[center]Hello! I am a paleontology major, it's been a really big interest of mine since... literally as long as I can remember. I think the biology and evolutionary stories of all the prehistoric creatures we've discovered and studied are so fascinating and beautiful!
And, hey, I'm kinda bored n' feeling chatty. Tell me about your favorite prehistoric creatures! Dinosaurs, pterosaurs, things that came earlier, things that came later. Whatever! I love them all.
I'll go first:
My favorite dinosaur is therizinosaurus. My whole interest in paleontology was spurred when I was a child and I first played the video game Fossil Fighters; the therizinosaurus in that game (shortened to Zino if you're familiar with it) was my favorite back then, and that carried over into loving the real-life animal as well after I started reading about it online. They're so strange and fascinating. I loved how they were depicted in Prehistoric Planet :]
anyway. have a meme, thank you for visiting
[img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/402337750717562883/1078976402755436564/907a448a4da333d0202b90b2ee74cb09.png[/img][/center]
Hello! I am a paleontology major, it's been a really big interest of mine since... literally as long as I can remember. I think the biology and evolutionary stories of all the prehistoric creatures we've discovered and studied are so fascinating and beautiful!
And, hey, I'm kinda bored n' feeling chatty. Tell me about your favorite prehistoric creatures! Dinosaurs, pterosaurs, things that came earlier, things that came later. Whatever! I love them all.
I'll go first:
My favorite dinosaur is therizinosaurus. My whole interest in paleontology was spurred when I was a child and I first played the video game Fossil Fighters; the therizinosaurus in that game (shortened to Zino if you're familiar with it) was my favorite back then, and that carried over into loving the real-life animal as well after I started reading about it online. They're so strange and fascinating. I loved how they were depicted in Prehistoric Planet :]
anyway. have a meme, thank you for visiting
Jakapil.
[img]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ab/Jakapil_skeletal.webp/1280px-Jakapil_skeletal.webp.png[/img]
A middle cretaceous ornitischian dinosaur from Argentina. While usually reconstructed as a bipedal thyreophoran (which is weird, in the cretaceous), there is also the equal likelyness that it was it was a basal ceratopsian that evolved thyreophoran-like armour (which is also weird). Regardless on what it actually is, it's the best.
It is also very smol.
[img]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Jakapil_Size_Comparison.svg/1280px-Jakapil_Size_Comparison.svg.png[/img]
Pet-sized, I'd say.
Jakapil.
A middle cretaceous ornitischian dinosaur from Argentina. While usually reconstructed as a bipedal thyreophoran (which is weird, in the cretaceous), there is also the equal likelyness that it was it was a basal ceratopsian that evolved thyreophoran-like armour (which is also weird). Regardless on what it actually is, it's the best.
It is also very smol.
Pet-sized, I'd say.
I like the creatures in the extinct clade Gorgonopsia. Think of guys like Lycaenops, Gorgonops, and Inostrancevia. They are so CREATURE.
[center][img]https://i.redd.it/t31dxt6xw0q41.jpg[/img]
I like the creatures in the extinct clade Gorgonopsia. Think of guys like Lycaenops, Gorgonops, and Inostrancevia. They are so CREATURE.
Spinosaurids. I love the chaos they throw the paleontological community in. It is so funny
Okay for real though, I’m not as big a fan of non-avian dinosaurs (weird because I am a big fan of the avian ones) as I am prehistoric mammals. My favorite epoch is the oligocene. That being said, no cenozoic mammal will ever beat Cotylorhynchus. Seriously, look at him.
Unfortunately the image link doesn’t work, so you’re going to have to look him up to appreciate him.
Spinosaurids. I love the chaos they throw the paleontological community in. It is so funny
Okay for real though, I’m not as big a fan of non-avian dinosaurs (weird because I am a big fan of the avian ones) as I am prehistoric mammals. My favorite epoch is the oligocene. That being said, no cenozoic mammal will ever beat Cotylorhynchus. Seriously, look at him.
Unfortunately the image link doesn’t work, so you’re going to have to look him up to appreciate him.
One day, will these too become but distant memories?
. . .
Yes, in the blink of an eye.
[img]http://videos.usatoday.net/Brightcove2/29906170001/2016/03/29906170001_4804273302001_4804272464001-vs.jpg[/img]
no one knows what the hell is going on with the tully monster and i hope it stays that way. i almost want to say this is genuinely my favorite prehistoric animal of all time because its just defying all attempts to be defined.
pterosaurs are pretty cool too. azhdarchids contain some of the largest animals to ever achieve powered flight and they have less ostentatious crests than other pterosaurs, but i like them more because of all the fun paleoart we get of them walking around on land.
