Stock Dinosaurs: Non-Dinosaurs: Difference between revisions

== Flying reptiles ==

 

 

== Pterosaurs in media ==

* They weren't either dinosaurs, nor were they birds. Further, they were not even the ancestors of any modern flier<ref>dinosaurs were</ref>: instead, they were only ''relatives'' of dinosaurs (and thus birds, of course).

 

 

=== Stock Pterosaurs ===

Several interesting new pterosaurs were discovered in the second half of the XX century, but only one managed to achieve some consideration in media: ''Quetzalcoatlus'', because was the only one clearly bigger than the pteranodont, and the new “biggest flying animal ever”. In the 2000s, ''Ornithocheirus'' gained some popularity as well thanks to a memorable apparition in ''[[Walking With Dinosaurs]]'', but only because was (wrongly) described as [[Up to Eleven|the biggest flying animal ever existed]]. The others (''Dsungaripterus'', ''Pterodaustro'', ''Tapejara'', ''Eudimorphodon'', ''Sordes'', and so on) were largely ignored outside dino-books and documentaries. If you’re searching for these and other non-stock pteros, go [[Useful Notes/Prehistoric Life Non Dinosaurian Reptiles|here]].

 

 

''Pteranodon'' lived 86-84 million years ago on what were then the shorelines of Kansas and other midwestern US states. It had the typical traits of the most evolved pterosaurs, the Pterodactyloids aka “literal pterodactyls”. It had an elongated head, weak hindlimbs, only a hint of tail, and very long wings with a huge “wing-finger”, while the other digits were very small and maybe almost useless. It was one of the most specialized flying animals that ever lived, but very clumsy on land, where it arguably walked slowly on all fours.

* Features in the second Volvic bottled water ad.

 

 

''Rhamphorhynchus'' (“sharp beak”) was first found in Germany in the XIX century, and lived in the Late Jurassic in the same locations of several other pterosaurs and also ''Archaeopteryx'' and ''Compsognathus''. It was the second named pterosaur after the prototypical ''Pterodactylus'', and the first one known with a long tail. It’s the namesake of the primitive pterosaurs called Rhamphorhynchoids. Like ''Archaeopteryx'', ''Rhamphorhynchus'' has left exquisite remains. Some specimens with prints of wing membranes are known since the XIX century. It was just these ''Rhamphorhynchus''es that definitively showed pterosaurs were airborn critters, not water-living as believed by some at the time.

 

 

 

This is, for now, the Ultimate [[Giant Flyer]] among prehistoric animals. Lived in North-America at the very end of the Cretaceous 70-65 mya (but some think its distribution was worldwide). ''Quetzalcoatlus'' was discovered in the 1970s in Texas from incomplete remains. Its wingspan was extimated from 10 m / 35 ft up to 16 m / 50 ft, with the lower range being the most likely. [[Rule of Cool|Of course]], pop-media have often followed the higher one. This “living airplane” took the Pteranodon’s reputation over as “the biggest flier ever” in those years. Its describer named it from an Atzec divinity: Quetzalcoatl, the “feathered snake” (the animal itself is often called “the quetzalcoatl”.)

''Quetzalcoatlus'' was long described as similar to an upscaled ''Pteranodon''. Indeed, both animals had a long toothless beak and an atrophied tail. Some depictions show ''Quetzalcoatlus'' with a small cranial crest, others show it crestless. Compared to a pteranodont, ''Quetzalcoatlus'' had much longer/stronger hindlimbs, a bigger body, a longer/stiffer neck, and shorter/wider wings with the “hands” closer to the wingtips than to the shoulders. Its diet has long been an enigma (Fish? Small reptiles? Carrions?). In the 2000s, scientists re-studied its anatomy, and today ''Quetzalcoatlus'' is thought a mainly terrestrial animal, walking on its four long limbs, and eating small land critters like a stork. <ref>It’s worth noting that the terrestrial hyp was already postulated just after the first find, but initially not demostrated.</ref>

 

 

Despite their impressiveness, ''Quetzalcoatlus'' has received great attention only in dino-books and documentaries, while is still rare in films and dino-stories. No matter if, with its size and terrestrial habits, it could have been the ''only'' pterosaur potentially dangerous for humans if alive today. A downsized ''Quetzalcoatlus'' flying robot capable to flap its wing was built in the 1990s by an paleo-amateur: the first ptero-flight after 65 million years.

