Extinct Species Thread

>>43794983
>Anyone have any suggestions for cool megaflora/megafauna for a primal civilization?

White people.

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>>43794983
We have awaited this thread.
The anomalocaridids will rise.

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>>43795022
You expected terrestrial vertibrates when you made this thread and for that, OP, you are a fool.

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>>43795052

Sabres, rhinos an mammoths are a must. Giant sloths (on the right) are really cool too.

>>43795022
>>43795052
Given the naval element I'm planning, sea creatures suit me fine. The weirder and more terrifying, the better.

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>>43795086
Fuck me, forgot pic

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>>43795102
In that case, here's the ancestry of whales

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>>43795102
Good on you.
Shale to the king, baby.

Megalania if geography isn't an issue.

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>>43795171
Other rendition of ambulocetus. Keep in mind that this thing could both swim and walk

SWOOOOOOOORDS AND SAAAAAANDALS. GLADIATOOOOOOOR

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>>43795129
Holy shit that giant sloth.

Also. Dunkleosteus

>>43795223
Geography be damned. Giant lizards are still great.

>>43795026

I heard they recently found some frozen specimens of the only slightly smaller Eurasian strain of these guys.

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>>43795223
Forgot pic.

>>43795290
How the fuck it could find enough food to sustain itself?

I assume that you've already got Terror Birds.

Entelodonts were kind of giant pigs who were significantly more predatory than modern swine. Some very scary jaws.

Patriofelis was something like a cross between a cougar and an otter. I think they look cool.

>>43794983
>Megatherium, basically a bear with bigger claws-- except a sloth
>Peraceratherium, basically a giraffe made out of an elephant, except bigger.
>Woolly rinoceros, self explanatory
>Megalania, a monitor lizard the size of a bus
>Panthera zdanskyi, basically a tiger except not a tiger
>Smilodon, saber-toothed cat
>Basilosaurus, a long, carnivorous whale
>Megalodon, a great white shark except big enough to eat a great white shark

If we can go before the K-T event, I might be more help

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Terror bird mounts replacing modern horses.

Imagine sicking terrorbird riding raiders on your players and surrounding them in a circle of lion disemboweling claws and small horse eating beaks.

>>43795464

Reptiles need a lot less food than mammals. That's the benefit of being cold blooded.

>>43795461
>animals god waned extict

>>43795464
There was more oxygen back then. Sea scorpions could have gotten big enough to sustain it, but it probably just ate other fish

>>43795487
>>43795468
Forgot about these niggas. Glyptodon and Terror Birds are metal as a motherfucker

>>43795491
you know what. Fuckit. Lets go pre K-T.

MEGAFAUNA, GO!

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Be careful not to overpopulate the setting with predators. They'll be in competition remember. Have a fucking gigantic bird on.

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Livyatan Melvillei, maybe?

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I was always fascinated by all those ammonites with bizarrely shaped shells.

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>>43795591
And another.

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Permian reptiles are always great. They are basically old-timey dinosaurs: slow, fat and completely featherless.

>>43795573
Oh damn nigga. Obviously you're going to want dinosaurs of like every kind plus other sauropsidans, like plesiosaurs, mosasaurs, pterosaurs, etc.
>Sarcosuchus, like a 40 foot crocodile except not exactly
>Deinosuchus, like a 40 foot crocodile except pretty much that
>Sebecus, a land-based crocodilian that was probably an ambush predator
>Barurusuchus, a 10-foot desert dwelling terrestrial crocodilian that may have been an ambush predator or active hunter
>Edaphosaurus, an herbivorous mammal-ancestor with a huge fin growing out of its back for thermoregulation
>Dimetrodon, a carnivorous mammal-ancestor with a huge fin growing out of its back for thermoregulation
>Cynonathus, a furry lizard-wolf
>Eurypterids/ sea scorpions, which grew out to 2m long
>Old elasmobranchs, or funky ass sharks
>Trilobites, which probably made the base of aquatic ecosystems (aside from detritus and algae)

And for good measure
>Ferns that are also palm trees
>Cycads
>Montsechia, an aquatic plant (first flowering plant maybe)
>Cycads for days
>Lepidodendron, a club moss-like plant that grew to the size of an oak tree
>Cycads
>Gingkophytes, not entirely extinct, but are only one species today. Probably hard to describe specifically
What kind of campaign or climate is it going to be in? What are you doing?

>>43795798
LORD HELIX WHAT HAS BECOME OF YOU!?

>>43796033
> What kind of campaign or climate is it going to be in? What are you doing?
The main area being developed is vaguely Mediterranean.

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>>43794983
>Sword & Sandals
>primordial civilization
>Megafauna

I approve of this so fucking hard...

Post if you have postable material already.

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>>43796250
Never design shells while drunk.

>>43796389
You're going to want to investigate the fossils of the area. I know for a certainty that there were dwarf elephants once upon a time, and Protoceratops was totally a thing in Persia. >>43795798 would be a good idea in the seas, along with crinoids (jellyfish, corals, and anemones) of both the dangerous and harmless variety.

>>43795893
>Jeff patting Frank on the back while they laugh about a good joke

>>43796694
>Carol from accounting is coming to join them for lunch break

yoo I saw them things at the La Brea tar pits museum, ayyyyy

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Nightmare fuel for you guys.

