u/Alpha_Bushdog

This game is called Dino Run and it is a 2008 flash game developed by the studio pixeljam games but I got it on steam. In the game you play as a velociraptor and you have to escape the doom cloud that is approaching ,destroying everything in its path, but you also have to deal with other dinosaurs trying to escape, eat small animals and collect eggs, do quests etc. Honestly, this game was peak. I remember during Covid, after my online classes ,I would grind this game. I know there is a sequel in development, but I’m not sure when it will release. I think it deserves more attention although I wish it had more unique biomes and threats.Also, unfortunately multiplayer got discontinued.

Thanks for reading my appreciation post and make sure to tell me your opinion on this game!

The Pleistocene coyote and Haringtonhippus are right around the corner so here is what I think their special quest/mission will be to unlock them

Coyote:

1. It is free (You can play it immediately after release just like the horse and direwolf) so there will be a trio of free playables, one herbivore ,one carnivore and one omnivore

Or

2. You need to scavenge from a tar pit carcass to unlock the coyote

Haringtonhippus

1. You get it with tracks as I think the devs have said that there will be playables unlocked with tracks.
   Or
2. I don’t really have a great idea for an unlocking quest but perhaps you need to eat 10 different species of plant with a western horse
   Or
3. Maybe you can also play it immediately after release or there will be a totally new quest like the fossils with the mammoth.

These are just my ideas, what do you think of them, and do you have anything better to suggest?

Credit: Unused design for Cryptozoologicon volume 1, by John Conway

The only time I’ve ever caught a vulture in this game ,in the whale carcass of the Santa Monica bay. January of 2026

Recently the Great blue heron was added to Ecos La Brea as an ai animal meant as a new prey item as you also get tracks for killing them. However I have never seen any player on Reddit, YouTube or TikTok actually catch one. Also you can’t scent them in any way and they are usually very well hidden (Technically you can’t with vultures but they frequent carcasses which you can scent). Has anyone of you actually caught one or is there some sort of strategy to hunt them efficiently? I like that they added a new ai animal to enrich the ecosystem but I’m not sure if it’s even huntable like intended. Maybe you will be able to catch them easier with the coyote when it comes out. What do you think of the heron though?

I know that this guy is very unlikely to be added because of how slow playable releases are and that there are more important animals to be added to ecos la brea (like arctodus ,miracinonyx and ground sloths) but I would personally love to see this guy one day in game.

Tapirs are perissodactyl ungulates, closely related to horses and rhinos. Today they only live in South America nad Southeast Asia but up until about 13.000 years ago, they also lived in North America. More specifically the California tapir which lived in California and Arizona during the Pleistocene. Unlike other species from the tar pits though, California tapirs are only known from the locality from one foot bone and some jaw and tooth fragments.But the also rare stilt legged horse will be added ,so here is how I think the California tapirs will function in game:

To unlock it, it’s pretty easy. You only have to collect/find 10 seashells from the beach and river banks (seashells will be very common)

With them, there will be an oxygen mechanic where the tapir can hold its breath for a very long time, underwater. (Image 4)

The tapir will be semi aquatic with the ability to dive, eat aquatic plants that only it has access to (It can also eat the regular grass and bushes though). On land, they will be relatively fast but underwater, they will be able to go 3 to 4 times faster than they can on land and will be almost as fast as a western horse underwater, escaping from direwolves and smilodons.

They will frequent areas like Centinela springs, Los Angeles river, Tule Marsh, Santa Monica bay and in general wetlands, rivers and water habitats.

They will be either solitary or in small to medium size groups (But they can end up pretty big)

Finally the skins: Image 1 default
Image 2 montane 300 or 500 tracks
Image 3 Malayan 3000 tracks

That’s all, what do you think?

10-14 million years in the future in my spec evo world, Oceanworld ,Europe is a collection of tropical islands either made from former mountain peaks ,or from volcanoes. This animal is from the Balkan archipelago, mainly modern Greece, Bulgaria ,Romania, Albania, Serbia, etc.