 

 

Rarely will you see any other pterosaur in fiction, but if you do, it will either be ''Pterodactylus'' or ''Dimorphodon''. In the original novel ''The Lost World'' (1912), the two scientists argue if the pterosaurs they meet are one of the two. Whatever kind they were, they are enormously oversized—[[Up to Eleven|even bigger than a Pteranodont]]. In [[Real Life]] both were not bigger than a large seagull. In recent stories, ''Pterodactylus'' and ''Dimorphodon'' were rarely (if ever) portrayed, but are common in documentaristic media due to their historical relevance.

 

 

 

''Dimorphodon'' was a rhamphorhynchoid that lived in Early Jurassic, 190 mya. Found in England, it shared with ''Rhamphorhynchus'' the elongated stiffened tail, but we don’t know if it had a “fin”. Its more striking trait is its oversized skull, even bigger than the body itself! Despite appearences, the head of ''Dimorphodon'' was lightened by wide openings in the skull, and the animal couldn’t have troubles to lift it, a bit like modern toucans and hornbills with their beaks.

 

 

 

Plesiosaurs (more correctly, plesiosauroids) are the most distinctive marine reptiles, and lived worldwide throughout the Mesozoic, 210-65 mya. With their long necks, massive body, short tails, small heads, and four paddle-like limbs, their look may recall that of a “flippered brontosaur”, but they were actually very different than a sauropod dinosaur. They were carnivorous like all known marine reptiles. With their small mouths, they arguably ate only small items, like fish, juvenile reptiles, or shellfish. Their hunting tecniques are still matter of discussion -- active hunting, ambush-predation, bottom-feeding or even partial filter-feeding are all possible. They had pointed teeth protruding from their jaws, but were perhaps covered by lips in the living animals. [[Rule of Cool|For obvious reasons]], expect to see plesiosaurs with ever-visible teeth fitted outside their mouth, often oversized and more protruding than in [[Real Life]], literally making a snake-like head.

These animals are traditionally described as slow turtle-like swimmers, using their four flippers as oars and propelling awkwardly their bulk through the water. In classic paleo-art plesiosaurs will usually be portrayed in a swan-like posture when emerged, and will use their neck as a periscope when swimming underwater. According to biomechanical studies, they’d kept their neck straight to better plough the water, and used their flippers to literally “fly” underwater, even though the exact movement of the flippers is still uncertain (see also “Pliosaurs” below). Maybe plesiosaurs were among the most skilled swimming animals of all time. Like whales compared with dolphins, larger species should have been less-agile than the smaller ones. Some portrayals show plesiosaurs with a sort of fin at the end of their tail, but it’s only speculative. If really present, it acted only as a rudder, as plesiosaur’s tail was too weak to propel the animal.

 

 

Possibly thanks to their dinosaurian-look and the association with snakes, Plesiosaurs have been the most iconic and depicted sea reptiles in media. Like dinosaurs and pterosaurs, expect to see them as [[Prehistoric Monster|scary monsters]] with an [[Everything Trying to Kill You|killing attitude towards humans]]. If alive today, even the biggest Elasmosauruses wouldn’t be more aggressive than most whales (although they could unintentionally capsize your tiny boat or raft). And every time a plesiosaur shows up, ''someone'' will bring up the [[Stock Ness Monster|Loch Ness Monster]].

 

 

 

The long-necked plesiosauroids belong to the Sauropterygian supergroup, which also includes the Pliosaurs (or Pliosauroids) and other less-known groups of sea-reptiles. Together, Plesiosauroids and Pliosauroids make the ''Plesiosauria'', aka “plesiosaurs” in broader sense, originated from the same common ancestor in the Triassic seas. Their relationship of Sauropterygians with modern reptiles has long been unclear. Once, they were placed with Ichthyosaurs in their own subgroup (see further), and not related with any still-living reptilian group. Today, plesiosaurs sensu lato (pliosaurs included) are thought not closely related to ichthyosaurs. They seem only loosely related with modern lizards, rather that with crocodiles and dinosaurs.

Like Plesiosauroids, Pliosauroids too were widespread throughout the Mesozoic, 218-65 mya. Both subgroups shared the same body plan, with rigid bodies, short tails, and the two pairs of powerful flippers--perhaps alternately-moved making a typical “double-wings” swimming effect (as seen in ''[[Walking With Dinosaurs]]''). The difference stays in front of their shoulders. Pliosaurs had very short stocky necks, and their head was far bigger than an ''Elasmosaurus''. Their teeth were less-numerous, but much longer and stronger: like elasmosaurs, expect to see them visible when the mouth closed, even though they could have been hidden by lips in [[Real Life]]. Despite the resemblances, the head-anatomy of plesios and plios was the same. Both had eyes and nostrils placed above to see out of water when the remaining head was submerged. Both shared a singular trait: each nostril had two chambers like fish, possibly giving them a directional sense of smell. We don’t know if they passed more time near the surface or in the deeps, but some think pliosaurs were more deep-creatures than plesiosaurs.