[img]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IZLD8vAp2Ko/VQtBtgZzkKI/AAAAAAAABh4/ANg7fXqWD04/s1600/R2395%2BWitton%2B2015%2Blow%2Bres.jpg[/img]
mark p. witton's art
the ediacaran is also a super fascinating period of time because its stumped scientists forever because none of the life it contained (that we've discovered at least) resembles anything that we have today in morphological terms. i remember seeing a study about dickinsonia (or a related organism) being ground up and discovering sterols inside of them so we can classify it as an animal, but it was a controversial study considering the having to grind up a fossil and potential contamination issues. it just shows that life doesn't play out how we want it to in our heads, if the idea of multicellular organisms that didn't pan out to anything we have alive today doesn't die i guess we still have the francevillian biota.
no one knows what the hell is going on with the tully monster and i hope it stays that way. i almost want to say this is genuinely my favorite prehistoric animal of all time because its just defying all attempts to be defined.
pterosaurs are pretty cool too. azhdarchids contain some of the largest animals to ever achieve powered flight and they have less ostentatious crests than other pterosaurs, but i like them more because of all the fun paleoart we get of them walking around on land.
mark p. witton's art
the ediacaran is also a super fascinating period of time because its stumped scientists forever because none of the life it contained (that we've discovered at least) resembles anything that we have today in morphological terms. i remember seeing a study about dickinsonia (or a related organism) being ground up and discovering sterols inside of them so we can classify it as an animal, but it was a controversial study considering the having to grind up a fossil and potential contamination issues. it just shows that life doesn't play out how we want it to in our heads, if the idea of multicellular organisms that didn't pan out to anything we have alive today doesn't die i guess we still have the francevillian biota.
[img]https://i.pinimg.com/736x/88/f4/df/88f4df0ffce91e2a12bf5844e6d0ddc3--prehistoric-animals-extinct-animals.jpg[/img]
Isn't he just magnificent. I curse the powers that be every day that avian evolution didn't call him back. I want four winged birds SO BADLY and I'm just generally enamored with the idea that Microraptor was a real animal that used to exist.
Isn't he just magnificent. I curse the powers that be every day that avian evolution didn't call him back. I want four winged birds SO BADLY and I'm just generally enamored with the idea that Microraptor was a real animal that used to exist.
I found stars on the tip of your tongue/You speak poltergeist and so do I
Yay more dinosaur forums XD
[img]https://ukafh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/dilophosaurus-sinensis.jpg[/img]
Dilophosaurus is probably one of, if not my most favorite dinosaur of all time, and Jurassic Park doesn't help to make it any lower XD
Spinosaurus gets an honorable mention :)
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But if I want to go further back...
[img]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4f/d1/0a/4fd10a1aba61609f5dd32f901112c4f9.jpg[/img]
[img]https://render.fineartamerica.com/images/images-profile-flow/400/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/2/hallucigenia-sparsa-invertebrate-masato-hattoriscience-photo-library.jpg[/img]
Dimetrodon and Hallucigenia!
Halucigenia is especially up there, partially because past reconstructions had it flipped over XD
Yay more dinosaur forums XD
Dilophosaurus is probably one of, if not my most favorite dinosaur of all time, and Jurassic Park doesn't help to make it any lower XD
Spinosaurus gets an honorable mention :)
But if I want to go further back...
Dimetrodon and Hallucigenia!
Halucigenia is especially up there, partially because past reconstructions had it flipped over XD
These are not my absolute favourite, but I'd like to talk about how the earliest recordings of life on this planet are the current closest we have to knowing of an alien world. When entire phylums (and other high-level classifications) from that long ago are now extinct, it's fascinating to me. We have nothing like them around today. We have no reference points to compare them to. Only vague ones.
Meet Vetulicolia, likely a phylum of Cambrian animals. These guys astound me. They look absolutely otherworldly. And they may as well be, because we lost them so long ago.
[img]https://nixillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/07-vetulicolians-vetulicola-skeemella.png[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/pTIPrqG.png[/img]
I have more to talk about, but I don't want to make this post too much of an eyesore to read.
These are not my absolute favourite, but I'd like to talk about how the earliest recordings of life on this planet are the current closest we have to knowing of an alien world. When entire phylums (and other high-level classifications) from that long ago are now extinct, it's fascinating to me. We have nothing like them around today. We have no reference points to compare them to. Only vague ones.
Meet Vetulicolia, likely a phylum of Cambrian animals. These guys astound me. They look absolutely otherworldly. And they may as well be, because we lost them so long ago.
I have more to talk about, but I don't want to make this post too much of an eyesore to read.
