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CrowDazzle Currently Chimeras are placed in 'fereungulata', because on Earth ungulates (hoofed animals) and carnivores and linked in a group called fereungulata. However, in Sornieth, there are many animals with both carnivoran traits (big ol' paws and teeth for example but there are more fancy zoological distinctions should you need them) and ungulate traits (the horns and hooves, there are more sciency descriptors if you need them ;) ) so I'm like "eh these can be the missing links"
Of course on Earth the hoofed animals and the sharp-toothed ones are linked by a common ancestor, and hooves evolved independantly from paws, and their unique dentition came from less fancy teeth BUT ANYWAY in Sornieth I'm going ahead and saying that some animals evolved hooves, some paws, some hooves-and-paws.
Where was I?
Yes that explains the goat/lion mix in the first chimera, and the sheep/tiger mix in the new one; they have their own evolution that makes them look like a mix between two animals but is perfectly in keeping with the other weird animals:
But are Chimeras simply goat/lion crosses? NO! It is the tail that makes them truly weird; this being Sornieth I hestiate in saying "maybe the tail just
looks like a snake" because this is a world of magic, so I imagine that is an actual snake there. So the true question is how does a snake grow out of a chimera's spine? I'd go for magic.
(I love how the tiger-like chimera looks like it has a cobra as these are both Indian animals- what is Sornieth's equivalent to India? Between Viridian Labyrinth and Dragonshome?)
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Violetah there are some dinosaur-like creatures in the Sornieth birds ;) (birds are in fact dinosaurs as well but we all know you mean the non-avian dinosaurs)
Would they think it is a dragon when all dragons are made by the elemental gods and have 6 limbs? They'd certainly see them as fearsome beasts!
Imagine some fae's excavating a huge sauropod, but as they are friends with Imperial dragons they are unimpressed by the vast size (some imperials get to crazy sizes!)