#megafuana

[scienceambersandfantasy]

A mother Cualaote with her baby Cualito latched on for safety.

[makairodonx]

Sketches of the iconic Australian animals that were part of the Pleistocene Megafuana, from top to bottom: Procoptodon goliath, Megalania prisca, Diprotodon opatum and Thylacoleo carnifex.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Round Three: Cryptogyps vs Heracles

Cryptogyps lacertosus

Artwork by @otussketching, written by @zygodactylus

Name Meaning: Powerful Hidden Vulture 

Time: 770,000 to 55,000 years ago (Chibanian to Tarantian stage of the Pleistocene epoch, Quaternary period) 

Location: Throughout Australia, including Kalamurina, the Wellington Caves, and the Nullarbor Plain 

Today, there are no vultures in Australia. In fact, until recently, it seemed fairly clear that no vultures had lived in Australia - but now, we know they did! Originally thought to be an eagle, Cryptogyps was on the small size for a vulture, only bigger than the living Hooded Vulture - though it was about the size of the wedge-tailed eagle. However, it was proportioned similarly to other vultures, and between that and its great range across the entirety of Australia, it is logical to conclude that it lived similarly to other vultures, feeding primarily on carrion and going great distances to find it. It did not have the right musculature to be an active hunter like eagles and hawks. As such, Cryptogyps was a vital part of its environment, reducing the spread of disease and recycling nutrients and energy back into the food web like vultures today. Cryptogyps lived alongside a wide variety of weird megafuana present in Australia during the last ice age, including marsupial lions, giant demon-ducks (mihirungs), giant hippo-sized wombats, sheep-sized and fossorial echidnas, short-faced kangaroos, giant koalas, thylacines, giant maleefowls, huge monitor lizards, large crocodilians, and giant pythons - as well as cassowaries, regular kangaroos, emus, and other large animals that remain today. It was a weird place of which Cryptogyps was a small and important part, and would have been a regular sight in the skies to the first Indigenous Australians to settle on the continent!

Heracles inexpectatus

Artwork by @otussketching, written by @zygodactylus

Name Meaning: Unexpected Herculean Parrot 

Time: 16 to 19 million years ago (Burdigalian stage of the Miocene epoch, Neogene period) 

Location: St. Bathans Fauna, Bannockburn Formation, Aotearoa  

Heracles was a truly alarmingly large parrot, related to modern day Kea, Kaka, and Kakapo, known from the fantastic avifauna of St Bathans. Standing more than two feet tall and weighing about fifteen pounds, this animal was much larger than any expected from the St Bathans fauna, which represented the initial colonization of Aotearoa (Zealandia) after it returned above sea level. Heracles is also the largest known species of parrot, ever. It was presumably flightless, though it is uncertain if it was nocturnal like its living relative the Kakapo. Its exact ecology is still uncertain, given the material known from Heracles is limited and its living relatives have very disparate ecologies, though it is possible it was omnivorous similar to the Kea and Kaka today. The St Bathans fauna lived in a freshwater lake system, in a subtropical emergent rainforest. Separated from land bridges, the fauna was dominated by birds, with early relatives of the Kiwi, New Zealand Wrens, Adzebills, and Wedge-Tailed eagles found in the fauna, as well as somewhat modern looking Moas. Smaller flamingos, large fruit pigeons, and a huge variety of geese and other waterfowl are known. In addition, frogs, tuataras, other lizards, crocodilians, turtles, and many different types of fish are known from this fascinating ecosystem. 

[deusvervewrites]

Convergence Event: Asui has to deal with a Ssa monster instead of smugglers during her internship.

I did mention that CEs have resulted in megafuana running around from time to time so sea monsters are hardly out of the question--hell, they were my example.

I'd assume that handling this would be part of a Hero's job, considering.

Lucky her that she's on a boat filled with experienced oceanic Heroes who likely have experience with this sort of situation. It'll make for an exciting story to tell the class when she gets back

[nachosforfree]

It seems that a lot of the undersea megafuana only eat tiny tiny things so maybe if you humans want to catch up we should start partaking in miniature foods

[thatfreak03]

(Sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes)

I drew my Veesha fankid, Camilo Noceda, in causal clothes. I also drew him in the form he takes when he's in the human world. I also drew his palisman, Chilly.

Here are so more small facts about him:

When he was young, he loved to learn about extinct species, especially megafuana. His favorite was the mammoth, hence his pailsman.

He has punched Jacob Hopkins in the face.

Camilo secretly feels insecure that his transformation powers are not as good as his mom's and that his true form isn't more basilisk-looking.

Link to the orignal post here.

