Avisaurus darwini here lived at the very end of the Cretaceous, about 66 million years ago, in what is now the Hell Creek fossil beds in Montana, USA.
It was a member of a diverse group of Mesozoic birds known as enantiornitheans, which retained claws on their wings and often still had toothed snouts instead of beaks – and being part of the avisaurid family it was also one of the larger known examples of these birds, similar in size to a modern hawk at around 60cm long (~2').
Although this species is only known from isolated foot bones, the remains have distinct enough anatomical features to show that Avisaurus had powerful gripping talons similar to those of modern hawks and owls, suggesting it had a similar lifestyle hunting small vertebrate prey in the ancient swampy Hell Creek ecosystem.
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References:
Clark, Alexander D., et al. "New enantiornithine diversity in the Hell Creek Formation and the functional morphology of the avisaurid tarsometatarsus." PloS one 19.10 (2024): e0310686. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0310686
“Predatory birds from the same fossil formation as SUE the T. rex.” Field Museum, https://www.fieldmuseum.org/about/press/predatory-birds-from-the-same-fossil-formation-as-sue-the-t-rex
Wikipedia contributors. “Avisauridae” Wikipedia, 21 Oct. 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avisauridae
Wikipedia contributors. “Avisaurus” Wikipedia, 09 Nov. 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avisaurus
I got several anon questions asking me for comic recomendations. So of course I made a damn tier list
*gets asked what comic to recommend
*immediatelly forgets every comic I have read ever
Anyway, you know the disclaimer. This is just my personal opinion, opinions are subjective, I may like different things than you do and vice verse, therefore a comic I ranked very low may be something you love yada yada if you disagree, lemme know about it, the ask me button is right there
Also warning that several of these comics contain NSFW imagery. I will of course put up a label on that comic when I talk about it, you have been warned. If you're a minor, don't go looking at those.
Detailed ranking below the cut
S Tier:
Jumalanpelko: No notes about this comic. It's perfect. I have been thinking long and hard and I honestly cannot think of a single thing that bothers me about it. The art is great, the chracters are great, the story is great, so is the worldbuilding, pace matches the events in the comic. The author is also very lovely and very active on their tumblr account. Again, no notes, this is a 10/10 comic
Horse Age: The best way I can describe this is that it has Watership Down vibes if Watership Down was about horses living in a paleolithic era. What I often find lacking in a lot of animal comics is that most of them don't really give their animal characters culture aside from "eat, sleep, have babies" but Horse Age does exactly that, similar to Watership Down, while also managing to keep the animals very animalistic instead of turning all the characters into human wearing animal cotumes. It's so so clear the animal characters have a deeply rooted culture, not just the horses, but others too. The comic takes great effort in establishing relationships between the herd members, so they all feel like a community, a family. Characters aren't black-and-white, have differing personalities and desires for their future, life, loved ones. Art is stunning. The comic is currently on an indefinite hiatus, but still very much worth a read. I personally use it as a palette clenser whenever I read a new page of Dragon Slayer
Ghost of Gulag: A story about a blind tiger and a cowardly wolf set in a post-Soviet taiga. Everytime I read this comic, I discover a new layer of intrigue I have not seen before that, be it the tiger, the wolfs, the boar, or the story of the human characters that are intertwined with the story of the animals, who serve as parallels to current story events in a delicious dance of symbolism and real world history. Essentially every character is a shade of gray. Updates are sporadic and far in between, but it's very much worth a read.
Corpse: A short comic by Ratt, the author of Golden Shrike. Wonderful, wonderful character journey that touches in topics like loneliness, naivety, death, perception of self and various others. The panelling is gorgeous, the choice of words is perfect, the story just hits hard. The art is also absolutely stellar.
A Tier:
Destiny Intertwined: One of the best Spyro comics out there. Story is paced well, characters are rich and layered, story is interesting, art is very pretty (albeit I do have a dislike for the author's tendency to draw brick-shaped snouts onto his characters) Although at times it feels overly dark for a story set in the TLOS universe and the more the story progresses, the more it's required of the reader to be somewhat familiar with the (very large) community that surrounds this comic to fully understand all the context and details in the comic.
BRUTALIZER: I. Fucking. Love. Brutalizer. The premise of the story is super unique, very intriguing, the bad guy is a mega-corp pharmaceutical company and like come on, you cannot tell me that's not relatable to some degree. I love me a cast of characters who are all shady bastards, none of these people are good guys, and I love how the comic handless that very well instead of either glorifying the actions or villifying them for doing what they have to survive. Pacing is pretty slow to be honest, but I personally am invested enough to still be fully interested. At is delicious and reading this comic makes we want to chew on a cartoonish slab of ham like a rabid animal. Currently on hiatus. Also if that isn't clear from the name and cover art, this comic is full of violence, gore, and features suggestive themes and situation, altough not explicitly nsfw
Little Trashmaid: A lighthearted, slice-of-life comic about a little mermaid living in a polluted ocean, her human friends and her mermaid pals. I remember when I first saw art of this on tumblr almost a decade ago, before it was ever a comic, and I am so glad it became one because oh boy is this thing so entertaining. The art is simple but very fluid and expressive, stories are unique and engaging, and it carries a great environmental message about oceanic pollution and it's concequences. Updates weekly.
