Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Novarchosaurians for Greenland 2

On reflection of my earlier post, I thought I'd need to add another six novarchosaurian herbivores to the ecology to balance out the number of carnivores. I had a ratio of 16:11, h:c, for the number of different novarchosaurian species. That's a little off from where I wanted it. That said, let's examine a few new critters for the zoological tour de force.

The first of these are the Psittaciliberines. There are actually a few different derivatives here that are similar in theme, but different in origin. They all have some common anatomical elements. The first is the very derived foot. A parrot foot has been massively modified. The front two toes are extended nearly vertically instead of horizontally. They are stiff and elongated. They provide structural strength for the largish fleshy footpad behind them. Think something like a cross between a hoof and an elephants foot. The hind toes are little more than atrophied spurs at the 'ankle'. It should be obvious that these parrot-derivs are ground dwellers, to that end, we're going to make them a lot more agile on the ground. We're going to adapt their legs along with changed feet to make them rather graceful runners. Almost novarchosaurian antelope if you will. Next, they're one of the lucky herbivores: they get arms derived from their wings: they're only two fingered, but still useful. of course, finally, almost all of them are much larger than their ancestral parrots. The do bare a resemblance to older quasi relative.

The first is the nutcracker. There are really two forms of this novarchosaurian. The first is a smallish critter of 25 lbs. Living in the confier forests, this animal feeds upon the conifer cones and seeds. It moves to and from the edges to the center of the forests depending on the time of year. It plays an important role in the ecology in that it often drops a lot of seeds at the edge of the forest in its dung, helping the forest to spread. The second species is also a nutcracker, but it lives in the swampier bamboo forests. It feeds on the more isolated and sporadically available conifers there. Both forms of nutcracker are social during the breeding season. Both of these novarchosaurians are derived from Fischer's Lovebird. The coloration of the forest version follows the standard for the origination species, but the bamboo swamp nutcracker is of the so-called blue mutant variant.

The next psittaciliberine is a derivative from the Hyacinth Macaw. These are browsers that really ought to be most closely compared to their synapsid enemy of Capra. The beak has been heavily reinforced and made larger. They even eat the younger, but still tough twigs from trees. They move in flocks and are essential to keep the berry brush from overrunning the forests and the grasslands. There are three different sizes for this deriv genus: 100 lbs, 300 lbs, and 500 lbs.

The final psittaciliberinomorph is a derivative of the Red and Green Macaw. There are two sizes of the children of the 'gentle giant'. The first is a 500 lbs. The second makes it one of the larger derivs running around at 2000 lbs. They both live in the swampy bamboo forests and feed primarily on the bamboo itself.

The final novarchosaurian form that imagined would be derived from the Takahe of New Zealand. These would be made wingless like many of the other herbivores and enlarged. The smallest of the deriv genus is a 50 lbs critter that lives in the bamboo swamplands. The second larger form - 150 lbs - that lives in the conifer forests and lives off of browsing and the fallen fruit from the conifer parasitic fruit frees. The largest form, weighing in at 400 lbs, lives out on the grasslands.

I ended up with more than six 'species' here. I have a total of ten. That gives me a total of 26 herbivores and 11 carnivores. Don't worry, I've a number of other critters to add. The neoprimates, altanapsids, and even a handful of diapsids t'boot.

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