[titanus-horizio]

Addendum for chapter one since I'm having a new plan for kaiju moving forward

Gyaos in the world of ATAB aren't megafuana like the rest of the kaiju

They're dragons

Since the world of atab has a lot of things that draw from dnd I thought it would be fitting to put them as dragons Insead of megafauna since

I feel like kaiju should be whole entities and not entire species

Gyaos are smaller

[ithisatanytime]

TOMMY CASH - RACKED (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

  there doesnt necessarily need to be a conspiracy here, though i could easily see their insistance on renaming dragon bones to dinosaur bones as a way to ensure dragons remained a fantastical creature in the mind of the public which further damages christianity in the west due to the bibles inclusion of dragons as though they were just regular creatures in a few passages. ultimately though i think this comes down to a sort of perverse skepticism thats really prevalent in science but especially in biology. so you have a problem, namely that peoples from around the world who would have no way of sharing this information all independantly describe these quite large and fearsome reptiles, of which there is little evidence of today. i dont think it needs an explanation i think its self explanatory, there are plenty of charismatic megafuana that went extinct. the problem is in part history overlapping with biology, biology is trying to be a harder science than history but almost everything we know about the world prior to cameras is anecdotal, potsherds only tell you so much so we take people at their word until their is evidence to the contrary. but the skepticism in biology is autistic and often one sided, the most widely excepted explanation for the problem i described is that dragons sprung up around the world independantly as an amalgamation of ancestral predatory fears, and this theory is based on fuck all, fairy dust, literally the power of imagination, and yet thats the theory we are going with instead of what i think is a more elegant theory, there were probably some big ass lizards fucking about back then

[insomniac-arrest]

why are we obsessed with only bringing dinosaurs back? Why not other time periods too? Megafauna are right there being huge and freaky and haunting our primordial past and collective memory, ready for us to tell tales about concerning our own hubris and desire to play God

I want people trying to ride giant sloths across city centers

I want glyptodon (giant armadillos the size of VW Beetles) challenging cars on the highway

and hella giant otters the size of wolves getting freaky music as people hide from them in a kitchen

and my boy, gigantopithecus!! more of him

megafauna are rad guys, really big boys, huge fellows, right lads

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Aviraptor vs Cryptogyps

Factfiles:

Aviraptor longicrus

Artwork by @otussketching, written by @zygodactylus

Name Meaning: Long-legged Bird Thief

Time: 30 to 31 million years ago (Rupelian stage of the Oligocene epoch, Paleogene period) 

Location: Jamna Dolna, Menilite Beds, Carpathian Flysch Zone, southeast Poland 

Birds of prey are fascinating - there are many different kinds, doing many different things, and their radiation is poorly understood. Aviraptor helps put together some pieces of the puzzle by being the first raptor known adapted for eating birds as prey - essentially, capturing (larger) flying animals in the air, a not-easy feat. It was very similar to modern diurnal raptors, with a short beak, large laws, and long slender legs. That said, with those proportions it was very small - similar in size to living sparrowhawks and tiny hawks. It didn’t have a particularly hooked beak, but a straighter one similar to the harrier-hawks. It was similar, overall, to living birds that hunt early birds - and as such, it is the earliest known bird we know of to hunt other birds (oh bird on bird crime). Living alongside a variety of other birds, including passerines and hummingbirds, it probably fed on smaller avifauna in its area - and Aviraptor itself may have evolved in response to the radiation of many small birds in the early Oligocene. In addition to early modern-hummingbirds and crown passerines, Aviraptor lived alongside hoopoe-hornbill relatives, chickens, fish, and turtles. 

Cryptogyps lacertosus

Artwork by @otussketching, written by @zygodactylus

Name Meaning: Powerful Hidden Vulture 

Time: 770,000 to 55,000 years ago (Chibanian to Tarantian stage of the Pleistocene epoch, Quaternary period) 

Location: Throughout Australia, including Kalamurina, the Wellington Caves, and the Nullarbor Plain 

Today, there are no vultures in Australia. In fact, until recently, it seemed fairly clear that no vultures had lived in Australia - but now, we know they did! Originally thought to be an eagle, Cryptogyps was on the small size for a vulture, only bigger than the living Hooded Vulture - though it was about the size of the wedge-tailed eagle. However, it was proportioned similarly to other vultures, and between that and its great range across the entirety of Australia, it is logical to conclude that it lived similarly to other vultures, feeding primarily on carrion and going great distances to find it. It did not have the right musculature to be an active hunter like eagles and hawks. As such, Cryptogyps was a vital part of its environment, reducing the spread of disease and recycling nutrients and energy back into the food web like vultures today. Cryptogyps lived alongside a wide variety of weird megafuana present in Australia during the last ice age, including marsupial lions, giant demon-ducks (mihirungs), giant hippo-sized wombats, sheep-sized and fossorial echidnas, short-faced kangaroos, giant koalas, thylacines, giant maleefowls, huge monitor lizards, large crocodilians, and giant pythons - as well as cassowaries, regular kangaroos, emus, and other large animals that remain today. It was a weird place of which Cryptogyps was a small and important part, and would have been a regular sight in the skies to the first Indigenous Australians to settle on the continent!

