Speculative Dinosaur Project - Blogging

!ABOUT ME! Name:Timothy-Donald-Morris Location:Adelaide, South Australia, Australia I'm a young adult studying to become a visual practitioner. -The Speculative Dinosaur Project- "Spec" is a website-collaborative of conceptual zoology writing. It's on the subject of modern day fauna, and what it would be like if Dinosaurs never went extinct. This project is collaborative , involving numerous people on forums posting ideas, pictures and essays. I hope you enjoy yourself. Tim

Name:
Location: Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

I'm a young adult studying to become a visual practitioner. This and my other two blogs are for excercises in speculative zoology. I hope you enjoy yourself. Tim

Friday, May 12, 2006

Crackerjack!

Borosphendodontidae: Blueys, Larrys, Crackerjacks.

This group is most closely related to the Sphenodontians of Aoteoroa, but consists of numerous species that are larger, and have significant physiological, dental, and metabolic differences to any other sphenodonts known.











The most famously known member of the group is the Crackerjack (Borosphenodon horribilis). This sphenodont is found throughout Australia and Papua, and weighs a whopping 1 tonne in the largest specimens, and measure from three to four meters in length. They mainly feed on carcasses left behind by large predaceous dinosaurs, having stout, immensely powerfull jaws, filled with robust, semi-conical teeth.














They posess strong external dermal armour, consisting of large scutes, and a layer of cutaneous armour several inches thick, sitting on a layer of subcutaneous fat. This leathery armour makes them nearly impenetrable. They are regularily seen trailing groups of rynchoraptors, and can reduce euclasaur femurs and hip bones to nothing in remarkably little time. They rest mainly in mud and water, adding to their putrid stink, and any social tussles are handled by bunting eachother with their cranial and nasal horns.

Larrys (Choosphenus sp) and Blueys (Tiquillosphenus sp), are much more conservative members of Ozpec's herpetofauna. They take the roles that, in our timeline, went to large skinks like Tiquilla. They feed on almost anything, invertebrates, small vertebrates, carrion, fruit, flowers, tubers, and even eggs. They, for the most part, resemble the tuataras of the genus Sphenodon, but are usually patterned in shades of grey or brown, with darker stripes or blotches. Blueys, like the eastern bluey (Tiquillosphenus ledii) have bright blue tongues used in defensive bluff displays. They mainly attain a length of around 50 to 70 centimetres, but the northern giant larry (Choosphenus giganteus) regularily attains a length of 1 to 2 metres. The adelaide pygmy bluey (Tiquillosphenus nanus) is a plain brown species that commonly makes it's home in ant colonies, being relatively tiny, at only 15 centimetres in length. Reports of such a creature were disregarded as mis-identifications of Agamids or skinks, untill a specimen was exumed from a small snake, subsequent searches or nearby areas allayed any misconception.

Tim

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home