Introduction: the "Terrible Lizards"

65 million years ago, an asteroid crashed into the world in what was known as the K-T event. this had mixed effects, but three main things arrived from it.

1.) mammals were able to establish dominance.

2.) the first 30 Draconequi were born from the resulting chaos

3.) the majority of dinosaurs died out

Now, it was established some time ago that birds are dinosaurs, but non-avian dinosaurs have clung to existence in parts of the world, competing with newer predators. some have feathers, others don't, but they all are still alive.

these posts will cover the known species of extant dinosaurs. they may be updated, so keep an eye out!

Without further ado, let us start with everyone's favorite: the Tyrannosaurs!

BASAL TYRANNOSAURS

often small, they are none the less deadly. they still possess three fingers on each hand

Slasher

Acceraptor is a small, fast, and nocturnal tyrannosaur native to Tapiri. able to run t 45 miles per hour, the brightly-colored males have blades on their tails capable of slicing through flesh

Cursorex

On the cliffsides and rock ledges of Khaan's canyons, many creatures have to keep their eyes and ears open. One misstep and you'll be plummeting thousands of feet to your inevitable doom. But in the midst of the sheer drop lurks a different threat: a predator, a hunter that laughs in the face of danger and death...
The Cursorex, (Cursorolophus rex) or C-rex, is the Canyon's most frequent and famous mid-sized carnivore. Although it is primarily a cursorial creature, it is by no means limited to a level surface. With the prowess of a mountain goat, it can scale sheer rock walls in mere seconds, easily catching up with you and attacking. It takes a skilled mountaineer to take on even one of these creatures, let alone more than one.

The group which the Cursorex belongs to is the Lophocephalids, or the Ridged Heads, which have similar features to tyrannosaurids: slender legs, robust skulls with small scraping teeth on the front, and fused nasal bones with a slight upward arch. However, they have three fingers on their hands, and they also lack the ridge on the back of the jaw seen in tyrannosaurids, and thus have a less powerful bite than their more infamous cousins. All of them also have head crests, a feature present since their ancestral species, Guanlong wucaii, which is believed to be a common ancestor to the two lineages. The C-rex itself is the eponymous and most well-known member of the Cursorolophid subfamily, which is distinguished from the Lophocephalid subfamily by sporting larger, thicker teeth and more prominent crests, as well as larger arms and hand claws.

C-rexes are famous for their fleetness of foot, and their climbing talent is almost legendary. Few other creatures have evolved to traverse both environments so well. However, horizontal and vertical planes are very different obstacles that the C-rex has to face. To move quickly on land, its long legs are well-designed for speed, with slender, fused metarsals that act as shock absorbers. It can outrun even an automobile for a short distance, racing at up to 45 mph in mad pursuit of prey. Its long tail is mostly stiffened, and aids in counterbalancing when charging, and the arms have evolved wrists that can rotate palm-down like those of humans, so that the creature can tuck its hands into its chest to keep them out of the way. Clambering up a rock wall, however, presents a different challenge. The arms, as well as the legs, are long and muscular, and the hands are equipped with 6-inch curved talons that are used as grapples. Because the foot claws are relatively straighter, to prevent them being damaged while running, it has evolved spicules, scaly ridges on the undersides of its toes, similar to the tire-like gripping pads on rock wallabies; in addition, its ankle joints can rotate such that its feet can rotate into a reversed position, allowing them to grip onto the rock face, and the first toe is opposable and comes with a large curved claw similar to the hand claws as a grasping hook. Again, the tail serves as a balance when climbing at speed, and is especially handy when making dime-turn direction changes. In this way, the C-rex can race up near-vertical walls with little effort, timing the movements of its limbs and claws to exact precision to ensure a proper grip.