DMM Round One Masterpost

[patrickweck]

Glypto the Bounty Hunter

Ink and watercolor on toned paper

Glypto won me an award at a local steampunk art show about a year ago. I figured it was about time to share his armored Pleistocene glory.   

[horsesarecreatures]

Book reviews - The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert and The Interpreter by Suki Kim.

The Sixth Extinction was a bit slow for me for about the first three chapters. They just covered things I already new as a former environmental science major, like the plight of the world's of the world's amphibians due to Chytrid and an introduction to Darwin, Cuvier, and other very famous figures in biology. But as the book went on it got more and more interesting, with tons of facts I didn't know before, like that bats from Alberta and Massachusetts sometimes migrate all the way to Vermont to hibernate, that ammonites probably didn't have tentacles as commonly depicted but rather had one "arm," and that New Zealand is unique in that its only megafuana was birds like the moa. Each chapter of the book talks about something that is contributing to the current mass extinction event like forest fragmentation and ocean acidification, and uses examples of animals that went extinct due to those reasons or are going to go extinct due to those reasons. The conclusion is basically that if we keep going the way we're going, we're going to wind up making ourselves go extinct just like we made the Neanderthals go extinct. It's a very informative book where the value lies in its small details - it was meticulously researched by the author, who presents multiple theories about almost everything and maintains a surprisingly neutral tone.

Then The Interpreter is a fictional book about a woman named Suzi in her 20s who lives in New York and works as a court translator. The book is technically a mystery, but you don't even know it until about halfway through. The narrator starts by describing Suzi's extremely introverted and intentionally isolated lifestyle - she's not a meek character but she is repressed. One day during a court case she learns something about her parents who were murdered years back. Their case was dubbed a random robbery/murder, but as the book continues it is revealed that they were far from model minorities and many people had motives to want them gone. The mystery unravels slowly and is not what anyone could have predicted, including Suzi. It's really gripping book that deals with themes like family trauma and the illusion of the American Dream. And I can say that I've never come across a character quite like Suzie. The book is unique in many ways. I looked up the author and she is a journalist who once lived undercover in North Korea.

[wizisbored]

Besides the microwave, what're some other things about the modern day that confuse Ghost!Zazz?

short answer: everything.

to be more specific, i actually have a list, so im going to pick some of my favourites to talk about

- where is the fucking megafuana??? half the species shes used to are extinct and the ones that are still around are a shit ton smaller. when she started hunting squirrels catching one of them would be a good meal for a couple of people, now theyre tiny. and chihuahuas are fucking baffling. theyre full grown? how the hell did they gets wolves to be so small??

- the concepts of personal space and platonic displays of affection have changed. before emma is entirely used to / comfortable with zaz she often has to ask her to give her space because the spirit will just sit right beside her on the sofa without thinking. doesnt help that she has quite a strong scent. and apparently it is no longer cool to punctuate your sentences by kissing a friend passionately on the cheek, which Sucks. she thinks that in particular is kinda sad but when emma says she wouldnt be comfortable with that she makes sure to tone it down to shoulder pats.

- zaz grew up mostly grouped into a litter with 7 other kids (and whatever the fuck chorn was), being raised by all the adults in the tribe. so what shes heard about tim is confusing. why isnt emma more involved in raising him? wheres his litter? school, from what shes been told, seems almost like how she was raised but a little to the left and its hard for her to get her head around it.

[flashofg]

Gundam Reconguista in G II: Bellri’s Fierce Charge (3/4)

With the depature of Mick Jack’s Armorzagan (and Klim Nick), the Megafauna heads for the Capital Territory. The music in this part is really lovely. I was reminded of Breath of The Wild and no specific Ghibli feature. After a brief excursion, they resume course. In an amended scene, passing by a series of waterfalls, Bellri remarks that one looks like it’s falling in slow motion. According to Aida, it doesn’t reach the ground - so no plunge pool. Whatever that is. Anyway, it’s a pleasant exchange which replaces Bellri’s original tidbit. It’s a fine changing, displaying their increasing rapport.