Yphalosaurus neobalkanicus

Yphalosaurus is the largest representative of the family Yphalosauridae ,which is a sister family to chameleonidae.At 5-7.5 meters long ,its the apex predator of the southeastern European archipelagos.Most notably, the Balkan archipelago.Despite its size ,its an offshoot of the humble Mediterranean chameleon. For days on end, it will swim in the shallow European seas searching for prey. But is semi aquatic and thus often goes to land. It island hops in order in order to find food in the different archipelagos. It often camouflages itself in river deltas or mangroves to ambush its prey as it still has some subtle Colour changing abilities from its ancestors, aiding it in hunting. But if it really needs to, it can chase its prey for short distances. It pins its prey on land with its claws and then kills it with its powerful bite. In the water it mostly uses biting and it can hold its breath for 20-30 minutes. It’s solitary and highly territorial. Individual Yphalosaurus control vast territories of sea and island archipelagos. They generally avoid each other and intraspecific combat is rare but when it happens it’s brutal and almost always leads to death. Mating season for them is early spring and early summer. Males will create small circles in the sand decorated with rocks, plant matter and in some cases bones, carefully selected by the males. Making a good display nest can take years to perfect. Once the display nest is done, males bellow to attract females, Females hear this from very far away and go to the males. They inspect the males for their strength, size ,injuries ,and potential illness. If they think he’s suitable, they will mate and then part their separate ways.
Females lay their eggs in small, sandy and isolated islands. They will dig a hole on the ground where they lay their clutch of eggs which are about 15-40. Then, the female will bury them. Sometimes she’ll leave a small corpse as a first meal for the hatchlings.This, is her only contribution to motherhood. After the young hatch they’ll eat what their moms have left. They will stay on their island nursery for 1-7 days. They won’t stick around there for long. At birth they are only 20 cm but will grow to be 7 meter long beasts, if they make it to adulthood. For that, they need a lot of food which their small sandy nursery, simply can’t provide. So, they will swim to larger landmasses in the search of food and territory. Most of them though, will not survive for a month after hatching as they will have been eaten by oceanic predators. Only 5-10% of the Yphalosaurus population are full grown adults. But the hatchlings that do survive, will grow to become one of the top predators of this future oceanic earth.

If you’ve come this far, thanks a lot! Make sure to see my other Oceanworld post, the shark week special.

The Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) is a keystone species that once ranged throughout most of Europe, including Greece. However, its population was hunted down to 1200 individuals in total at one point (Now they’ve made a comeback with 1.5 million due to conservation efforts). In northern Greece there is a city called “Kastoria” the name of which, most likely originates from the Greek word for beaver “Kastor”. As the city was a trading center for beaver fur and a beaver bone from 5600 BC has also been found in the area. (Image 4) The species has lived in Greece since the last glacial period.

Unfortunately though, this majestic keystone species was wiped out from the country with the last sightings being a beaver shot in 1839 (Image 1) and gifted to the zoology museum in 1933 in the Misolonghi lagoon and the last confirmed evidence of the species in Greece was in the Alpheus river of Peloponnesus by A. De Hoestin during the 19th century.

Thankfully there is a four year program to reintroduce 120 beavers in Northern Greece from 2023-2027 ,supported by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

This will be huge if successful as the beavers by building dams, will create small lakes ,new wetlands and riparian habitats as they are ecosystem engineers. This will help local biodiversity as a whole ,as well as controlling water levels in the region which will also help the locals.
As a Greek, I am personally really excited to see these beautiful animals in the wild one day.

Sources:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Co48083tmt-/

https://www.archaeology.wiki/blog/2022/05/24/the-beaver-its-prehistoric-bone-and-its-reintroduction/

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364126496_Preparatory_actions_for_the_reintroduction_of_the_Eurasian_Beaver_Castor_fiber_in_Greece

https://zoolmuseum.biol.uoa.gr/collections/eurasian-beaver/?lang=en

As shark week is coming to an end for this year, I thought I would share a first glimpse of my spec evo project known as oceanworld (A future earth 10 to 14 million years in the future where ocean levels are higher) with a future shark and its prey living in the waters of Europe ,now an island archipelago.