Vastatosaurus

the dominant predator of Skull Island, the Vastatosaurus has developed many unique features over the 65 million year time gap between the age of dinosaurs historically, but they still bear several recognizable similarities to their extinct cousins. Vastatosaurs have large heads evolved over time to be thicker and bulkier, giving them extra protection, and its overall leather-like hide reduces physical injury from hunting if its choice of prey is smaller then itself. Its gaping mouth is its main tool for hunting, filled with large teeth that are constantly being regrown to replace those lost in conflict. Unlike most theropods, the Vastatosarus has overlapping teeth pencil-like teeth one would find in modern day sharks. Their heads are shorter and more compact than that of their ancestors, intensely reinforced with thick bone. As the primary weapon of the animal. An individual Vastatosaur's head is often distinctive, being covered with scars and calluses due to its bulky body making it too slow to maintain lengthy pursuits but have shown to be able to express short quick charges at the target if they preforming an ambush attack.

Because of its overwhelming size on Skull island, they do not hide or mask themselves to ambush their targets but ironically alert them with a roar thus showing that they use the element of intimidation to disorient potential prey rather then strategically stalk them. It tends to follow or tailgate prey with an open mouth awaiting opportunity to make the first bite. However, as said earlier despite its limited use of intuitive adaption, it is easily distracted if carrion is within its hunting path and will stop to eat it regardless of the intentional prey's condition. This titles it as an opportunistic hunter. When hunting smaller prey in groups they are shown to possess a level of cooperation when paired together and also show slight problem solving capacity as they will often "Go around" blocked passages to get to a target that may attempt to hide from direct reach or line of sight.

Abnormal bone growths form from old battles with prey, other predators, rivals, or even mates were not uncommon. Narrow, short rib cages and a large gap between the ribs and hips allow V. rexes surprising flexibility for animals of their size, a necessary adaptation to survive amongst the towering trees and broken terrain of Skull Island. The Vastatosarus has adapted to a limited but notable ability to problem solve. It has the mental capability to knock down large stone objects obstructing its path toward smaller prey who may try to conceal themselves between them. If still within its intrest it will also find away around obsticles to pursue prey. (ex.Going around terrian baracades finding an open path to continue its linear search.)

Fiercely territorial, adult V. rexes suffer no rival encroachments on their hunting grounds. Territorial boundaries are regularly marked with urine, and dawn roaring warns other animals in the vicinity that they will not be tolerated. Other predators can detect a lot about the physical condition of the owner from the smell of its urine, and the size of the animal can be determined by the sound of a roar. Displays and scenting minimize potentially dangerous confrontations between animals of different sizes. Occasionally, disputes between evenly matched carnivores can erupt. With the threat of serious injury, these confrontations are usually resolved with intense roaring matches in which each animal tilts towarn the ground and bellows in an attempt to intimidate the other. If this fails, violence is used. Older V. rexes bear the crisscrossing scars of many such fights.

Exceptions to their solitary existence are made in the breeding season. Males leave their hunting grounds to seek females in season. If the female is receptive she will accept the mating proposal and the pair may stay together, hunting in the female's territory for several days before she tires of him and sends him on his way. Young V. rexes seeking to hone their hunting skills sometimes follow adults at a safe distance during the mating season, watching and occasionally stealing meals from unguarded kills. Taking advantage of the season of nomadic adult males, bold adolescents may move in to claim currently undefended territory as their own.

V. rexes are capable of tackling very large prey species, but their massive size is as often employed to intimidate smaller carnivores and bullying them from a kill. While effective hunters, a meal is safer to obtain by simply appropriating someone else's meal. Vastatosaurs have intensely acidic stomachs, capable of processing even the most rancid rotting meat, a feature that serves the species well. Their massive jaws can exert astounding pressure, shattering bones to expose the rich marrow less robust predators are unable to reach.

ERROSAURS

More "common" tyrannosaurs

Courser

Cursotyrannus elegans, Arc Island's smallest and fastest tyrant. Weighs in at around 150-175 pounds.

They are diurnal hunters that specialize in fast prey. Typically they hunt in pairs, sometimes running in relays to wear their victims out. Ornithomimids and tikitiks are taken. The most common tactic with prey such as ornithmimids is to come up astern of them during pursuit and aim a slashing bite at the thigh or caudofemoralis muscle to disable the prey, at which point it is finished off with a bite to the head or neck. their teeth are more bladelike then those of their larger relatives allowing them to land precise slashing bites on their quarry's locomotor musculature. Kleptoparisitism of kills by other their larger cousin the sand tyrant, and by packs of vorgas is widespread. Even groups of skrykes are known to force the gracile tyrants off their kills on occasion.

Sand Tyrant

This is the Sand Tyrant of Arc Island, also called the "Nachtrauber" by the Griffin settlers in the island's interior. As the name implies they are most common in arid desert terrain and dry woodlands, particularly in Arc Island's interior and southern regions, but of late it's range extends into the more forested northern part of the island as well.

Spotted Racer Tyrant

The Racer Tyrants have evolved a pursuit hunting niche, which is clearly evident by the very long legs of the animals. These tyrannosaurs of Skull Island have all but lost their forelimbs, which have been reduced to vestigial nubs with a hooked claw on the end of it. They prey primarily on speedy game like Sawtails, but won't turn down smaller, slower game. Males are slightly smaller than females, but are more decorated looking, with yellowish-beige plumage and small black spots running along the sides of the animal. Males are also complimented with a blue throat. Females have more greyish plumage, and dark grey spots. Although they are relatively harmless, Spotted Racer Tyrants can get very defensive around their young, and can leave a nasty bite with their slender, but characteristically strong jaws.

Fisher Tyrant

Native to Concordia, these six-foot beasts live in the Great Coastal Expanse, a large region of coastal swampland bordering the southern edge of the Emerald Sea.

GREAT TYRANTS

the biggest of the extant tyrannosaurs

Sabre Tyrant

The vast, wind-swept plains of the Arctic Circle are home to only a few hardy creatures, but one of the few animals that manage to survive here is a true monster.

The sabre-tyrant, at over ten meters in length, uncomfortably reminiscent of such lost giants as Tyrannosaurus and Giganotosaurus. Unlike its warm-weather predecessors, however, the sabre-tyrant is a denizen of tundra and taiga, a remnant of the last Ice Age, a massive predator of mammoths and a species of extant therizinosaur, the arctotitan.

The sabre-tyrant is one of the few remaining examples of its kind, and has not changed appreciably since the Pleistocene. This massive predator is a runner, not as fast as its smaller cousins, the errosaurs, but easily fast enough to pursue the lumbering arctotians. A sabre-tyrant relies both on strength and agility to combat these heavily armed therizinosaurs. Long legs sweep the body out of reach of the herbivore's manual talons, a thick neck pushes the blunt-snouted face toward the prey's unprotected flank, and teeth as long as a yeti's arm slice past the thick layers of feathers and blubber to the steaming muscle below. Sabre-tyrants are masters of the bleed-to-death hunting strategy employed by their extinct cousins, the tyrannosaurids, as well as their closest mammalian counterparts, the saber-toothed cats. Their incredibly long fangs, coupled with the typical tyrannosaurian battery of D-cross-sectioned scooping teeth at the front, and slicing, steak-knife teeth toward the rear, create a flesh-cutting machine that can gouge huge chunks out of muscle, slice tough tendons apart, and rip a vertebral column to splinters. A sabre-tyrant will inflict the worst damage it can upon its victim, then dash back to safety and wait for the hapless creature to expire from blood loss before returning to feed.

Sabre-tyrants are not particularly social and, indeed, their ferocious territorial instincts keep them separated almost all year. The single exception to their normal aggressive behavior takes place during the spring mating season, when the males range about looking for prospective brides. Courting is brief and the suitor, in mortal dread of being devoured by his lady, departs as soon as possible. The female lays her clutch of 4-6 eggs soon after in a volcano-shaped mound and incubates them with fermenting vegetable matter. The tiny, helpless chicks hatch quickly, and the doting mother takes excellent care of her children. Sabre-tyrant mothers often carry their progeny around in their mouths, carefully spitting the chicks into some secluded pile of brush before going off to hunt. She will continue to care for the chicks all through their first winter, finally leaving them to fend for themselves as the Arctic's brief spring passes. They must then set off to establish their own territories, never to see their parent again.

Ice Tyrant

Vizierosaurus martimus is a primitive aquatic tyrannosaur, having gone so far as to evolve its front hands into flippers and an advanced pulmonary tract that uses air sacs as secondary lungs. The Tyrannosaur smell had to be partially sacrificed for hearing. It cannot smell as well as other tyrannosaurids, but its ears can detect subtle changes in water pressure and sound. The Vizierosaur shown is attacking a sleeper shark, most likely a juvenile since the sharks prefer much deeper waters. This is a very rare sushi treat.