 

 

Despite this, Pliosaurs have been the least-portrayed group of sea-reptiles, and still remain mainly documentary-animals. The kronosaur has long been the most commonly shown pliosaur in books and documentaries until 1999, when a memorable appearance of an [[Rule of Cool|extraordinarily oversized]] <ref> The fictional length 80ft/25m was based on misidentified bone fragments; in reality, the species maxed out at 25ft/7m long</ref> ''Liopleurodon'' on [[Walking With Dinosaurs]] rapidly made it the new iconic member of the family (very similarly to ''Deinonychus'' à ''Velociraptor'' thanks to [[Jurassic Park]]). In the show, an old male liopleurodon was described weighing 150 tons (a bit less than the Blue Whale) and [[Up to Eleven|the biggest predator of all time]]. In particular, the scene in which he pulls the ichthyosaur in pieces [[Nightmare Fuel|disturbed many viewers]] (even though the sad final scene where he’s stranded and slowly dies gives it a bit of humanity). To give the idea about how the animal remained impressed in pop-consciousness: [[Follow the Leader|all successive depictions]] have shown Liopleurodons with the WWD blue-white color-patterns. <ref> For some reason, unlike dinosaurs and pterosaurs, marine reptiles are almost-always shown with dull colors even in modern portraits. However, they could have been very colorful like modern tropical seagoing animals.</ref> While WWD may have made ''Liopleurodon'' the Stock Pliosaur in place of ''Kronosaurus,'' [[Charlie the Unicorn]] managed to bring it to the status of minor Internet meme.

 

 

 

Ichthyosaurs have the very evocative name of “fish-lizards”: they really resembled large fish in shape and swimming style, but recall modern dolphins as well thanks to their flippers and their long “nose”. Like fishes and unlike dolphins, they had ''four'' flippers (foreflippers were usually bigger) and an ''upright'' caudal fin. As a group, Ichthyosaurs were the most ancient marine reptiles, and were widespread from the Middle Triassic until the Late Cretaceous, 245-90 mya, but got extinct 25 years before the mass-extinction. Once, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and pliosaurs were put together in their own reptilian supergroup, the “Euryapsids”, unified by having a single pair of skull-openings on the top of the skull. Today, “euryapsids” are firmly put in the Diapsid supergroup (which also included dinosaurs, pterosaurs and all living reptiles except maybe turtles). Icththyosaurs were among the very first diapsids to have evolved: since they are not related with any modern animal group (thus preventing good comparisons), they still remains quite mysterious critters.

Their eyes were noticeably large for good vision; most portraits show ichthyosaurs with round pupils and no eyelids like a typical fish. Skull nasal openings were just in front of the eyes, but the nostrils could have been on the head-top. Their skin was smooth and hydrodinamic like a dolphin, as shown in fossil prints. The mouth was usually filled with acute teeth: most ichthyos were fish-eaters, but also ammonites and other shellfish were in their menu. We don’t know what amount of time they passed underwater: maybe they could extract some oxygen directly from the water like modern sea-turtles, but certainly did breath regularly like every reptile. The resemblance with dolphins means artists classically show ichthyosaurs jumping out of water in a dolphinish style, but this is not proven. Unusually for extinct reptiles, “Fish-lizards” often escape the fate to be described as “monsters”… at least in modern docu-media. [[Science Marches On|Originally]], ichthyosaurs were depicted more crocodile- or mosasaur-like, with no caudal or pectoral fins. The famous “ichthyosaur” in Verne’s novel is just based on this early interpretation. Several other fictional ichthyosaurs [[Follow the Leader|have then been inspired by the original]].

 

 

 

 

 

Descended from monitor-like animals, Mosasaurs often reached gigantic sizes, but exaggerations tend to be common. Some source talk about 20 m long animals, even though most giant mosasaurs were probably no more than 10 m long. With their slender bodies, they were also less-heavy than the robust plesiosaurs and pliosaurs. To be more hydrodinamic, they could have lost the original lizard-scales and developed a smooth skin-texture, like ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs. Their tail was long and laterally-flattened: unlike plesiosaurs, they swum in a crocodilian-manner swinging their tail side-to-side. Since many modern snakes and lizards are ovoviviparous (that is, produce eggs that hatch inside the mother’s body), this could be true also for mosasaurs. In this case, they hadn’t to come ashore to reproduce, and maybe lived entirely in water. As their limbs were fin-like, this could be a proof. All marine-reptiles described here obtained their flipper-like limbs in the same way of modern cetaceans, embedding their original digits in one single fleshy mass, and enormously multiplying the number of phalanxes (ichthyosaurs took this to an extreme).

Mosasaurs’ head was similar to modern lizards but with a longer snout. Like the latter, they’d have had fleshy lips. Like modern snakes, their mouth had a notably loose hinge between the jaws: this allowed mosasaurs to swallow big items without tearing them in pieces. The teeth were conical, the upper ones placed in two rows on each half-jaw, again like modern snakes and monitors. According to stomach contents, Mosasaurs were very generalist feeders: fish, sharks, squids, pterosaurs, early birds like ''[[Useful Notes/Prehistoric Life|Hesperornis]]'' and even smaller mosasaurs have been found. <ref> This ''doesn’t necessarily mean'' they were cannibals, though: the preyed mosasaurs could be from different species than their predators. After all, modern orcas do eat smaller dolphins</ref>. We don’t known if mosasaurs had a forked tongue and ever-open eyes like many modern squamates, nor if they had heat-sensors like some boas and rattlesnakes: these things usually don’t preserve in fossil record.

 

 

 

The only other marine reptile which has appeared in fiction more than once, ''Archelon'' lived in the same Late Cretaceous inland shallow sea which once covered the Great Plains. Discovered at the start of the XX century, it shared its habitat with ''Elasmosaurus'', ''Tylosaurus'', and the flying ''Pteranodon'': its size and armor made adult Archelons virtually unattackable by predators. (Even though in [[Walking With Dinosaurs|WWD]] a dead archelon is shown killed by a giant mosasaur, but the latter was oversized).

 

 

As turtles and tortoises have virtually remained unchanged since their first apparition in the Triassic, ''Archelon'' had the same traits seen in modern chelonians: beaked jaws, forelimbs transformed in strong flippers (with multiple phalanxes as usual), weaker hind-flippers and short tail. However, its armor was lighter than most modern turtles, and maybe the shell was leathery instead of horny. The modern turtle which mostly resembles an archelon could just be the Leatherback. As modern species of sea turtles eat very different items (some eat shellfishes, others seaweed, and some jellyfishes), we don’t know what were the archelon’s preferences. Certainly it came ashore to lay its eggs like its relatives.

== Mammal-like reptiles ==

 

 

== Synapsids in media ==

 

 

Synapsids had an extraordinary relevance in the history of evolution because they were the ancestors of mammals and thus of '''[[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|mankind ]]''' itself, and yet they have not gained popularity like that of the dinosaurs, probably because of their relatively small size compared to things like ''T. rex'' or Sauropods.

''[[Taxonomic Term Confusion|Technically]]'' they are not even "reptiles".

 

 

Lived in North America 280 million years ago, in the Permian period (just before the Triassic one). It is the only mammal-like "reptile" whose popularity matches that of the stock dinosaurs, thanks to its mohawk-esque crest (sail) on its back. Its iconic status among mammal-like reptiles is partially justified by its fossil abundance--dozens of specimens are known, juveniles included. As one could expect at this point, it was discovered [[Overly Long Gag|in North America during the US Bone-Wars, in the second half of the XIX century]].

Among mammals, those living in the Ice Age are the most portrayed, because they lived along with [[All Cavemen Were Neanderthals|the most iconic hominid species]].

 

 

Mammoths and Mastodons often show up in anything dealing with prehistory, though usually associated with the Ice Ages thankfully. The species definitely most portrayed of these is ''Mammuthus primigenius'', better-known as the Woolly Mammoth. Probably the most iconic non-dino prehistoric animal of all, thanks to the countless, extraordinarily well-preserved known specimens with soft tissues, which make it perhaps the ''only'' prehistoric animal almost as scientifically well-known as a still-living animal.

It's worth noting that mammoths, scientifically speaking, are just another type of elephant, since they belong to the same phylogenetic branch. An Asian Elephant is slightly more closely related to ''mammoths'' than to his more distant African modern relative (thus mammoths ''weren't'' the direct ancestors of elephants as heard sometimes). On the other hand, the Mastodon is ''not'' a true elephant but just a distant relative of ''both'' modern pachyderms ''and'' mammoths -- its scientific name, ''Mammut americanum'', is misleading). For other extinct elephant relatives, see [[Useful Notes/Prehistoric Life Mammals|Prehistoric Life]].

 

 

Saber-tooth cats, with their distinct fangs, are just as iconic in pop-culture. There were many species of them, but the only saber-toothed cats you'll ever likely see are ''Smilodon fatalis'' and ''Smilodon populator'', which is larger but [[Rule of Cool|has a less awesome name]].