First, the “shark food” the draconic pufferfish (Dracocephalus stimularicus)

The draconic pufferfish is an omnivorous species of boned fish descended from the silver cheeked toadfish. Its 6.5 meters in length.The species is social living in herds of 10-25 individuals. It feeds on coral,seagrass, crustaceans and occasionally baby Yphalosaurus (They’re semi aquatic reptiles, stay tuned, I will soon post about them). It is quite aggressive to other animal species especially the craniophoneus, its main predator. It is highly venomous and poisonous.Consuming its flesh means certain death for most species. With the venomous spurs/stingers in its tail it can deal a lethal blow. That’s why almost nothing in its ecosystem messes with it. Males will bite each other during the mating season to make themselves dominant and impress the females of the herd Females lay 10,000 to 30,000 eggs but less than 20 of them will make it past their first month. The young have to fend for themselves. The bright colours of the dracocephalus are a warning for their extremely deadly poison.

Now onto the main event ,the shark itself…

Craniophoneus aphanistus

Craniophoneus is a behemoth of a shark at 7-10 meters in length. However, their ancestor is the humble angel shark. Craniophoneus is a pack hunter living in groups of 2-5 individuals but loners also exist. Its main prey is the draconian pufferfish. The pack works together to hunt down these dangerous fish. First, all the pack but one, will flush out the draconian pufferfish separating them from their herd. Then, one hidden craniophoneus will charge at speeds of 75-100 km/h into the draconian pufferfish with their armored head. The sharks are immune to the bodily toxins of the draconian pufferfish but the tail venom is a different more toxic substance that causes severe pain and shock to the sharks. So after the hunt is successful (Successful hunts are only 30-35% of the time), the pack bites off the tail and then they feast on the fish.With that said, their diet isn’t limited to eating only them. A pack of craniophoneus can also work together to hunt other fish species, sea merchants (monkeys) (will also get their own post) and other very large marine life forms.
Unlike most fish species, craniophoneus takes care of its young and incorporates them into its pack. As they only have one baby at a time through live birth. Some babies stay with their pack for life but others move on and form new ones. To settle disputes, craniophoneus will jump ou of the water and ram each other with their armored heads mid air.Simillat to our time’s bighorn sheep and the Cretaceous pachycephalosaurs. They do this not just for settling disputes over territory but also to win over females as well as less intense playfighting for bonding with pack mates.

Hope you enjoyed my yap!

If you didn’t know metazooa is a daily wordle style game about evolutionary biology (zoology) and taxonomy where you need to guess a mystery animal through a phylogenetic tree that gets closer and closer to the answer through your wrong guesses. It’s really fun ,you should try it! Yesterday, the game turned 3 years old (Made in July 30th 2023) so I decided to make a small anniversary tribute to this game for its creator and its players! Hope you enjoy :)

Credit to Abe Train from trainwreck labs for bringing us this awesome game!

(It’s not sponsored at all, I just really love this game and wanted to share this with the community)

Here are some of my red fox shots in the Vardousia mountains of central Greece

A male roe deer in the Vardousia mountains of central Greece ,August 16th 2025

This is my spin on a future fifth flying lineage of animals and mammalian dragons, descended from modern day chamois (mountain goats)

100 million years in the future in very high mountains ,lives the common windgoat (Aetherotragus dracomorphus) at about 3 meters in length and 5-7.5 meters in wingspan. It’s an omnivore feeding mostly on alpine plants. Its nose is used to better manage and filter the montane air. Mostly solitary but during the mating season they form huge mating colonies. Lastly, females carry their young on their back before they can achieve powered flight.

What do you think of it?

In the Greek island of Samos ,5 million years ago during the early Pliocene, an intense spectacle unfolds. A female pliohyrax graecus a boar sized extinct relative of the modern rock hyrax is faced with a hard scenario. A yellow legged gull ( Larus michahellis) has grabbed one of her two pups threatening to swallow it whole while she can only watch.

If you have any questions let me know

I know I suck at art but this is the best I could do! :)