Top right is a skeloton, image one is what ChatGPT thinks it would look like. Image 2 is what it actually is.
Dinosaurs could have been cute and fluffy!
Just had this removed from r/Paleontology for some reason so I've brought it here.
Loved dinosaurs as a little kid, kinda forgot about it as an older kid and teen, now interested again as an adult lol.
What I'm looking for:
-Things that talk about why the living things of a given time period are the way they are from an evolutionary perspective.
-Descriptions of different species from a given time period, plus how they interacted with other species.
-How certain species were able to survive a mass extinction event while others didn't, and why.
-What species from a given time period are ancestors of species from today.
-Biological features of past species.
-How certain ecosystems looked in past time periods.
Just in general keep the focus on biology and evolution, that's mostly what I'm seeking, not really geology. And if this doesn't fit the sub I'd appreciate it if you could point me to a sub where it does fit. Thanks!
(P.S., I just proofread and I noticed this looks a bit like AI. It's not I swear, I just like using bulletpoints and lists.)
Among the better-known lizards from the formation is Barbatteius, a genus of relatively large lizards with an estimated total length of 80 cm, but other specimens could have gotten bigger. Its relatively robust morphology suggests that it may have occupied the role of a medium-sized opportunistic predator within the island ecosystem, potentially comparable in ecological role to modern tegus. Barbatteius may also have served as prey for larger predators inhabiting the island, including Balaur bondoc.
Personally I’d say evenly rated or underrated
Among the better-known lizards from the formation is Barbatteius, a genus of relatively large lizards with an estimated total length of 80 cm, possibly more.
Its relatively robust morphology suggests that it may have occupied the role of a medium-sized opportunistic predator within the island ecosystem, potentially comparable in ecological role to modern teiids. Barbatteius may also have served as prey for larger predators inhabiting the island, including the Balaur bondoc.
Barbatteius had heterodont dentition without enlarged posterior crushing teeth, similar to many modern teiid lizards. It suggests that it fed on arthropods (Such as millipedes and spiders), small vertebrates (such as amphibians, turtle hatchlings, smaller lizards and maybe multiturbeculates) and plants.
The name Barbatteius Means "Tegu from the Bărbat River", with "barbat" in reference to the river the fossil was close to and the suffix "teius" in reference to a genus of teiid lizards.
This is a speculative paleo-fiction narrative blending survival drama with an authentic prehistoric atmosphere, following a family of dromaeosaurs fighting to stay alive in a brutal, unforgiving ecosystem.
The Red Rhamphorynchus have awakened — and they’re hungry.
Long Tail and her kin now face their greatest and most wretched challenge yet. From the depths, a congregation of blood-hungry pterosaurs rises — shrieking, twisted, and eager to rend the living apart. Small Toe, fresh from his first victory beneath his mother’s gaze, finds himself naked and frozen in the face of such reckless violence. The raptors have only one choice: to bare their claws and fangs, and pray that the ground beneath them does not split apart.
A re-release of my narrative project Terrors in the Brush—a speculative survival epic blending hard paleo-realism with raw emotional weight.
BINGE THE ENTIRE JOURNEY NOW:
While the chapters will roll out here on a strict weekly schedule every Sunday night, the core community hub is fully operational. If you don't want to wait a single week to see what happens to Small Toe next, you can join our dedicated Discord right now and binge all eleven chapters tonight.
There is no magic, no fantasy—there is only nature red in tooth and claw.
Book is The How And Why Wonders Book of Prehistoric Mammals Deluxe Edition from 1962
A 2002 book written by Jordi Agusti and full of the artwork of paleoartist Mauricio Antón.
328 pages and full of black and white drawings and a series of colour plates in the middle. Although research has progressed in the 24 years since it was published (such as the K-T event being revised from 65 to 66 million years ago) it is still worth acquiring a copy for your library.
A preview of some of the pages can be found here:- https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Mammoths_Sabertooths_and_Hominids/G0usAgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover
Publishers blurb:
Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids takes us on a journey through 65 million years, from the aftermath of the extinction of the dinosaurs to the glacial climax of the Pleistocene epoch; from the rain forests of the Paleocene and the Eocene, with their lemur-like primates, to the harsh landscape of the Pleistocene Steppes, home to the woolly mammoth. It is also a journey through space, following the migrations of mammal species that evolved on other continents and eventually met to compete or coexist in Cenozoic Europe.
Finally, it is a journey through the complexity of mammalian evolution, a review of the changes and adaptations that have allowed mammals to flourish and become the dominant land vertebrates on Earth. With the benefit of recent advances in geological and geophysical techniques, Jordi Agusti and Mauricio Anton are able to trace the processes of mammalian evolution as never before; events that hitherto appeared synchronous or at least closely related can now be distinguished on a scale of hundreds or even dozens of thousands of years, revealing the dramatic importance of climactic changes both major and minor.
