Recently a “new” continent was described, Argoland. More accurately described as a series of landmasses that seperated from Gondwanna and attached to Asia in the mid-Cretaceous, such a landmass probably warrants some unique biota. Well, we do know a significant amount of the microbiota. Most of this is represented in the infamous Myanmar amber, which includes various species of arthropods, an ammonite, various enantiornitheans (of which Fortipesavis and Elektorornis are the only one named), the basal lizard Oculudentavis and the allocaudate Yaksha. The fauna is appropriately recognised as primarily Gondwannan aside from Yaksha, fitting for Argoland’s nature. Argoland more broadly can presumably answer some Cretaceous oddities, like the presence of both megaraptorans and alvarezsaurids in China and Gondwanna as well as the presence of derived eutherians like zhelestids in the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar and India. The presence of mekosuchines in Australia could also be explained by
Where and how did pteranodontians come to be? by Inmyarmsinmyarms, literature
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Where and how did pteranodontians come to be?
Pteranodontians are a famous clade of Late Cretaceous pterosaurs that include the titular Pteranodon, the nyctosaurs and taxa that sometimes are either pteranodontids or nyctosaurids like Volgadraco. They dominate the Late Cretaceous oceanic environments, seemingly replacing the closely related ornithocheiromorphs and other toothed piscivorous pterosaurs. Strangely, they appear almost ad nihilo, suddenly bursting into the fossil reccord with no intermediary forms with other pterosaur groups. So, how did these pterosaurs evolve? In most cladograms, they appear as sister taxa to Ornithocheiromorpha. Seeing as ornithocheiromorphs were around the earliest Cretaceous, this would suggest a ghost lineage of almost 50 million years. Unless early pteranodontians were small aerial insectivores or something, such a ghost lineage appears odd. It may however be corroborated by a Berriasian nyctosaur humerus (Naish et al 2010), assuming it is from a nyctosaur and not from a late surviving
The Fern Prarie: fact or myth? by Inmyarmsinmyarms, literature
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The Fern Prarie: fact or myth?
In paleoart, “fern praries” are a type of biome frequently depicted. After all, if there was no grass in the Mesozoic (until the very end, at least), what else carpetted the ground? A lot, actually. Seed-ferns, horsetails, moss… The idea that ferns specifically formed the Jurassic savannas is not without merit. Modern ferns are the most common carpetting plants after grass, dominating forest undergrowth and even forming small plains in clearings. Some species can live in desert environments, so even places with little moisture could hypothetically boast seasonal fern steppes. But the thing is, why ferns when there were so many other plant groups that could fill the grass niche? Notably, seed-ferns and small gymnosperms would be equally if not more fitting in more arid conditions. Perhaps some areas were carpetted by herb-like early angiosperms, not quite grass but almost there. Remember that most fossil assemblages are biased towards riparian environments, where ferns surely
Life On Our Planet review by Inmyarmsinmyarms, literature
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Life On Our Planet review
Prehistoric Planet seems to indeed have heralded a new age of prehistoric documentaries, and some like this one take new creative insights. Rather than being something akin to a David Attenborough documentary, Life On Our Planet jumps around between different eras, explaining the various principles of evolution and even cutting to modern wildlife scenes to illustrate the point. Unfortunately, it falls rather short on two main ways: The animation and animal depictions just aren’t up to par. Maybe this is an unfair critique given that it probably didn’t have the budget of Prehistoric Planet, but many of the extinct taxa don’t have the same level of care put into them and either look cartoony or like outdated depictions. It has way too many inaccuracies. The first episode, for instance, boasts that sharks are living fossils (something long understood to not be the case), that terror birds were outcompeted by sabertoothed cats (also long understood to not be the case) and that mammals
Pterosaurs on Life On Our Planet by Inmyarmsinmyarms, literature
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Pterosaurs on Life On Our Planet