>>43796694
>>43796777
I don't know why but this really made my day

>>43796885
Is that my nigga Titanoboa? How did I forget him earlier?

I love this thread
I love you guys
Thanks OP.

>>43796924
>TODAY, ON DINOSAUR OFFICE

>>43797387
>JOHNSON THE T-REX CONTINUES TO STRUGGLE WITH THE KEYBOARD

>>43797578
Johnson: SKRREEEEEEEEEEE!

Morgoth: I don't care, it doesn't count as a handicap, so we aren't paying for the standing desk!

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>>43794983
>Anyone have any suggestions for cool megaflora/megafauna for a primal civilization?

Basically, pick any animal that exists today. Chances are, there used to be a larger version of it not so long ago. You might think I'm exaggerating; I'm not.

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>>43794983
>Sword & Sandals game
>with forgotten species from our own world

pic SO VERY MUCH related

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>No no guys seriously
>What if
>The gorilla
>Was also a horse?

>Nature are you fucking high again?

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>>43798177
I was just about to suggest these things. Chalicotheres are awesome as fuck and look pretty damn unique. Hell, you could use them as pack animals or even mounts, maybe. Or just intresting animals that will fuck your shit up if disturbed. They're cool.

>>43795102
Sadly the wacky shrimp is a rather small animal, they could only reach a meter and most are much smaller
What you REALLY want were eurypterids

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Andrewsarchus is under represented I think.

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>>43798299
Entelodonts too. Big mean pig-things.

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Puny gorillas are puny: Long live to Joe Miller!

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>>43795492
>Terror bird mounts replacing modern horses
So pic related

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkleosteus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsinoitherium
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odobenocetops
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archelon

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>>43798315
There's also Fasolasuchus and it's relatives like Postosuchus and Batrachotomus. They were also basically early relatives of theropod dinosaurs, but still had a largely quadrupedal gait. I think it makes them a lot cooler for some reason, it also makes them a little weirder as an alternative to standard theropods in your game.

>>43798301
I'm surprised large land arthropods weren't mentioned earlier. Giant dragonflies, giant centipedes, giant scorpions...all kinds of shit.

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>>43798445
And of course there's the boar croc Kaprosuchus. Which is just dope as hell.

There's also, of course, Gorgonopsids. Which have had some innaccurate media representations but are still hella cool.

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>BBC’s "Sea Monsters", Nigel Marven journeyed to the seven deadliest seas in Earth’s history. Dunkleosteus and his Devonian Sea was ranked the Fifth Most Deadly Sea. Nigel wanted to interact with a Dunkleosteus so he got into a round shark cage and tried to get a closer look at the fish.

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>This thing is something like a cross between a piranha and Dunkleosteus.
>The drawing belongs to the bestiary of "La Marca del Este".

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>>43798299
>>43798315
>huge ugly monster mammals big enough to eat someone whole
>pretty girls
Bad combo.

>>43798486
Nigel Marven is the worst time traveler. Pokes everything, leaves shit around in the past, to say nothing of the reckless endangerment of himself and his crew.

>>43798555
That show was pretty rad to a ten year old, though. Cool shit.

>>43798573
Oh of course. It's just that I'm pretty sure Nigel is wanted by the Time Cops.

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/insert "You're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat" joke/

>>43795361
Got a bigger ress of this?

>>43798537
see you on /d/

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>>43798442
Could you be more wrong? Well, no, you couldn't.

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>>43795487
Can these giant tatoos even attack back? What they can do?

Also contributing with GIANT DOGS.

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>>43798751
This is the best friend of the men.

>>43798751
> God comes home drunk
> Michael tells him to go to bed
> "NO" God says, "I NEED TO MAKE NEW THINGS"
> Michael says "You always say that when you come home drunk"
> God replies, "BECAUSE I MAKE MY BEST WORK WHEN I'M DRUNK!"
> Michael leaves, shaking his head
> God makes that fucking hooved monstrosity
This is why we had extinction events.

>>43795508
That's a fish, son.

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>>43798463
>Gorgonopsids
>google Gorgonopsids for cool image
>find this on top
Couldn't have asked for better for this thread.

>>43798805
no, other way around. God's actually not that great but finds good things by trying a lot of wrong things. Then gets drunk and depressed that all his work isn't what he imagined it to be and wipes it all out, trying to forget it ever happened.

>>43794983
Will you use Neanderthals and other ancient humans?

>>43798597
>>43798639

I'm pretty sure this is always going to be the scariest "that thing actually existed?" creature for me.

>>43799563
I was thinking about making some use of the idea, if not direct 1:1 copies of the other proto human species.

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Hoax, but your players don't know.

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>>43794983
They were likely considerably beefier than what the image portrays.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigantopithecus

>>43800269
Not a hoax, but a big example of scientists being way off the mark in their identification.

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This here is a dragon sized dragon fly.

>>43799700
What about using intelligent apes like Orangs, Gorillas and Baboons instead of protohumans?
Or just a bunch of different types of yetis/Bigfoots/samsquanches?

>>43800358
explain

>>43800863

The actual fossil turned out to be a sea scorpion that was initially mistaken for a big spider, since the show was already in production they took a group of spiders known to exist at the time and postulated a colossal member existing, all the time just referring to it by the name of the entire sub-order.

>>43798608
Gravity Falls version or Super Jail version?

>>43798699
Those are horses anon. Just normal everyday horses

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bump

>>43798299
I'd say it's over-represented considering it's known from only one skull.

>>43801069

Jean-Claude van Damme.

So is the general thrust of this thread "take modern animals and make them bigger?"

Question OP, do you only want actual Old Shit animals, or do you also want people to make shit up that could pass for some of those?

'Cause looking at what some of the other anons have posted, if you mash some of this stuff together you could get some crazy cool shit.

>>43802741

No, it's just that nature's go-to(s) seem to be "Make it bigger" or "Make it smaller" you only get things like"Make it shit boiling acid" "Make it glow in the dark" or "What if living taser?" like once in a blue moon.

>>43795171
>>43795232
I like Ambulocetus because I enjoy the thought of a mammalian crocodile. Also those huge salamander crocodile things from the time of dinos

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>>43794983
Arctotherium is the largest bear to ever live... Slightly bigger than the short nose bear and with a cooler name...

Also, terror birds.

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North America used to have a megafauna more varied than today's Africa

>>43795296
Cave Lions, in Russia. A couple of week-old vubs, probably taken by a cave-in an then frozen.

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Giant sea sloths.

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>>43804073
You called?

/tongue on cheek mode ON/

«This creature from the Holocene epoch had three enormous hook-like claws on each limb, which would've made simply walking a difficult task. And running? Forget it! Instead, Falchirus spent most of its time underwater where its giant claws wouldn't get in the way.
»Falchirus' unusual teeth make it hard to tell what exactly it ate, but its trademark claws point to a predatory lifestyle. Indeed it is thought to have been an ambush hunter, lying in wait at the bottom of a lake or river with its feet hooked onto a sunken log or rock as an anchor, and swiftly grabbing prey unfortunate to waltz in front of it. Falchirus' long neck would also have allowed it to reach the surface to breath without exposing its entire body.»

(for more playful paleontologic reconstructions of extant animals, search Eric Kowalick/Monster-Man-08 on deviantart )

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>>43795179
Ah, Helicoprion, the gift that kept giving, and giving, and giving...

"A gallery of Helicoprion hypotheses, 2013", by Ray Troll

>>43795007
epic

>>43804200
So basically it's a river troll?

>>43804309
>Pizza Cutter
I refuse to believe in the possibility of this ever having existed

>>43804464
Yeah, wheels seem pretty hard to evolve.

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>>43795052
Please don't ask why this image exists, because the short answer is I don't know.

>>43804450
I do kind of like the idea of referring to megafauna and similar with fantastic names.

Like calling terrorbird mounts Hippogryphs.

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>>43804464
>>43804495
It's a spiral.

http://imgur.com/gallery/48jpW

>>43804621
>http://imgur.com/gallery/48jpW
The previous picture made it seem like an actual wheel
>>43804583
kek
>>43804608
Would Gigantopithecus be a troll or a giant?

>>43804200
Isn't that a What-If pic of a future paleontologist discovering a Sloth skeleton and applying modern recreation methods?

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>>43804200

>>43804702
Is... is that how modern recreation is done? How was it done originally?

>>43804745
mostly guesswork. look up the different incarnations of the Iguanadon for example

>>43795290
Jesus that head reminds me so much of EVO: The Search for Eden.

>>43795464
How do Blue Whales find enough food to sustain itself?

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>>43804679
This is a giant.

>>43804713
Is that supposed to be what future palaeontologists would think of a hawk or an owl or something?

And that little thing on the top right is supposed to be a mouse?

>>43807092
It's what happens when you apply shitty reconstruction to a bat.

>>43795487
>the turtlebeaver's face

>fucking humies, 80 percent of my body is armored. You have sticks. Do the math.
>So fucking tired of these assholes

>>43807248
You know, I should've guessed by the fingers, but jeez.

>>43804200
The underwater sloth is Thalassocnus, not Falchirus (which is nothing?)

>>43807092
Bat.

>>43807396
It's a fake reconstruction to remind people how inaccurate our reconstruction techniques would be when applied to extant animal skeletons.

Learn to read.

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Can someone explain the decline of megafuana, and how that could be prevented in a fantasy setting? I want a world with medieval civilizations and megafauna.

>>43808618
extinction level event topples food webs and favors the small.
more recent megafauna killed off by man, many even in the "stone age"

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>>43803295
To be fair a decent number of species, both large and small (more likely small), probably had some method of defense or attack beyond just size, but very few of those things would end up preserved in the fossil record.

We know certain dinosaurs, like Sinornithosaurus, possibly had a venomous bite based on the teeth it had. But it would be harder for something like the bioelectric generating capabilities of torpedo fish and electric eels to be preserved in fossils, or the specialized glands of a skunk, without people finding comparisons in animals related to them that they know have such structures.

This isn't to say we can go nuts with speculative features on all animals. The short-faced bear probably didn't have a venomous bite or lightning paws or something (though a bear that can taser-punch things is a terrifying prospect), having the odd cat-sized animal with skunk-like defenses is certainly something you could do.

On a different note, have you considered things that've only gone extinct in the past hundred years, OP? I know Haast's Eagle was brought up, but I see no mention of moas or elephant birds, or Thylacine, or even something like Steller's sea cow.

So. Dinosaurs. What's up with that? Was there something inherently superior about the thunder lizard format that it reached such widespread early adoption? If it wasn't for the KT crash, I'm not sure anyone would have even bothered with mammalware

>>43808618
>>43808874

Environmental change can also be a factor (ex. insects such as Meganeura and Arthropleura)

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>>43798555
>Implying Prehistoric Park wasn't fucking awesome

If you didn't cheer at the mammoth facing down the T rex to save the baby elephant then you have no soul.

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>>43795492
Played in a setting where elves on the plains rode terror birds. Metal as fuck.

>>43798699
which Tunsinian spirograph is this? I know it is is miyazaki

>>43809303
Nausicaa of the valley of the wind

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>>43809038
Right combination of factors that allowed them to thrive, like climate, available food sources, etc.

Note that when people say "mammals were small" it's still in comparison to the dinosaurs and other reptiles that dominated the region. Certain species could get to the size of opossums and small dogs, and either actively fed on smaller dinosaurs and other animals or scavenged and defended what things they could find exceptionally well. Mammals might have been able to find new niches if the KT extinction event never happened, though most would still be wary of the birds and dinosaurs, crocodiles, turtles, and other animals that dominate the planet. You probably wouldn't see things like Specworld's "platypus whales" unless there were some major environmental shifts.

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>>43797578

>>43808874
There were wooly mammoths alive in asia when the pyramids were built.

>>43808618
could have the main region the campaign is set in be a Frontier region, with more advanced civilizations either completely new to the region in an attempt at colonization, or at the least it's been centuries, if not millennium since the last major civilization in the region

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Anyone has ideas on how to name some of these animals? Can't use scientiphic terms on a campaign similar to OP.

>>43794983
Thylacoleo carnifex

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>>43794983
>>43812550
Oh man, I made a massive campaign for my players, where they encountered tons of these creatures, but with their own special names / folklore in order to throw them off the tracks. It was fun making up the kind of superstitions that would surround them. Not to mention there were a fuckton of massive flightless birds, so their ecosystem was sort of built on that. Here's two I remember off the top of my head.
>Andrewsarchus - the Valuurk (double u's and a's are used in a a lot of shit do to the setting) is a beast of nightmares, with their large jaws that can eat the dreams of sleeping men, rendering them incapable of waking.
>Short-faced bear - the Uthbaar are the children of the Bear King. It is believed that raw meat covered in saffron will appease it and prevent a disaster. Also can climb into houses and transform into family members to trick its victims.

It's a fun game. Everyone travels in pairs when an Uthbaar was sighted in the area, after one of the guys was held at spear point for an entire night after leaving to take a shit.

>>43814554
The killer Koalla?

>>43798445
> also basically early relatives of theropod dinosaurs

I. . . what? No, that's retardedly wrong. They were about as related to theropod dinosaurs as alligators are.

They were rauisuchians, further removed from theropods than the rest of dinosauria AND pterosauria to boot

>>43809038
The "dominance" of any given clade starts with a fair amount of actual evolutionary advantages like possible exadaptations, novel morphologies, generalized diets, etc. but is mostly dumb chance. The dominant fauna is almost impossible to outcompete (with the possible exception of that most horrid of beasts: MAN) So you need to wait for mother nature to wipe the slate clean. Thankfully dominant fauna have probably specialized to become so dominant and are thus the most vulnerable to paradigm shifts in the environment. So then its just a race to see who can radiate fast enough to fill all the now empty niches and become king of the hill till the next disaster

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>>43798442
>>43798699
>>43795492


Why would someone even use horses in this setting if you have these things?

What would be different? Does horses has some kind of advantage over them on some área? How you could propelly use terror birds on a battle between armies?

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>>43798608
It's not like they're going to follow him when he jumps into yet another monster-infested hellhole.

>>43815750
>crocodilians will never become dominant again
feelsbadman.jpg

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>>43816440
Horse ancestors at the time were fucking /tiny/, for one. Horses might make good livestock the way rabbits or sheep do, but I'm pretty sure there were similar, more easy to domesticate small mammals alive back then.

Deer and elk would make a better option than horses, but at the same time a worse option than both murderbirds and modern horsies.
For one, its hard as hell to domesticate a deer and get it to let you ride around on it - don't believe what Miyazaki told you. Secondly, they can gore you to death with their antlers if you try.

Advantages to deer over terrorbirds that I can foresee:
-Much easier and cheaper to feed. Carnivores need a LOT of food that can be hard to get (meat), plant eaters can eat whatever's lying around.
-Not liable to try and swallow you alive/bite you in half. Might still gore you.
-Milk

>>43814959
Fuck that just gave me the best idea for a character.
Sorta sciency type who explores into the unmapped wilderness and categorizes the weird, unnamed shit he finds there.

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>>43816874
little pony for example.

>>43816440
>Why would someone even use horses in this setting if you have these things?
Realistically speaking, horses have no competition.

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I think we've all forgotton the most horrifying mistake of both man and history.
Outdated reconstructions of dinosaur age sea life.

>>43816440
>1200-2000 lbs of solid muscle and endurance
>200-500 lb bird with fragile hollow bones

I dont know anon, why would you rather have a horse

>>43817273
Man if a horse so much as trips it can get fucked for life. Endurance my ass.

>>43817355

Endurance is not the same as durability.

>>43795461
Ah, the famed Derpodont.

>>43817815
I can't help but imagine the one on the right just spouting bad pickup lines

>>43816440
This >>43816874
plus the fact that birds are hard to tame and uncomfortable to ride. They have a rough, bouncy gait, unlike quadrupeds.

>>43817273
Terror birds had solid bones.

>>43817876
Hey, baby, wallow here often?

You know what they say. The bigger the toofs... ahyuk.

>>43817001
that is amazing.
I would like more

>>43806322

Jesus fucking Christ that's massive.

>>43818199

Just think, mankind hunted these things with spears and their massive balls.

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>>43794983
OP, I think you might like a certain ancient american cliff painting called Cage of Eden. Basically "plane full of japanese schoolkids and other assorted tourists crashes into this thread, gets killed by variety of not-as-extinct-as-we-thought monsters". Pic related.

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>>43808997
>We know certain dinosaurs, like Sinornithosaurus, possibly had a venomous bite based on the teeth it had. But it would be harder for something like the bioelectric generating capabilities of torpedo fish and electric eels to be preserved in fossils, or the specialized glands of a skunk, without people finding comparisons in animals related to them that they know have such structures.

Just wanted to point out that this was debunked ages ago. The "groves" that were supposed to house the venom are found in most Theropods. And also BABOONS among other things. The whole venom thing got hyped up for Planet Dinosaur and a ton of people believed it.

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>>43816857
They never really were dominant to begin with other than a comparatively short time in the Triassic. They've continually become MASSIVE over and OVER again whenever there's enough prey though. Such as lovely Crocodylus bugtiensis here.

>>43794983
Could have sworn it was "short faced" not "short nosed"

>>43808618
A few went extinct because overhunting by Man.
A few others went extinct because what they used to eat went extinct because overhunting by Man.
A few others went extinct because they couldn't follow what they used to it, which escaped to different habitats to prevent overhunting by Man.

Also, most couldn't adapt to the warming climates because the Ice Age was also hunted by Man.

>>43809366
I don't really get Specworld. It claims to be Earth without the KT event but then you see the seas dominated by whale-squids, whale-birds and giant sharks, neither of which are dinosaurs.
And on solid ground you find reptiles or every shape and size occupying niches mammals have today, but still no dinosaurs.

>>43819090
I kinda want to play a game where the players are stone-age hunter-heroes hunting down the ice spirit so they can eat its heart and usher in the age of man.

>>43809366
>>43809448
>>43815750
Almost makes me wonder if, given enough time, a dinosaur strain with a social hierarchy could have eventually developed into something filling the same niche as hominids through convergent evolution.

>>43819611
It's unlikely that there would have been "room" for something like a tool making hominid to evolve in the competition at the time. It's really hard to see what species would have evolved in that direction while staying viable and not get massively disadvantaged in monsterworld.

What we think of as the different "raptor" species existed for over 100 million years, while the entire evolution from the first primate-like species to modern day humans happened in roughly 65.5 million years.

We really needed that asteroid to knock the dinos off the board for us to have room to evolve into something other than small scavengers.

>>43804745
The reality is there's only so much information you caan get from a skeleton. Modern recreations are more than just guesses. There's reasoning based on evidence behind them. But it's based on what (often imcomplete) evidence we do have.

>>43816440

Along with what others have said, it's probably not in your best interest to have a transport animal that's genetically predisposed to chasing shit down, let alone possibly attacking YOU.

How many real, actual successful accounts are there of people domesticating a predatory animal for a mount? I'd be genuinely interested to know.

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>>43821312
Hue

>>43821312
So you use a plant eater liker Gastornis.

>>43821312

Do consider that dogs are domesticated predators for whom humans were viable prey.

>>43803759
thank you for that I've been working on a setting in the post apoc where the americas in the aftermathj of a post-oil/post climate change collapse are now filled with cloned species or at least genetic reconstructions of various megafauna that lived there. Why? because right at the end of the world it was the hot new shit to make a ton of clone extinct animals or rebuild them through genetic tinkering and then hunt them.

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>>43821312
Not exactly predatory, but elephants will most positively ruin your day as bad as any lion.

>>43823472
maybe worse because more intelligent

>>43823472
Worse, actually. There's a LOT more deaths from elephants every year.

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>>43823472
I see your elephant and raise you a Dire hippopotamus.
Final Destination Mother Fuckers

>>43794983

Anything from this series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4KNkfaweVk

Whenever I watch this, I regret giving up my dream of becoming a Paleontologist to become a Historian. Postmodernism is not worth it.

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>>43817001
>all of those faces
>"KILL MEEEEEE"

>>43824452
Are you me from the future?

There's nowhere to get degrees for it around here, even with all the museums. Send help.

>>43824452

Might as well post the rest, I'm now even more depressed about the direction of my life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwOpb-oOEnA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_rx2oHcJH0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0suq6KENSs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erWQeFxajT4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxm_p_t2qeA

>>43824693

You can get a degree in it at my local, and I even took a course a few years back in between papers, which makes me even more depressed.

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>>43798668

>>43804679

Ogre.

>>43795052

Isn't this thing actually like the size of your pinkie finger?

>>43798220
Forced perspective.

>>43794983
Gorgonopsids?

>>43824348
literally just a normal hippo

>>43829105
Except it's dire!

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If your dragons aren't four limbed with wings as arms you are doing it wrong.

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You need some Mastodons. Just because Mastodon is a really cool word.

>>43830099
>not just making your Wyverns pterosaurs instead of overhauling Dragons

Sometimes you gotta do it the easy way.

So, as a list of fantasy megafauna, we've got:

Hippogriff (Brontornis burmeisteri) >>43804608
Ogre (Gigantopithecus blacki) >>43825670
Wyvern (Quetzalcoatlus northropi) >>43830376
Giant (Megatherium americanum) >>43806322
River Troll (Thalassocnus antiquus) >>43804450

Any other suggestions? I'd personally include the Griffin (Protoceratops andrewsi)

>>43825436
Thanks mate

>>43830616
The Titanoboa should definitively be included, but I'm not sure what mythological name it should have. Wyrm?

>>43830658
Lindwurm?

Or maybe have just one show up, referred to as "Apep," "Jormungand," or "Ouroboros?"

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>>43830658
Yeah, wyrm or wurm sounds good. Or just call it a dragon, Like Python, the dragon of Delphi.

any prehistoric human female ancestors?

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>>43794983
you got plenty of options anon...99.9% of all species that have ever existed have gone extinct. and out of those less than 1% were when man was around....a whole wealth of extinct creatures out there. billions of species

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>>43830616
Have a kraken.

>>43832443
....wut. I mean.. I guess.. 50% of ALL prehistoric human ancestors were female, anon. That's how biological sex works. At least for the last 500million years or so.

You don't even need extinct creatures to get terrifying. Just take pic related as an example. that thing can sometimes attack humans.

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>>43819090
>>43819323

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>>43833002
Oops, forgot pic

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Damn, am I late to the thread!

>>43804679
Prince Valiant would call it an Ogre. pic related.

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>>43814959
>>43825670
>Very late hive mind

>>43798299
>>43798315
>>43798445
>>43798463
>>43798887

What would any of these be called?

>>43833150
Satans.

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>>43829105
Oh yeah?

>>43833322
Still smaller and less intelligent than a modern elephant, though.

>>43798390
In the upcoming live action Jungle Book King Louie is actually a Gigantopithecus since there are no orangutans in India but Gigantopithecus did.

Oh man, a monkey cult worshiping a giant one as a living god that loves music, booze, and eating could be an interesting faction

>>43829580
Normal hippos are already dire enough. They kill dozens of people on Africa every year, more than any other animal.

Turns out that those chubby legs can run faster than you, and deliver a tusked mouth big enough to swallow your head.

Crocs aren't any good outside water, but the hippo will go after you.

>>43835876
WHer'es that video of a hippo popping a watermelon like a grape?

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here's a cool rendition of a fucking terrifying neanderthal that's more lesser-ape/gorilla/chimpanzee like than human-like. with a chimp-like distribution and density of tissue, it's around 550lbs and 6 times as strong as a big guy.

>>43836567
Call them Orcs.

Didn't the Thirteenth Warrior book have vikings and a persian scholar fighting a tribe of cannibal neanderthals?

>>43836644
That was it exactly. And then it was Beowulf all along.

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The new Jungle Book's going to have King Louie as a Gigantopithicus blacki. Pic related.

>>43836567
Them and Us was a pretty fun read.

>>43836707
>>43835221

>>43836567
thats dumb

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>>43836567
I remember this! THis is the guy who went off about how monster myths and racism are based in how Neanderthals used to hunt humans.
http://themandus.org/

>>43836929
>Slit pupils

Oh man. IIRC the guy who created this shit was a movie-monster designer. Take it with a grain of salt the size of a boulder.

>>43836929
Oh right, trying to explain away their racism with "BUT MUH SCIENCE"

>>43818593
Jesus fuck. Those fangs are terrifying.

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>>43819611
>Almost makes me wonder if, given enough time, a dinosaur strain with a social hierarchy could have eventually developed into something filling the same niche as hominids through convergent evolution.
>if

>>43836929
>slit pupils
>at that size and height above the ground
Yeah, I'm pretty mad.

Continuing the list:

Hippogriff (Brontornis burmeisteri) >>43804608
Ogre (Gigantopithecus blacki) >>43825670
Wyvern (Quetzalcoatlus northropi) >>43830376
Giant (Megatherium americanum) >>43806322
River Troll (Thalassocnus antiquus) >>43804450
Griffin (Protoceratops andrewsi) >>43830616
Wyrm (Titanoboa cerrejonensis) >>43830658
Kraken (Cameroceras trentonense) >>43832774
Orc (Homo neanderthalensis) >>43836644

I'm also going to suggest Moropus distans (A chalicothere) as a Centaur. A quadrupedal, clawed beast that looks a bit like a horse, so could work as one.

>>43833150
From here we get a number of Dire animals.
>>43798315 is a Dire Boar (Archaeotherium mortoni)
>>43798299 is its cousin, a Dire Hyena (Andrewsarchus mongoliensis)
>>43798463 would make a fine Dire Crocodile (Kaprosuchus saharicus) unless a Deinosuchus would work better.

>>43837800
They're fucking vicious creatures, too. You do NOT want to get caught by a pack of them.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_prehistoric_animals
This thread needs this link, just saying.

>>43838006

Paraceratherium neds to be in there. As it was a huge but probably docile herbivore, not so much as a monster but an interesting beast to encounter nonetheless. Might even be some humans domesticate it to use as beast of burden.

>>43838048
Ooh yeah, they're awesome. Maybe just call them Behemoths or something like that.

>>43838714
>wooly ceratopsians
>dat baby one

I want to hug it and feed it and name it George.

>>43800352
Oh jesus, those things look like demons

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Fear the cockatrice my child. Though small, the beast has venom foul.

>>43795232
>>43795290
>>43795361
>>43798486
>>43798502
>>43798547
>>43798597
>>43798639
>>43808618
>>43832774
Fuck. Swimming. EVAR!

>>43837888
How are slit pupils related to size?

>>43840305
http://www.koryoswrites.com/nonfiction/the-functions-of-different-pupil-shapes/

>>43840587
Try reading that article yourself. It doesn't say that tall creatures can't benefit from slit pupils, only that noe do at this time, and that, under one theory, they would be LESS advantageous to a tall creature than to a short one. Not disadvantageous. Just less advantageous.

Now, personally I think it more unlikely than not that neandertals would have had slit pupils. But, that doesn't mean it's impossible, or that there wouldn't be any benefit to it.

>>43841051
Less advantageous is enough reason for something not to be evolved. Slit pupils aren't the default shape, so there'd have to be an evolutionary pressure towards them.

Besides, you know that they were only used in this case to make the neanderthal look EEEEEVIIIIIL with absolutely no thought put into the biology. We have no evidence that a tall, bipedal creature could benefit from them, certainly not one analogous to apes and humans, so putting them on there is just shock value. Which is a dumb-ass reason to do something.

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>>43836567
>6 times as strong as a big guy.

>>43836929
This is Jack Horner tier tripe, but the orc neanderthal is a good monster

>>43839209
Feathered dinosaurs always made me think of the plumed wyvern or quetzocoatle

>>43841180
Especially because we have no evidence any ape or even primate has slitted pupils. So it would have needed to evolve at some point after becoming bipedal.

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>>43833150
Honestly? I think >>43833221 is kinda right, even if he is making a reference.

The Gorgonopsid at least would probably just be called a demon/devil.

>>43841715
>>43833150

Wargs or Barghests??

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>>43841735
That works better.

I was thinking what dragons would be and decided it would probably be any suitably large carnivorous lizard, but if I was being specific I'd say a Spinosaurus. The frill could be misinterpreted as wings and the head is the long dragon shape. It's body is also closer to the quadrupedal stance we see often in western dragons.

>>43841771
Also its habitat of rivers and swamps would give it more of a dragony feel to it as well

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>>43841794
Ankylosaurus or glyptodonts would be tarrasques as well.

>>43841812
Isn't the entire point of the tarrasques that it's insanely big? In that case it has to be Argentinosaurus.

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>>43841832
I'm talking about this one, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarasque, the actual folklore creature. Not the D&D monster.

Though I would like to point out that pic related is what wikipedia has as the example picture for the tarrasque in D&D. What the fuck am I even looking at.

>>43841715
>>43841812

Devils (or DnD Tarrasques) should be Carnotaurus

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>>43841865
whoops forgot pic

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>>43841865
I think Allosaurus would be better for just straight up Devils.

They have the horns, albeit not as big, but they're more common and I don't think they get enough love.

>>43841852
I actually thought tarrasque was one of the monsters completely made up by the DnD devs. The Ankylosaurus makes perfect sense for the original folklore beast, yeah.

>>43797869
I'm really curious why the dark enemy of the universe is managing a dinosaur office

>>43842063
everyone has bills to pay.

>>43816874
Some paleobiological studies have been suggesting that Megaloceras and its kin may have been behaviorally different from modern deer, though I'm not sure if it would be in the right ways to make it possible to ride them.

Come to think of it, what megafauna would make good criteria for domestication if they hadn't been wiped out. Ground sloths (potentially the Carribean forms)? North American llamas? Elephant birds?

>>43842178
Elephant Birds would definitely be up there.

Llamas are mediocre pack animals and mediocre food animals. good wool though, so I suppose that would probably be the same with any extinct versions.

Ground sloths would probably be a bit like gorillas or pandas. Kinda lazy but also too prone to violence when under duress to make good animals for working. Plus, they're backs aren't flat, so you couldn't put any harnesses for them to hold anything. At least not easily.

Mammoths would be fine though.

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>>43842178
Mammoths would work i guess if they aren't somehow drastically different from the elephants.
Indricotherium could work as a retardedly big horse or mule if you are willing to go back far enough.

>>43842207
>Domesticating Wooly mammoths for the wool.
>Breeding smaller, fluffier mammoths

I want this.

>>43816857
There was also a brief "golden age of true crocodyliformes" in the Cretaceous of the southern continents, and they diversified a bit again once the dinosaurs had left (Paleocene was crawling with crocs). So they'll probably rise to dominance again after the next extinction.

Tldr: Crocodilian world soon, my brothers

>>43842212
I thought they were closer to Rhinos? They'd probably just be like elephants in temperament though.

>>43842228
They are like birds. They just wait for the right moment and then crawl out of the woodwork.