Evolutionary developments are rendered in magnificent illustrations of the many extraordinary species that once inhabited Europe, detailing their osteology, functional anatomy, and inferred patterns of locomotion and behavior. Based on the latest research and field work, Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids transforms our understanding of how mammals evolved and changed the face of the planet.
I’m always checking it out every now and then to look at the reconstructions of the different hominins. I don’t know why but I get a sense of wholesome warmness and togetherness looking at all the faces of the hominins of the past. The latex reconstructions do an amazing job of recreating the faces of our ancestors without triggering our sense of uncanny valley.
It’s a beautiful text as well. Never let anyone tell you that the best education source books need to be text only. Sometimes they need to be as colourful and filled with vibrant pictures as books like this.
I think we have a lot to be proud of ourselves as a species. Even we have flaws as high as Everest is tall, we also are quite frankly the most amazing thing to come out of billions of years of evolution. Even if you are religious or not, we are pretty spectacular to behold.
Unaysaurus tolenti. Didn’t know of this guy until I decided to draw it. One of the earliest sauropodomorphs. I pictured it much larger before actually researching it. Lol look up a size comparison.
#citizenscience #pleistocene #lostbones #fossilfriday #bison During and after the southward drainage of glacial Lake Agassiz into glacial River Warren—now the Minnesota River valley—river-level fluctuations, combined with the river cutting through the 3.6-billion-year-old gneiss bedrock at Granite Falls, created a shifting landscape ideal for collecting sedimentary deposits and preserving bones. The Yellow Medicine County Historical Society holds an excellent collection of bison remains from the area, some from one of Minnesota’s most famous bison kill sites: the Peterson Site.
If you enjoy this type of content, please share this post or tell me about your passion!
Just recently found out about this subreddit, and I love it.
Couldn't really think of a good flair, so "meme" made the most sense to me.
The reconstruction was made by the São Luís paleontology team and depicts a young specimen, about 7.8 meters long atributed to the species Oxalaia quilombensis. The statue is still displayed since 2023 to this day in the Rangedor Park in the São Luís city. It lost most of its back coloration due to rain and other natural events, but still a amazing depiction of how the real animal could have looked like.
Ok this is gonna be long lol. Im fascinated w prehistory and I love this game (mostly the artistic side of it lol) and I wanted to calculate how many people would be taking part in the war between cultures we see in the game.
First of all, im gonna throw population density out the window since we don't know how big Oros actually is and any guess would be completely blind. So we have these 3 very different Mesolithic cultures living in this valley, but can they sustain this kind of prehistoric war as it's shown in the game? Well, if we're talking about tribes, there's no way. Prehistoric tribes in that time would've been around 50-100 individuals (the Izila would prolly be more tho, since they have agriculture), so no way we're talking about tribes here. What these people actually are (or I think at least lol) are cultures, so different tribes with ethnic/genetic/religious/historical background in common, you know, variety in people not just a couple families. This would allow Oros to have more people, so the conflict would be semi-realistic, while still being historically accurate with the numbers and populations.
My guess is that the Wenja would probably be around 500-600 people. It's said they're all migrating from another place, so this is no small expedition. Also, this number would explain how we constantly find small hunting/gathering parties all around the map that ask for help, and how they haven't gone extinct yet, but are still greatly endangered. Also take into account that our village can house up to 300 people by the end of the game.
The Udam I imagine would be fewer. I think that in the past, when all of Oros was glacial, they would've been all over the place with a much higher population. Now though, they mostly occupy the north and are actively going extinct, so that's no longer the case. I'd put their numbers around 300-500 people. And yeah, I know they have a ton of outposts, but I think it's because of their aggressiveness and warrior-ish lifestyle that they occupy way more territory than what they'd actually need. I also like it bc it fits with the decadent conqueror nature of the Udam.
Finally, the Izila are a curious case. They're the most technologically advanced culture, more into the Neolithic than the Udam and Wenja. Their architecture, weapons, armor and decorations are way more advanced, which would make you think they're way more numerous than the others, but I don't think that's the case. The Izila are said to be kind of new to Oros, but already a huge threat to the other cultures, so what I actually think is happening is that the Izila are just a splinter group from a larger culture and this group came to Oros while the rest stayed in Mesopotamia or wherever. This actually seems more likely because, first, they wouldn't need to use slavery if they already had all the people their tech level would suggest, and second, if all of them had come, they would've obliterated the other cultures outright. So I think there are actually about 600-800 Izila. More than Udam and Wenja, because they also need tailors and farmers and all that stuff.