Discovered by the patrolling Captain Mask, Aida’s readiness impresses Bellri. Her combat performance has hardly improved, but she was able to critically damage the Elf Bullock. A shame - I’d hoped for a better final outing, but it was too easily beaten again. I’ll put it down to poor maintenance by prejediced technicians. With the retreat of the Capital Army, they’re approached by the Capital Guard in their cute Recksnows. Guides present and decoys deployed, the Megaufauna sets down in a tight hangar. It’s reused footage, but they introduced another lovely piece over it. I’m reminded very much of When Marnie Was There, the party Marnie snuck Anna into.

After reaching the Capital, Aida and Gusion confront Trismegistus Nug, the head of SU-Cordism on Earth. After a brief discussion, the pilots are taken by Kerbes to prepare to repel the encroaching Capital Army, and a new scene sees Gusion and Colonel Cumpa Rusita resume continue the previous discussion, moving on to the ones Gusion believes to produce them in Sankt Porto. Gusion, or rather Ameria, is aware that these Spacenoids plan to emigrate to the Earth. Cumpa deduces their original plan to take the Pope hostage and head there, although Gusion denies it.

As they return to the Megafauna, the Prime Minister ineffectually pontificates to Senators of the Capital at a military assembly for the Army’s new machine, the Wuxia. After a little talk between Aida and the Captain, we return to Bellri as he reaches the G-Self, which has been equipped with the High Torque Pack. It’s another amended scene, in which there’s a lovely new piano piece that transitions into the main theme as Kerbes finally confronts Bellri about Dellensen’s death.

Bell tearfully confesses to fighting him, speaking of how afraid he was, and the power of the G-Self at that time. Turning away, Kerbes laments in a breaking voice that the Army even built ‘that thing’ (the High Torque Pack). He fiercely orders Bellri to use it before his eyes, to see the grade skipper’s guts and skill.

A short while passes as the crew continue their preparations, and we cut back to the assembly, where Jugan has seized the mic. It might have been a tad harsh, but for the ring of the mic as he’d hit it, punctuating the cut. After that, we breifly cut to a new scene of the Crown departing with Gusion, Wilmit, and the Pope, before returning to the Megafuana. Pursued by the Capital Army’s new machines, the battle ensues.

As the Arcane goes down, Bellri’s cry seemingly awakens the Pack and he mobilises the G-Self. The scream of a technician (possibly Happa) as he bursts from the hangar was hilarious. With Becker pressing a beam rifle to Aida’s cockpit, Bellri decides to fly only the pack towards him. I don’t believe this minor line was in the original episode, but I’d have to check. At any rate, it’s such a classic move. He defeats Becker with a series of dazzling, high speed blows, and they return to the ship.

In a new scene, we see the Garanden’s Captain for the first time. I searched for his name in the Reconpedia in G, but he’s really marked Garanden Captain. Detaching the left and right blocks, the ship heads for elliptical orbit to rendevous with the Mask Corp, defeat the space pirates, crush Ameria’s army and secure the Capital Tower.

There’s 20 minutes left on the clock, but I’ll leave it here for tonight. Tomorrow will be the last post in this set.

[i-used-to-be-a-spy]

Yes to all of the above

Add on: I recently saw a paleontologist on here talking about how megafuana are more at risk for extinction in general bc its more costly than being small & more difficult to evolve when facing new pressures such as climate change. So humans could have been one of many pressures and not solely responsible

Add on: Cool new fossil findings from 2023 also show humans were in America's earlier than we previously thought which potentially means they didn't contribute to extinction of megafuana in a "new predator wiped out prey" way

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/humans-south-america-sloth-bones-180982531/

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/23/science/ancient-footprints-ice-age.html

https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/stone-tools-and-camel-tooth-suggest-people-were-in-the-pacific-northwest-more-than-18000-years-ago

Pleistocene extinction is an uncomfortable topic for me because the causes are not fully understood, but the likelihood that humans played a role in the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna brings out a nasty side of people where they're like "as you can see, humans kill everything they touch and destroy ecosystems wherever they go"

In particular they are often specifically talking about megafauna of the Americas, Australia, Madagascar or other islands. (this idea is usually paired with talking about people crossing the Beringia land bridge). It's all the exact places where indigenous peoples have been trying to assert their rights to their own land

Furthermore, the "holocene extinction" idea treats the current biodiversity crisis created by colonialism and capitalism as equal to the extinction when the Ice Age ended.

If we accept the proposition that the end-Pleistocene extinctions were caused by humans and that this quality means all of the "Holocene extinction" shares a common cause, that treats environmental destruction and exploitation as a fundamental effect of human presence, instead of a result of policies and systems of power that are not inevitable.

[shroom-n-doom]

The only thing cooler than taxidermy is 50000 yr old mummified megafuana. That fucks so hard. Prehistoric calf. If my house doesnt resemble the natural history museum what's the fucking point