#dinosairs

[agwnowb]

A Little Bit More Nonsense

Several weeks ago I put a link to our local FM radio station on my phone just so I could listen to it when I am waiting for something to happen. I’m so glad I did that because someone there with a droll sense of humor and what seems to be too much time on their hands puts in some, well, crazy stuff. Yesterday it was the zombie thing, or maybe that was the day before. And today I read about some…

[cozycononline]

The 2nd batch of #CozyCon Club orders are now going out. Thank you for your patience as we had a delay in the #Tshirts arriving. They will get sent out by the end of the week.

If you haven't grabbed a Cretaceous #CozyConClub bundle, you have until Nov 1st to grab it at https://cozycononline.com/store/ or https://ko-fi.com/cozycononline/shop

[kindercelery]

@rogdona

[the-ultimate-squish]

[coelacat]

i love waking up to a headache

[venomgender]

do you guys think i could acheive perfection by end of year 4 (one season left) when mh perfection is at 61%. be honest

[smile-files]

i'm trying to do some speculative biology stuff on how dragons could exist: provided i'm thinking of the typical hexapod/six-limbed dragon (four legs and two wings), however, i have to contrive reasons for how the extra set of limbs would arise on a quadruped, and how they'd function (wyvern dragons are much easier to envision, as they're just scarier pterodactyls); i'm also curious as to how dragons would behave given their anatomy. assorted thoughts below...

for one thing, i instantly imagined dragons evolving from dinosairs. i was thinking of some sort of conjoined/parasitic twin mutation common to the dragon species which would add the extra wings, but that idea rested on one twin having the wing-limbs to contribute to the wingless dominant twin, which apparently would be impossible as all conjoined twins are identical (which is pretty obvious now that i think about it). i should still keep the conjoined twins idea in my back pocket, though, so there could be hydras!

maybe the extra limbs would just be a product of polymelia, specifically notomelia... as it is, though, i'm wondering how the mutant extra limbs would evolve into wings fast enough that the mutation could even persist in the population: the presence of the extra limbs would likely be a hinderance for as long as they aren't actively beneficial, after all. maybe i can look into how pterodactyl and archaeopteryx wings evolved to get a sense of how that occurred: for them, too, any evolutionary stage at the midpoint between leg and wing would likely have not been specialized enough in either direction to be helpful, so the transition must've been quick/direct and therefore a product of a single large mutation with subsequent refinements. for dragons, i could imagine two stages, with a simpler, smaller wing evolving in a quick first pass -- giving the animal more air time when leaping -- and a second stage of the wings enlarging to provide the capacity for real flight. (either way i'd imagine that dragons, like birds and mammals, would initially be very small and only evolve to their maximum size after the extinction of the dinosaurs.) i'd have to look more into the occurrence of notomelia and what causes it (does it even occur in reptiles/dinosaurs?), to see how realistic it would be for it to occur commonly within a species and produce fully-functioning limbs.

i'm picturing dragons as carnivorous, meaning they'd likely evolve from theropods: this would make sense, given theropods' hollow bones, as well as their evolutionary proximity to birds. with that in mind, having the wings as an extra set of limbs would be especially beneficial, as all four of the animal's legs could be maintained: the hindlegs for running, and the forelegs for grasping (these would necessarily not be tiny like a t-rex's). also, the idea of feathered dragons is a very fun one: imagine the vivid colors and patterns they could have!

in terms of size, we tend to picture dragons as very large -- however, i'd have to keep in mind that the larger the animal, the harder it will be to maintain lift and fly efficiently, especially if the animal in question has more than four limbs to carry in addition to its body. there have been some genuinely huge flying reptiles and birds in existence, such as quetzalcoatlus northropi (~35 ft wingspan, 440-550 lbs weight) and pelagornis sandersi (~20 ft wingspan, 48-44 lbs weight) -- and these awesome animals were able to fly, despite being so massive! there are several factors that would contribute to this, including the giant wingspan and hollow bones. because of the weight of the extra limbs, i doubt a hexapod dragon could grow quite as massive as quetzalcoatlus and still be able to fly well, though i still think it would be possible for them to be very large; it's worth mentioning, too, that having four legs to power liftoff would make it more viable for a dragon to take to the skies at all.

in myth, dragons often breathe fire; i don't think i could manage to find a reasonable biological means of that evolving, though perhaps dragons could evolve to spit venom, which would be a more realistic means of delivering a ranged, burning attack. in flight, the dragon could take down its prey by targeting it with venom, then quickly snatch it up with its forelegs to eat without ever alighting. sounds evolutionarily beneficial to me: very efficient, and very awesome.

tying into the trope of a greedy dragon's hoard, perhaps dragons are especially keen to shiny objects, which they can see from afar: with this mid-flight grasping maneuver, they'd snatch them up to add to a bowerbird-like nest decorated with "treasure". to connect more with myth, dragons are often associated with weather, storms in particular; perhaps dragons migrate at high altitudes during rainy seasons, creating that correlation.

it should be noted, too, that the reality in which i'm picturing these dragons is one in which humans also exist. these humans, witnessing the behaviors of these awe-inspiring creatures, would tell stories about them: they breathe fire (they spit venom), and they abduct children (they snatch up their prey in their claws), and they steal treasure from kings (they take shiny things for their nests), and they control the weather (they migrate during the rainy season). perhaps humans aren't their main prey source, causing dragons to be a fear but not a genuine threat to humans (like how we view sharks); or perhaps dragons indeed regularly eat humans, meaning humans have to live out of sight of them. in the latter case, considering how dragons are highly effective predators, they might drive humans towards extinction!

i hope you enjoyed my spec-bio ramble on the evolution, physiology, and behavior of dragons! it's very fun to think about :)

[friendball-irl]

Okay, I'll admit the first two are nice.

The second two are really just cultural things. It's not necessarily impressive, so much as it is just different.

But I can understand where you're coming from.

(@wingsofachampion) Papa? Do you ever get scared, even though you're human? -Tropius

Absolutely.

Y'know, Fruitfly, just because we're human doesn't mean we're all that different from you mentally.

We have fears. We have dreams. We have aspirations. It's all just a part of what makes us individuals.

We're a lot more alike than you realize.

[sheepslicker]

dinosair

[sleddingchampion]

yoire right you are NOT a dinosair!!!!!! dog????

NOO I'm not an animal!! If I was an animal I'd be a ferret!

[bugsinthebayou]

im going to fucking kill you.

PISS

[libraryspectre]

NEXT WAYWARD CHILDREN IS DINOSAIRS

[shadestar413]

I HAVE DINOSAIR NUGGETS

[ace-of-whatever]

Dinosairs

I was being cancelled because apparently it was classist to put feathers on dinosaurs.

Both dream me and irl me were very confused.

[hoodie-prince-kid]

I don't eat dino chicken nuggets because they're Dinosaurs, I eat them because they're Chicken Nuggets!

(-someone who 100% eats them because they're Dinosaurs.)

But chickens are in fact dinosairs 😌

[creepywing]

im crying real tears why does my dinosair sing bts what