Due to the V. maritimus' migrating habits, they pose a threat to nesting geese and other birds that spend their summers in the tundras. The birds have to nest further inland to avoid the hungry Vizierosaurs and their nests.

Devilsaur

Native to Khaan, the devilsaur takes its name from its vicious, relentless attacks, during which it utterly savages its victims to death. The devilsaur uses its bite to assault its prey, and its powerful hind legs and sheer size allow it to chase down almost any chosen prey. Despite the ferocity of this ill-tempered beast, hunters prize its extraordinarily tough but supple hide and often seek it out. Devilsaurs can grow to heights exceeding thirty feet and can weigh almost sixteen tons. Females tend to be smaller and lighter than males, but are even more aggressive.

In a reversal of most creatures’ natural gender roles, a female devilsaur abandons her eggs as soon as she lays them; male devilsaurs can identify a clutch of eggs they've fathered by scent, and will protect that clutch until the eggs hatch.

Bruiser

making a role of scavenging from larger predator's kills, the Bruiser of North Griffonia and the Crystal Tundra is adapted to crunching bone.

Bone Eater

Native to Concordia, Hyaenosaurus osseophagus is an extremely specialized tyrannosaurid. The bone-eater is a brutal predator as well as an expert scavenger. Its thick arms allow it to grapple onto a target with a vice grip, immensely powerful jaws can crush bone and ankylosaur armor with ease, and a cast-iron stomach digests even the most poisonous meat without much effect. The dinosaur is brick red above and golden below.

full set of teeth and claws from a hyaenasaur will sell for 600 bits.

Canyon bone eaters are slightly smaller, but more aggressive.

Nest Sneak

The Nest Sneak is a relative of the Speed Demon, and like its relative is a cursorial ambush predator. However, it is also known to sneak into the nesting territories of Bone Eaters, its coloration and pheromones mimicking those of adolescent Bone Eaters, allowing them to occasionally trick adult Bone Eaters into feeding them

Tyrantrum

Native to Bumbleland, zoologists were completely surprised by the ostentatious mane of feathers adorning this dinosaur's shoulders. Another astonishing characteristic is the bold scaly beard-like soft tissue. It appears that Tyrantrums use this "beard" to intimidate rivals by flaring it out making their already enormous jaws appear that much larger. Females of the species often have much smaller beards and seldom use them for display. Tyrantrums are a very aggressive species, often seen hassling all manner of other creatures and forcing them out of its territory.

Much like their older counterparts, Tyrunts are very belligerent. In fact they are known to erupt into fits of selfish tantrums when they perceive that they aren't getting their way. They are also known to be mischievous little bastards.

Pygmy Tyrant

Native to Equus' northern regions, this wolf-sized predator is a master of ambush, and is a highly prized guard beast.

Neighponese Pygmy Tyrant

Actually found all throughout Khaan, these small tyrannosaurs (rarely over 4 feet in height) live in small family groups. They have been domesticated, and make good pets. The wild/basal type (left) is an active creature which loves to exercise and enjoys contact with those it perceives as members of its family. From this type other breeds have emerged, such as the "Floofs" (right), distinctly "lazy" breed with a slow metabolism that allows it to only eat once per day

Speed Demon

Native to Concordia, this yak-sized tyrannosaur is very light on its feet, and is one of the fastest running animals on the continent of Equus.

Blackdeath

Lemuria's apex predator, the Blackdeath is a solitary hunter.

2884266
YES! Yesyestesyestesyesyesyes! It's finally here!

2884402 And this is only part 1!

2884409
Great! Gotta say though, the changeling entries are still my favorites. Gotta support my home team, after all.

2884429 Those were the very first entries in this group. since then, they've been expanded, improved, and edited, but they still remain.

2884454 .
Hail Queen Calliphora.

2884484 Quite, though I do have to stick with my mom

Let's see for tomorrow...

Raptors

Ceretopsians

Abeilisaurs

Spinosaurs

or sauropods...