and Quetzalcoatlus northropi in that order. Very neat indeed.
Named "Enter the dragons: the phylogeny of Azhdarchoidea and the evolution of giant size in pterosaurs" by Henry Thomas, this study looks into the relationships of azhdarchoids to each other and creates 3 new clades to help organize them better.
Shenzhoupterinae: a subfamily below Chaoyangopteridae that contains Shenzhoupterus and is a sister taxon to Chaoyangopterinae.
Concilazhia: an unranked clade that connects the aforementioned Chaoyangopteridae to Azhdarchiformes as sister taxa.
Serpennata: a clade below the tribe Quetzalcoatlini which essentially groups all the members who are large late-surviving fellas with super long necks such as Quetzalocoatlus and Arambougiania.
Image of the new phylogenetic ranks in relation to others.
Now, about Quetz itself. The genus has been recovered as polyphyletic. Q. lawsoni, the tiny species everyone bases their reconstructions off of, turns out to be a whole different taxon somewhere else in the Serpennata and more closely related to other unnamed quetzalcoatliines. Q. northropi is just fine where it's at, but will now be alone in its genus when the little guy is reclassified.
The scientists didn't name it anything new or created a new genus for it, but did make us aware of its relationship with other pterosaurs. So as things stand, it's still a "species" of Quetzalcoatlus, but will need reclassification, not unlike other genera like Velociraptor osmolskae or Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis.
Thank you for reading, just found this out today thanks to @Ganimes so shout out to him keeping an eye on new papers!
20 Votes in Poll
The expansion to the park today is the aviary to the left.
As per request by @Interstellar Voyager , it's a multi layered open aviary with waterfalls and shi. Since this is JWE2 I had to use mods for that.
Since it's open air, the lore is that the pterosaurs have these chips in them that prevent them from flying out, I guess.
The main attraction is a paor of Quetzalcoatlus, a male and female. The mod has roper gendered variants, so that's pretty pog.
The female aura farming or smth ig
The lore is hat they eat small animals aka, the goats, but because they're piscivores in game, they ignore live prey as long as there's a fish feeder. I had to delete all fish feeder to be able to take these screens of the eating.
I love this one with the female in the forest, it shows off their massive size well.
There's also a bunch of Jehelopterus, they use their in-game models. There's a whole bunch.
This is a female
And that's a boy with the more colourful wings
The idea is that they're brightly colored so that they're easier to see, since they're kinda small
They eat bugs
Then courtesy of @Hunte789 there are dimorphodons.
The males are the green ones, pretend they're taking a bath or smth.
They eat fish
I'm personally happy with how it turned out.
Mods used:
Accurate pterosaurs
https://www.nexusmods.com/jurassicworldevolution2/mods/1859
Open aviary
https://www.nexusmods.com/jurassicworldevolution2/mods/421
Waterfall
https://www.nexusmods.com/jurassicworldevolution2/mods/1967
21 Votes in Poll
Hi, so, as the title says, i may or may not be working on a fanfic comic about dinosaurs showing up in the world of a certain video game. Accurate dinosaurs to be specific, and as such, i have certain questions. Now, this comic takes place in... well it's difficult to explain, but it's supposed to be Japan in the future after humans die out and a non human civilization takes over, with dinosaurs being brought back through unnatural means. As such, most genera that will be featured in the comic are gonna be asian, this will be releveant soon. Now, onto the questions:
How plausible would it be to portray a fictional species of Pteranodon sized or slightly smaller Pteranodontid/Nyctosaurid?
How plausible would it be to portray a fictional species of giant Azhdarchid, should it be more of a generalist (like a Quetzalcoatlus, Cryodrakon or Arambourginia) or a specialist apex predator like Hatzegopteryx
Would it be fine for Zhuchengtyrannus to have binocular vision like a Rex instead of a Tarbosaurus?
How large could the Zhuchengtyrannys get?
Would it be fine for the Zhuchengtyrannus to actually not find the human sized characters as a meal?
How unrealistic would it be for Chinese and maybe Mongolian genera to show up alongside Japanese species?
How unrealistic would it be for me to include Siamosaurus?
How feathered would something like a Fukuiraptor get?
That's all for now, i may have a couple more questions down the road, but this is mostly it, thank you in advance for answering! (Also props to you if you know what game i'm reffering to)
36 Votes in Poll
26 Votes in Poll
25 Votes in Poll
Like 10 minute doodle might have to click to view full
2 Votes in Poll
So sometimes I do go outside and touch grass, and since school recently ended for me I decided to go to my local science museum with one of my best friends since there's a new awesome dinosaur exhibit.
A model of a Quetzalcoatlus next to a very real SR-71 Blackbird.
A skull of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
A Carcharodontosaurus skull.
A full skeleton of a Suchomimus.
Cryolophosaurus Skeleton.
Amargasaurus
Carnotaurus
An absolutely massive Gigantosaurus skeleton!
Ouranosaurus
Austroraptor (This was honestly way bigger than I thought it would be)
After visiting this museum, I have officially seen four species of megatheropods (Tyrannosaurus Rex, Acrocanthosaurus, Gigantosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus) and I hope to see even more. There was some stuff that I either didnt take a picture of or didnt take good enough pictures to be displayed here, but there was also an Argentinosaurus bone, a Majungasaurus skeleton, a Simosuchus skeleton, two species of sauropods which I don't remember, a Futalognkosaurus leg, and a Herrerasaurus skeleton.
A late-Cretaceous animation about the OCs, specifically Monsty Permian the Inostrancevia and a Velociraptor.
Nyctosaurus gracilis
Hatzegopteryx thambena
Quetzalcoatlus northropi
Pteranodon sternbergi (aka Geosternbergia, whichever you prefer)
Thanatosdrakon amaru
How accurate are they? Drawing pterosaurs aren’t exactly my strong suit, but I’m getting better at it.
Poings:
