Invent your own animal

[JHG]

Magnopteryx columbi(Great Columbian wings)

Magnopteryx. It's name brings out an air of awe among the tapejarid pterosaurs. At 8 metres wingtip to wingtip and weighing 150 kilograms, it was about twice the size of a human.
Magnopteryx was native to Central America and the northern areas of South America. It's diet was mainly fruit but would also take carrion and tubers. Predators would have included baurusuchids, thallasodromids and abelisaurids. The crest was good for display in the mating season. The females laid hundreds of eggs in the dirt, leaving the flaplings to strike out solo. This pterosaur lasted from 83-75 mya, making it among the last tapejarids. The movement of the continents and outcompetition from new herbivorous dinosaurs was its doom. The grounded lifestyle of tapejarids meant it was unable to fly as far as the pteranodonts or ornithocheirids, leaving it stuck.

[JHG]

Xenotyrannus bakkeri(Robert T. Bakker's foreign tyrant)

This was truly one terror among the Metriacanthosauridae. Xenotyrannus was a Middle Jurassic theropod that lived roughly in what is now China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, and Mongolia. Its diet would have consisted of prey of other Allosauroids, namely ornithopods, sauropods, and stegosaurs. Xenotyrannus was a large theropod at 14 metres long and weighing in at 7.4 tonnes, surprising many paleontologists. It indicated that later metriacanthosaurids such as Sinraptor and Yangchuanosaurus had shrunk with evolution possibly due to the greater caloric requirements for a larger animal. Fossils of Xenotyrannus have all been found in singles so far but caution should be shown before declaring Xenotyrannus was only solitary. Reproductive methodology for metriacanthosaurids in general is not well understood but it is at least certain that they would lay eggs. So far feathers are unknown in Xenotyrannus but even if they had them, the feathers would only be in a sparse covering. When hunting, Xenotyrannus likely bit with its jaws and slashed with its claws but success was no guarantee and it would break its teeth upon biting bone too hard. Tripping over would have fatal consequences so Xenotyrannus was likely only modestly fast at best. It's unknown how this terrifying giant monster went extinct, but its lineage would dominate East Asia for millions of years.

[Kyng]

Nice name there !

(Admittedly, it seems several other people have come up with it before you, but that's fine, because it's still an awesome name )

[JHG]

Nice name there !

(Admittedly, it seems several other people have come up with it before you, but that's fine, because it's still an awesome name )

Should I change the name? I’m just trying to use every letter in the alphabet for my hypothetical animals.
By the way, do you have your ideas for animals?

[Kyng]

Nice name there !

(Admittedly, it seems several other people have come up with it before you, but that's fine, because it's still an awesome name )

Should I change the name? I’m just trying to use every letter in the alphabet for my hypothetical animals.
By the way, do you have your ideas for animals?

Nah, I'd say keep it. It's still a good name, even if other people have had the same idea .

I have had a couple of ideas, but they're not fleshed-out. If I get a chance to develop them some more, then I'll definitely post them here!

[JHG]

Icarotherium lycanoides(Icarus' beast)

Icarotherium was a strange Cretaceous mammal. It was among the largest mammals of its time, about the size of a wolf at 1.5 meters long and weighing about 45 kilograms. It was intended to be named Iberotherium but that name was already used by a rhinoceros so it was changed to Icarotherium. Icarotherium could hunt small dinosaurs, other mammals, scavenge carcasses, and cannibalize each other but they were far from apex predators. Abelisaurids, tyrannosaurs, and the giant pterosaur Hatzegopteryx would've preyed on Icarotherium. Fossils of Icarotherium were found in what's now Spain and it's likely their geographic range was larger. Icarotherium lived a successful life in Late Cretaceous Europe but it would go extinct in the K-Pg extinction event.

[Kyng]

Interesting. I'm surprised that something like that would have had any predators at all: if it was 1.5m long and weighed 45kg, then it sounds like it would've been fairly lean.

Still, it's nice to see this thread making a comeback !

[MamaFrankie]

My Great Uncle Manfred is an exotic animal breeder and magician. He's the Don of animal creation! Legends such as the Kangabuffalant (kangaroo/buffalo/elephant cross), the Snark (snake/ardvaark), the Jagupard (jaguar/leopard), the Huskamute (husky/malamute), the Ocelrus (ocelot/walrus), the Squack (squirrel/duck), the Pigeleon (pig/chameleon) and the Amsigax (cat/antelope) are his own work.

His son, Cousin Wilberforce, breeds insects such as Roachions (cockroach/scorpion) and Geezerflies (human/rabbit).

Other weird creatures in this wonderful world include Mbangi wasps, Noluki wasps, Ergitan birds, the Parello (a silverfish type creature which can be milked like a cow), the Wyverns, the Tarunna (plural Tarunnae), Komoffits, Ruszla birds (similar to peacocks), Wizenhov bees and Griffosaurs.

I created an entire thread based on this spoof on a website I resigned from.

[Kyng]

My Great Uncle Manfred is an exotic animal breeder and magician. He's the Don of animal creation! Legends such as the Kangabuffalant (kangaroo/buffalo/elephant cross), the Snark (snake/ardvaark), the Jagupard (jaguar/leopard), the Huskamute (husky/malamute), the Ocelrus (ocelot/walrus), the Squack (squirrel/duck), the Pigeleon (pig/chameleon) and the Amsigax (cat/antelope) are his own work.

His son, Cousin Wilberforce, breeds insects such as Roachions (cockroach/scorpion) and Geezerflies (human/rabbit).

Other weird creatures in this wonderful world include Mbangi wasps, Noluki wasps, Ergitan birds, the Parello (a silverfish type creature which can be milked like a cow), the Wyverns, the Tarunna (plural Tarunnae), Komoffits, Ruszla birds (similar to peacocks), Wizenhov bees and Griffosaurs.

I created an entire thread based on this spoof on a website I resigned from.

Ah yes, nice to hear about Great Uncle Manfred again .

Those are some interesting creations . Do you have any pictures, or is Great Uncle Manfred a better magician than an artist ?

[MamaFrankie]

A Ruszla bird:
https://www.thecolor.com/Print/PrintPict...ornis.aspx

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A parello. The appendage at the end is a krellix which is like an udder and used for milking:

https://www.thecolor.com/Print/PrintPict...gtail.aspx