Stock Dinosaurs: Non-Dinosaurs: Difference between revisions

Surprisingly, stock pterosaurs are ''not'' (necessarily) the biggest/coolest-looking ones --three out of five are not bigger than an eagle or a stork. Instead, they were among the very first scientifically-described kinds, in the XIX century. ''Pterodactylus'', ''Rhamphorhynchus'', and ''Dimorphodon'', <ref> The normally-sized ones</ref> were discovered in Europe ''before'' the 1820s (the decade in which the “first dinosaurs” were named). The last two were initially classified as “Pterodactylus” and recognized distinct only after the 1820s. With its 7 m/24 ft wide wingspan, ''Pteranodon'' was found in USA in the last quarter of the XIX century, during the “Bone Wars”. <ref> Oddly, it too was initially classified as ''Pterodactylus''.</ref> Its sheer size (“Whoa the biggest flier ever!) and its crest soon made it the new iconic pterosaur, and still preserves its status today.

 

 

=== Toothed or toothless? ''[[wikipedia:Pteranodon|Pteranodon]]'' *** ===

''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.

 

 

The backwards-pointing crest is the most striking feature of ''Pteranodon''. It was laterally flattened in [[Real Life]], but in media expect to see it with a conical shape, often resembling a ''horn''. The real purpose of this crest is still unclear. It is traditionally described as a sort of balancing-pole to better balance the long head, or as a rudder to maintain it stabilized during flight. However, this doesn’t explain why only males had such a big crest, while the females’ one was extremely shortened. Once was thought long- and short-crested individuals belonged to different species. <ref>An astounding thing is, short-crested pteranodonts are ''almost never'' shown even in documentary media!</ref> This bony protrusion could simply be a display device, like is hypothized as well for Stegosaur’s plates, Triceratops’ horns and frill, Spinosaurus “sail”, and so on. This could explain why the males’ one was so big compared with the females.

 

 

In [[Real Life]], ''Pteranodon'' was substantially a giant pelican in behaviour. Its long toothless beak was useful to catch fish, and the shape of its lower jaws seem to show a sort of “pouch” to store fish in flight, even though this is not sure. If alive today, ''Pteranodon'' could not be that danger for us folks as shown everywhere in media. Weighing only about 20 kg <ref>Compared to body size pterosaurs were even lighter than birds, having totally hollow bones like straws. For example, the prehistoric vulture ''Argentavis'' had a similar wingspan of the pteranodont, but is extimated 80 kg.</ref>, was too light to lift a 70 kg man up in the air. And if it really could have done so, certainly didn’t with its weak hindlimbs but with the mouth instead. Finally, since its beak was straight and smooth-edged, a child could easily have got out of it by wriggling.

''Rhamphorhynchus'' had a wingspan of about 2 m / 6 ft, relatively short wings, a narrow snout slightly pointing upwards, robust hindlimbs, and long tail. Two recognizable traits are the protruding teeth and the diamond-shaped “fin” put vertically on its tail-tip. As ''Rhamphorhynchus'' lived in coastal lagoons, the teeth were probably apt to catch fish in flight. The typical tail-fin was made of soft tissue (it’s know only thanks to prints in the rocks).

 

 

Its striking look, the earliness of its discover and the completeness of many remains have contributed to make ''Rhamphorhynchus'' the second most commonly portrayed pterosaur in media—expecially the older ones. ''Rhamphorhynchus'' has become quite rare today--pterosaurs shown in the most recent movies generally are ''Pteranodon'', ''Quetzalcoatlus'', or (more often) imaginary Giant Fliers.

Several ''Pterodactylus'' species were recognized in the past. Today only one has remained valid, ''Pterodactylus antiquus'', about the same size of a ''Rhamphorhynchus''. Some alleged ''Pterodactylus'' species were described from individuals no bigger than a sparrow: this led the genus to be described as “one of the tinies pterosaurs ever”. [[Science Marches On|Recent research]] suggests these specimens were actually juveniles, which deceptively resemble miniaturized adults. The fact that newborn pterosaurs were virtually identical to adults is a recent discovery which strongly astonished scientists and paleo-fans: none of the still-living fliers shows powered flight soon after its birth.

 

 

 

More archaic than ''Rhamphorhynchus'', ''Dimorphodon'' shows several primitive traits which betray how dinosaurs and pterosaurs were closely related. The three free wing-fingers were strong and large-clawed, not unlike those of a feathered theropod. The hindlegs were long and powerful, and the animal could have walked bipedally used its long tail for balance. Its stocky skull was more similar to a theropod dinosaur than to a pterosaur, with nasal openings on the tip of the nose (most pterosaurs had nostrils just in front of the eyes).

 

 

=== Other pterosaurs ===

 

 

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]].

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).

 

 

 

=== A turtle outside a snake's body: ''[[wikipedia:Archelon|Archelon]]'' * ===

 

=== Other sea reptiles ===

 

== Mammal-like 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]].

 

 

Its “sail” substained by elongated vertebral spines has always been an headache for scientists. The classic theory consider it a thermoregulating device. Put against the solar rays it could have captures much heat like a solar panel; if put parallel to them, it was more like a radiator, dispersing heat. Considering its desertic habitat, this hyp still remains a good one. Other theories are mating or threat display, inter-specific identification, and so on. Maybe the sail served for all these purposes. Among external features, ''Dimetrodon'' could also have had some sparse hair, hints of auricles and maybe even proto-milk glands. These things are totally unsure, and given its primitiveness, are unlikely. The coloration is totally speculative--living in harsh habitat, it should be brownish like modern desert mammals, but its sail could have been vividly coloured and/or able to change colors for display purpose. Sadly, synapsid soft tissues are virtually unknown. No eggs or nests are known from the dimetrodont, and we don’t know if it was oviparous, or viviparous like modern mammals (if the latter is true, viviparity was achieved independently).

 

=== Other synapsids ===

 

 

== Mammals ==

 

 

== Mammals in media ==

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.

 

 

 

=== ''[[wikipedia:Smilodon|Smilodon]]'', aka the "Saber-toothed Tiger" *** ===

Although "saber-tooths" belongs to the "cat family", they are in a separate branch of that clade compared to modern felines; thus, the popular denomination "Sabertooth tiger" is not correct at all. The "tiger" thing means that ''Smilodon'' is often heard roaring just like an actual tiger or a lion, though only the big cats of the genus ''[[Panthera Awesome|Panthera]]'' (that is, Lion, Tiger, Jaguar and Leopard) could make roars thanks to the structure of their larynxes unique of this group. This depiction is, however, vindicated by science, as the structure of the small bones in its mouth are set up for making a sort of roar.

 

 

 

=== Examples: ===

 

=== Other prehistoric mammals ===

 

=== Other extinct creatures ===

 

{{reflist}}