The whole Greenland transplant ecology is something of a rebuild or reboot of the past ecologies. I have given the archosaurs a huge leg up. They hold a lot of the top level, megafauna niches. True, they are not the old archosaurs at all. They are very derived even from birds. While retaining bipedalism and feathers, they have been gifted with the dinosauromorphic tail, had their wings transformed either into arms with hands or removed altogether, their sternum bones flattened, and often their feet have been extensively modified. These critters sound positively Mesozoic. It's intentional. Now let's borrow from yet another past ecology.
The anapsids are something of the poor girl that's always the bride's maid and never the bride. Their greatest period was during the Permian and Triassic. True, while turtles and tortoises have been important since, the anapsid role as major player in the megafauna has been stymied since save on islands. I think we ought to give them another chance.
There are some nontrivial changes to the anapsid body plan. We're going to pull the legs in underneath more like the mammals or archosaurs. Why? That's the only way to make them more speedy and to support themselves at larger sizes. That necessitates some changes to their shell lay out as well. We'll make it flair over the edges so they can still 'turtle'. We need to make the shells a little more high hunched. Why? We are giving them a free upgrade to the stomach here much in line with cows. They'll need it. Finally, we'll give them an endothermic upgrade as well.
That said, we have a total of seven different species. They herald from two different genetic sources: the Galápagos tortoise and the Aldabra Giant Tortoise.
The first species is a specialist in bamboo. They normally snap a bamboo plant at the base and munch on its stem and leaves. They help prevent the overspreading of bamboo around Greenland. They are approximately the same size as their progenitors (the Galapagos Tortoise), but stand taller by a little more than a half meter.
The second species is a browser than lives in the redwood forests. Slightly larger than the bamboo eater, it measures 1.5 meters long and stands a quarter meter taller than the bamboo muncher. It clears and 'maintains' a lot of the animal paths through the forest, preventing the thorny berry bushes and ferns from overgrowing the forest.
The third species is a forest browser as well. Larger still at a 2m body length, it actually has a very long neck, another 2m, that browses the lower trees. Mostly harmless, it actually has a hissy cry that scares people quite easily. Like the previous three, this is a social animal, but only moderately so, moving in herds of only 12 or so.
The fourth species is larger than the others by a significant amount. Being about 4.5 meters long sans length length, and towering at 2m tall, it's a grazer on the grasslands of Greenland. It herds much more than its relatives and can be seen in groups of up to 300 easily. It's not that great a parent though and after incubation, while the babies herd, they are often preyed upon by the novarchosaurians and others.
The fifth species is actually semiaquatic and acts a bit as the Greenland Hippo. It is actually quite territorial unlike the others and large, but not as large as the grazer being only 3m long sans neck. The shell pushing matches are quite impressive between males attempting to defend their space.
The sixth species I am actually going to steal outright: the Toraton, but scaled down some. We'll make them move in mated pairs and much in the redwood forest. They compete with the ubersized sauropod-like geese.
hrm. I want one more, but I am out of time. Suggestions?
The anapsids are something of the poor girl that's always the bride's maid and never the bride. Their greatest period was during the Permian and Triassic. True, while turtles and tortoises have been important since, the anapsid role as major player in the megafauna has been stymied since save on islands. I think we ought to give them another chance.
There are some nontrivial changes to the anapsid body plan. We're going to pull the legs in underneath more like the mammals or archosaurs. Why? That's the only way to make them more speedy and to support themselves at larger sizes. That necessitates some changes to their shell lay out as well. We'll make it flair over the edges so they can still 'turtle'. We need to make the shells a little more high hunched. Why? We are giving them a free upgrade to the stomach here much in line with cows. They'll need it. Finally, we'll give them an endothermic upgrade as well.
That said, we have a total of seven different species. They herald from two different genetic sources: the Galápagos tortoise and the Aldabra Giant Tortoise.
The first species is a specialist in bamboo. They normally snap a bamboo plant at the base and munch on its stem and leaves. They help prevent the overspreading of bamboo around Greenland. They are approximately the same size as their progenitors (the Galapagos Tortoise), but stand taller by a little more than a half meter.
The second species is a browser than lives in the redwood forests. Slightly larger than the bamboo eater, it measures 1.5 meters long and stands a quarter meter taller than the bamboo muncher. It clears and 'maintains' a lot of the animal paths through the forest, preventing the thorny berry bushes and ferns from overgrowing the forest.
The third species is a forest browser as well. Larger still at a 2m body length, it actually has a very long neck, another 2m, that browses the lower trees. Mostly harmless, it actually has a hissy cry that scares people quite easily. Like the previous three, this is a social animal, but only moderately so, moving in herds of only 12 or so.
The fourth species is larger than the others by a significant amount. Being about 4.5 meters long sans length length, and towering at 2m tall, it's a grazer on the grasslands of Greenland. It herds much more than its relatives and can be seen in groups of up to 300 easily. It's not that great a parent though and after incubation, while the babies herd, they are often preyed upon by the novarchosaurians and others.
The fifth species is actually semiaquatic and acts a bit as the Greenland Hippo. It is actually quite territorial unlike the others and large, but not as large as the grazer being only 3m long sans neck. The shell pushing matches are quite impressive between males attempting to defend their space.
The sixth species I am actually going to steal outright: the Toraton, but scaled down some. We'll make them move in mated pairs and much in the redwood forest. They compete with the ubersized sauropod-like geese.
hrm. I want one more, but I am out of time. Suggestions?
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