The numbers I just gave are what I think a semi-realistic population would look like, but the war in Oros is so devastating it'd probably all be over in just a couple days, so here are some other estimates, less realistic for the time period, but more realistic for a sustainable war. The Udam would need like 10-20 men per outpost (same goes for the Izila) + hunter/gatherer parties + all the small villages where they fish and hunt and stuff + the main city/village (where Ull and Batari live). So let's say 15x8 (average 15 people per outpost, 8 outposts) + 50 (warriors in the capital) + 40 (warrior parties scattered across Oros, 10 groups w/ 4 soldiers each). This would give the Udam about 200 active warriors deployed at once. But of course that's not their whole military capacity; the available warriors realistically would only be about a third of the actual soldier count, so that'd make them about 600 total warriors. But then there are also kids, elders, sick people, injured people, so not everyone would be a warrior. Let's say that, given they're a prehistoric society that doesn't practice agriculture, and probably a good chunk of the hunting/gathering falls on the soldiers, warriors make up about a third of the actual Udam population. That'd make the Udam in Oros something like 2,000 people.
With the Izila it's kind of the same, but they also have tailors, farmers... you know, all the hustle that comes with the Neolithic, so I'm guessing they'd be about 3,000 people. And the Wenja are fewer and being hunted down, but still persistent around the map, so maybe 1,500-ish.
So those are the numbers everyone. I actually prefer the first estimates because they are more realistic but ofc its a game and it designed around gameplay not realism. the first estimate would put the population of Oros around 1600 people and the second around 6500.
Well, that was it lol. I doubt anyone will actually care about this, but anyway, I find this type of exercise really interesting. Also, please Ubisoft, bring us Far Cry Primal 2! (Actually, don't, it'd be better if another studio made the game lol)
Art by cesar diaz and robinson krunz
When it comes to giant awe inspiring megatheropods,it is always the cretaceous period that people think of. Tyrannosaurus rex obviously comes to mind. More and more recently the megatheropods of mid cretaceous gondwana have been gaining ever more recognition. But the Jurassic seems to be oft underestimated and forgotten in this regard.
But that of course isn't the case. The Jurassic is when life on land started to get bigger than anything the world had seen before. 100 ft megasauropods,30 ft armored dinosaurs,etc all had their start of gigantism in the Jurassic and megatheropods are no exception.
First things first the bench for the megatheropod will be set at 10m in length. For them to count as the Jurassic's largest they will have to be at least 10 m in length. Normally the benchmark is 5 tonnes but because jurassic theropods weren't quite as bulky as cretaceous theropods so I've made the benchmark more accessible.
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Allosaurus anax
Usa, oklahoma
Size: 10-13 m 4-7 tonnes
Formerly known as Saurophaganax,this is a giant species of allosaurus known from the upper Morrison in Oklahoma.
It's of course a highly fragmentary taxon,but the fragments available are indicative of a giant animal. The holotype scales up to 10.5 m in length according to Allosaurus anax description paper. Randomdinos have scaled the largest fragments up to 12 m in length and 6 tonnes in weight. According to one of the paper coauthors,some of the giant 13 m remains mentioned still belong to a theropod and not a misidentified sauropod.
So it possibly is the Jurassic record holder. Unfortunately it's so fragmentary.
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**“**Epanterias”
USA colorado
Epanterias is another giant fragmentary allosaurid from the upper Morrison formation. There's a lot less to say about this one because it's even more fragmentary and less studied than allosaurus anax. But most estimates have scaled it to around 12 m long.
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Torvosaurus (including ‘edmarka’ and the vega megalosaurid)
PORTUGAL,USA,GERMANY,SPAIN?,ENGLAND?
Size: 10 meters long and 4 tonnes at least,biggest 11 to 12 meters in length and 5-6 tonnes in weight
Torvosaurus is a megalosaurid,possibly among the most widespread large theropod genus ever,both geographically and temporally. It is known from many specimens although most are fragmentary to be honest. A still not fully described specimen named elvis is about 55% complete however.
What is certain however is that it is big,probably the biggest megalosaurid. Specimens on both europe and north america come from clearly massive individuals.
In Portugal I've counted at least 4 individuals at least 10 meters in length (SHN 400/ML1100, ML632, ML 430, and SHN.388/8 ).
In the states several torvosaurus specimens are around 10 m in length. The pubis out of price Utah is from an individual of around 10 m long. The undescribed specimen ‘’elvis’’ is at least 10 meters in length according to mickey mortimer. The price pubis and the largest dry mesa specimens scale to at 10 m in length.
Some remains might belong to very large individuals. The largest crowns from portugal are 15 cm in crown height. This is bigger than almost any other theropod teeth,except for tyrannosaurus. Additionally its bigger than the crowns of the torvosaurus gurneyi holotype and elvis the torvosaurus,both whos largest crowns are 10-12 cm in height are individuals at least 10 m in length. Based on the data from christophe hendrickx,the maxilla crowns of torvosaurus had a ratio compared to the skull length of greater than 9. This means the large teeth came from a torvosaurus skull greater than 135 cm in length. Although teeth scaling is highly uncertain so let us all keep this in mind.
The Portuguese torvosaurus also has a giant footprint that was referred to the genus,simply put no other theropod in the formation was big enough to leave it,. A 79 cm footprint from the lourinha formation came from a trackmaker with a hip height greater than 3 meters. It's among the absolute largest theropod footprints known from the Jurassic. Papers studying Jurassic theropod footprints of similar size opined that tracks of this size indicate the largest Jurassic theropods were already on a par with the largest late cretaceus theropods in body size. Theres also another giant theropod footprint from the zambujal quarry (77cm length x 60 cm width)
Of course its a footprint,so it comes with caveats and a lot of uncertainty.
There's also the giant edmarka specimens. The ribs of the nail quarry torvosaurus are 1.28 m in length. The size can be estimated based on the close relative,wiehenvenator which was similarly robust to torvosaurus and similarly proportioned. Since wiehenvenators largest ribs are 1.05 m in length and it itself is estimated at 9-9.5 m in length,the ribs from edmarka can be scaled as coming from an individual 11-11.5 m in length. Randomdinos has also scaled the cps collection to 11.4 m in length. OOf course this rib could be one of the smaller ribs in the body,further indicating a larger size.
There's the giant vertebrae from Spain MUJA-1913 and the footprints from the same group. These come from the Ribadesella Group which is broadly dated to the kimmeridgian to tithonian of the late jurassic and are in asturias spain. The vertebrae is described as “25 percent larger than the anterior caudals of torvosaurus” and since those anteriors of torvosaurus come from a 9 meter animal,MUJA-1913 came from an ~11 meter long~ animal,which supported by comparing the centrum height,length and width to torvosaurus caudals. The giant footprints from asturias are up to 82 cm in length and regarded as “coming from an animal similar in size to tyrannosaurus” which likely means its 12 meters in length. Torvosaurus is known from germany to portugal in the late jurassic and asturias was part of the same island as portugal. Given this temporal and geographic overlap,combined with the vertebraes stated similarity to torvosaurus,the remains are here treated as belonging to torvosaurus.
The largest torvosaurus are estimated at 12 meters in maximum size. Multiple studies and the mentioned material likely supports this size,although of course the remains are fragmentary. The multitude of individuals that are at least 10 m in length supports the idea that the largest individuals were much bigger,based on the size distribution of other large theropods.
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Veterupristisaurus
Tanazania
10-11 meters 3-4 tonnes
Veterupristisaurus is a carcharodontosaur from Tanzania. It comes from the tendaguru formation,the Jurassic forgotten Eden of Gondwana. It was one of the earliest known carcharodontosaurs.
Its size has been underestimated for a long time. Someone on wikipedia put its size at 8 m in length and as a result people have assumed it was large but not particularly big. But in reality the source they used was molina perez and larramendi,both of whom are disparaged as unreliable.
In reality, veterupristisaurus is estimated at being 10 m in length with some sources going as big as 11 m in length. Its only known from a few vertebrae but they are large nonetheless.
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Tendaguru thing
Tanzania
The tendaguru thing is an indeterminate megalosaur known from the tendaguru formation. Unfortunately it is fragmentary as hell and only known from a few bones and teeth.
Scaling the astragalus and fibula from the wiehenvenator, the tendaguru thing probably measured around 10 m in length.
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Yangchuanosaurus
Middle or late jurassic
China
Yangchuanosaurus is a large metriacanthosaurid theropod from China. It's from the shaximiao formation, a rock series of uncertain age. Unlike the other contenders it is actually known from decent remains,with a complete type specimen and partial but a decent referred specimen. The referred specimen alone is big,estimated at 10.5-11m in length and 3-4 tonnes in weight.
There is camp theropod, a massive femur chunk described almost a 100 years ago. If it belongs to yanghchuanosaurus,it would be massive,perhaps at least 12 m in length. But unfortunately there are so many unknowns about this specimen.
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Vaches noires megalosaur
Middle jurassic
France
10 m or more in length
This is an unnamed megalosaur from the marnes d’ives formation from france. There's not a lot to say about it because it's known from fragmentary material. But the fragmentary material is clearly from a large animal. The estimated femur length of 1 m places it in the 10 m echelon of megalosaurs.
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Here is my new 3D model. It is arguably one of the most famous marine reptiles, yet it is strange that documentaries about prehistoric fauna usually overlook it