As my previous review showed, Life On Our Planet has issues. One of the issues is how it portrays pterosaurs, in the episode In Cold Blood (which you already know by the title is a doozy. Here, the sole direct depiction of pterosaurs portrays Pterodactylus (not identified as such but clearly meant to be it based on its anatomy and time period) hunting baby turtles from the sky. Anatomically, the animal is alright: fuzzy body covering, appropriate wing structure, even lips covering the teeth (a novelty only recently considered by paleoartists). Where it falls short is in the behaviour: it is seen attacking baby turtles from the sky, when the actual animal foraged on aquatic invertebrates by swimming or wading. In other words, like a duck being portrayed acting like a frigatebird. This is the only significant appearence of pterosaurs in the series. They brief appear in the asteroid episode (using the same model; bold to suggest ctenochasmatoids were around in the KT event…) and that’s
A different take on fire-breathing by Inmyarmsinmyarms, literature
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A different take on fire-breathing
When designing "realistic" dragons many people seem to default to chemical explosions in the mouth to produce streams of flame. While there is a precedent among animals, the bombardier beetle, vertebrates have more complex tissues, and a common issue that's rarely addressed is how these animals don't burn their mouths. Here, I propose a solution that I'm surprised is not used more often, and with basis on medieval bestiary depictions of dragons. There, a common emphasis is how dragons shine or glow, sometimes even as a symbolism for the fall of Lucifer. Fire-breathing as a main dragon weapon is comparatively recent, but bioluminescence apparently is now. Few land animals developed bioluminescence (most notably fireflies), but this seems to be more of a consequence of their habitats not really favouring it as well as complex tissues making light harder to pass rather than a deathly constraint, as evidence by lab mice with jellyfish-derived bioluminescence genes. Perhaps to make it
Around a month and a half ago I visited the Geo-Mining Museum in Madrid. Located in the same building as the school of mining engineers, this museum is devoted to geology, and contains a nice collection of rocks, minerals and fossils. While the Natural History Museum also contains fossils, this one displays more that have been found in Spain, specially fossils of invertebrates (although there are also collections from other parts of the world) This is the museum's main hall, which contains most of the collection. The upper floors, which hosted most of the vertebrate fossils (like those of dinosaurs or mammals) were unfortunately closed. The shelves on the ground floor had lots of fossils of trilobites, graptolites, ammonites and gastropods. Spain has a rich geological record, and the fossils range from the Cambrian to the Pleistocene Here are some of the fossils displayed in the main hall that were collected in Spain: a gomphotere, Jurassic coeloids, some Eocene fossils (some
Updated with Dinosaurs Stories by ThalassoAtrox, journal
Updated with Dinosaurs Stories
A list of all my short stories based on the Impossible Pictures paleodocumentaries. In chronological order. Late Cretaceous Campanian Croc: https://www.deviantart.com/wdghk/journal/Prehistoric-Park-Campanian-Croc-790448846 A quick insight into the background of Dallas, Prehistoric Park’s resident Deinosuchus, as she grew up in Texas during the late Campanian. Tenacious Troodont: https://www.deviantart.com/wdghk/journal/Prehistoric-Park-Tenacious-Troodont-791272086 A quick insight into the background of Currie, Prehistoric Park’s stowaway troodont, here a Talos instead of a Troodon, who keeps managing to escape his enclosure. Currently still on the loose. A Day on Hateg: A Day on Hateg Another two-part story and an updated sequel to “Pod’s Travel”, showing you how everyone’s favorite (and only) castaway raptor has adapted to life on Hatge with his new pack of diminutive coelurosaurs (Elopteryx), preying on the dwarf dinosaurs but also having to contend with a new threat, in the
Alien Worlds creatures reimagined as earth animals by Inmyarmsinmyarms, literature
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Alien Worlds creatures reimagined as earth animals
Skygrazers: a lineage of sauropterygians that developed lateral collagen fins, first to allow them to glide like flying fish but then having grown enough to provide lift for permanent flight, while the wings formed from the limbs provide thrust and steering. Spend their entire lives thermally soaring through the air, even giving birth on the wing. Some species feed on aerial plankton (seeds, insects, spiders et cetera) while others opt for more predatorial ecologies like those of frigatebirds. Balloon Predators: a lineage of spiders that became more specialised to ballooning. In windless conditions they launch their webs, suspended on electricity high up in the air until they spot prey. Then they release their webs and spread their flattened, wing-like legs to glide down towards their prey - or, failing that, the ground. Boneless Scavengers: a lineage of terrestrial echinoderms related to sea stars that developed an hydralic locomotion system to slither after their prey much as they