>>43842228
There are a few animals, Crocodiles, sharks, octopi, who just hit a perfect design loooong ago and only changed slightly since. Even if humanity fuck earth up big time, they'll probably be around in mostly the same form for hundreds of million years to come.

>>43842241
Yeah, they were rhino relatives. But just look at those fuckers and tell me if they don't look like a horse version of the incredible hulk.

>>43823032
Elephant birds, or Vorompatra if you want to use a non-modern term for them. Huge, robust, have great endurance for riding (less running and more marching) and, even better, they lay huge eggs that you can either eat as food or use as ready made jugs or pots. In a world where they weren't wiped out, I could see elephant birds easily being used as domestic animals

>>43842250
Well now I'm picturing tiny little crocodiles as pests.

>Guy walks into the kitchen and turns on the light
>A bunch of little crocs scurry under the stove
>"Ma! we got crocodilians again! Call the exterminator!"

>>43842293
That's called Hatching Season in Florida

>>43824452
>>43824730
The paleontology job market is shit, and the community is filled with That Guys. You're better off finding another job that lets you keep you wonder of the field. Being in it is soul-sucking.

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>>43842293
>>43842306

It's probably not, but it sounds fucking adorable.

>>43798597
>>43798639
>tfw out fishing when a megalodon slaps your boats stern
wat do

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>>43836567
>>43836644
>>43838006

How about some actual Neanderthal pics. Neanderthals weren't horrific gorilla-men. We can reconstruct their facial appearancr from their skulls. We can tell things from their DNA. And it shows that Neanderthals would have looked basically like slightly odd-looking humans. If you try to match them up to fantasy races, they're more like Tolkien dwarves than orcs.

>>43842207
North American llamas (Hemiauchenia, Paleolama) are bigger and more robust, so you might get more meat or pulling power off them.

Ground sloths might be a good oxen-analogue for an Inca-like civilization. Diabolotherium was basically a ground sloth version of a mountain goat. I was thinking of sloths being raised for meat, hides, armor, weapons, and occasional siege weapons than anything else.

>>43842416
When I was younger I remember seeing a book in the grocery store book/magazine/trashy romance section where a human scientist and neanderthal scientist from alternate earths come in contact with each other and fuck

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>>43819117
>No dinosaurs

It's like you're asking for a specworld dump.

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>>43842416
Sure, but in a fantasy setting that's only using the ancient beasts as creatures, they could still be outlandish cannibal monsters called orcs.

Of course, there are other species that could fill that role and have neanderthals be truer to life.

Heidelbergensis would probably be good. They were also likely taller than humans of the time, which is an interesting thing to note.

>>43842262
> Octopi only 100 million years old
> Crocs have changed a LOT over their evolutionary history, and modern crocs only appeared in the later Cretaceous
> Sharks have changes like crazy too, the Carboniferous was known as the "Age of Sharks for a reason and the oldest "modern" sharks are mid-Mesozoic

>>43833043
>Woah, you're not a little girl at all!
>Shit, are you from the FBI?

>>43838006
Rauisuchids - Superdire Crocodile

>>43833043
You now realize "Val" could be either.

>>43838006
>Archaeotherium
>just called a "dire boar"
>not called a hellhog, despite that being the most commonly used common name for them

>>43842485
>abbos and irish

>>43798130
Tim Flannery did a study that found that even in modern animals, with a few notable exceptions, Pleistocene representatives of modern species were larger than their modern forms due to humans hunting the largest individuals first and selecting for smaller adults.

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>>43842544
If the game OPs running is standard Swords and Sandals, as in is set in a generic European analogue, then they would probably be stand ins for Celts anyway.

>>43842485
Sadly, Homo is the most carnivorous of the hominins and H. sapiens and H. neanderthalensis the most carnivorous of them.

Now, if you wanted to make up some carnivorous australopithecine that didn't exist in our timeline, that could work. Or perhaps a chimp relative that independently evolved tool use and never evolved knuckle-walking

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>>43838714
ENHANCE

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>>43842416
JUST

>>43833406
An order of magnitude more aggressive, hyperomnivore, actively looks for meat, actively hunts people. Hippos are the top of the African big five and the most dangerous animal not because of size or smarts but because of their murderousness.

Now all you anons are great with all your ideas and comments but how the heck do you stat any of this prehistoric beasts? I know some have stats in a monster manual here & there. Is there an engine that can quickly stat up something like >>43842212 for a quick mount or beast of burden?

>>43844679
Depends on the system. Runequest has had a bunch of megafauna statted up in books. The pathfinder srd has a section for them. http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/animals/megafauna Both including Baluchitherium, which is a type of Indricothere.

>>43832797
I was asking 4 pics.

>>43842293
This is why you keep house hippos.

>>43843825
Also because Hippos are nocturnal and like to run into people at night.

>>43846191
No fap bait for you mister

>>43833322
Is it true that hipopótamos from cold regions existed?

>>43833013
>clickety claw
>get in my hole

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>>43847930
They certainly lived as far north as the British Isles during the interglacial periods.

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>>43804713

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>>43850481

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>>43850492

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>>43850499

>>43850481
Hippopotamus
>>43850492
Anteater>>43850499
Platypus
>>43850506
Sperm whale

>>43850481
>>43850492
>>43850499
>>43850506
...These are all going in my campaign.

In fact. This might be my new monster creation method. Find a skeleton of something mundane, and then re-imagine it.