Avialae: Ranking this comic so high may be biased, because I am a complete slut for Bird People Comics and there absolutely is not enough of them out there to quench my hunger, so I fixate on this one. This is a lovestory, a theme in media that I am not always keen on because I am very picky over romance, but Avialae has just enough slow-burn, yearning and angst to fit into a box titled "Val likey." The character development of the titual character is near palpable, the story is interesting, although the pacing slows down to a crawl about 2/3ds into the comic. The roadblocks the main characters face during the story are somewhat trope-y but still written well enough to be engaging and not become a Must Have In A Romance Story cliche. Great queer rep all over, not just with the main couple. Art is stunning. Comic is finished. Contains very explicit nsfw moments, do not look this comic up if you're not over the age of 18
Golden Shrike: Halfway between A and B tier. Interesting story premise, wide range of characters with layered personalities and stories, delicious art. I want to love this comic, I really do, but I have quite a few issues with how it's structured that lead me to put it way lower than I wish I did. The pacing of this comic is all over the place at times, sometimes going really fast and sometimes reaaaally dragging, especially when the main characters, Nero and Runi, get their screentime. I often catch myself just skimming their pages, uninterested in what they do or what they have to say, thinking the scene would flow so much better if two or three pages were cut out of it. Also the two main characters kinda...don't seem to really be characters? This comic has been going on for over 300 pages, yet we're much more familiar with the main "villain" of the story rather than the main characters. Nero can be summarised as "hurr durr am angsty because I have issues with my father so I am angry and impulsive hhhng TESTOSTERONE!!!" and Runi is a meek follower of her brother who seems to be able to spot details others cannot. And that is it. I honestly cannot think about any more things to say about these two, which is a shame, since they're our main characters in a comic that already has over 300 pages. I also feel like at times, the author goes way overboard with their purple prose-y-esque dialogue to the point it's hella confusing what the characters are even saying and frequently make me go "bro, come on, who even has the time to speak this way" Comic updates weekly on dA, will soon be moving to ComicFury entirely.
B Tier:
I Didn't Know: I was VERY surprised how well I ended up liking this comic, given who the author is and what the themes they're writing about are. But the way the main character deals with the events of her assault, her journey to process her truma, the way she speaks (or doesn't speak) about it, how she comes to terms with it, how she's in denial at first, how others around her treat her, is all written very well and a lot of care if put into the character and they way she's fleshed out across the story. To be honest, this comic would most likely be A Tier if it wasn't for the way Whisper is written and also for how blatantly black-and-white the Cult of Catholic Cats are written. Updates every other day. Also a warning for topics revolving around sexual assault, unwanted pregnancy resulting from said assault, religious guilt, religious cults
The Hunt: Comic by the author of Avialae. I will be honest, maybe it's my fault for trying so hard with a comic that's mainly focused on Boys KissingTM, but if Avialae did it well, I believe this one could too. I am honestly way more interested in the (secondary) plot involving ocult and witches than the main characters and their developing relationship, which gets tiring to follow at times and is very trope-y this time around, compared to what Avialae was. The "antagonist" boyfriend is honestly a joke and I am frustrated at how he's treated by the comic. The slow-burn is slow-burning for a bit too long in my opinion, and while the comic has a stable pacing, these two characters and their relationship just aren't interesting enough for me to not get bored of them and their melodrama. Art is great 95% of the times although from time to time there are awkward angles and Yaoi Hands-coded body proportions that made me go (??? How???) once or twice. Many characters are queer, although unlike with Avialae's diversity, characters are mostly reduced to "gay" or "lesbian." Comic updates twice a week. Contains very explicit nsfw moments, do not look this comic up if you're not over the age of 18
Homeworld: From the author of Destiny Intertwined. I don't have much to ay about this comic, and that is kinda the thing. The question is whether this is because it went on an indefinite before it hit 60 pages and therefore it didn't have much time to unrevel it's story yet, or if it's because this story is just. Boring. None of the characters gripped me, I don't like or dislike anyone in this comic, the premise of the story is interesting enough, I love me a story about space exploration! But there's just not enough pages to properly kick this off yet, and the story we did get so far is uninteresting. The art is mostly nice, although characters can come off a quite stiff and blocky at times, especially when there's movement, and the consant presence of Brick Snouts keeps distracting me from everything else. As mentioned before, comic is on an indefinite hiatus,
White Tail: A comic that had a very solid start, solid pacing and continued to be very very good until the climax of the second act. After that, it became sort of boring and dragged a bit, and the ending is quite anti-climactic. Still is a solid story, especially considering this was the author's very first comic. If only they managed to keep it up for their future work. Art is simple but nice to look at, characters are very expressive, and Very Shaped. Comic is finished.
Space Vixen: I'd compare this comic to when you throw a bunch of mentos into a pepsi bottle. It spews out agressively at first, then gradually slows down to a trickle and. That's it. This comic had a very solid start and an interesting premise, but after a few solid episodes, it just becomes boring. The art greatly downgrades too, and I will be honest, the story of the Riders and their supposed Space Superiority made no sense to me and rather came off as something from a badly written Doctor Who episode than something that'd be a part of a story like this, at least given the vibes it had when it first started. Comic is on an indefinite hiatus.
Rabbit on the Moon: Another comic that is good, but isn't great. The story was predicable and generic, although well written. The strongest thing about this comic is the art, which is stellar (ba dum tss) but it cannot fully pull a comic and it's story. This isn't a bad story at all, just kinda forgettable. Comic is finished.
C Tier:
The Rabbit Hole: I will be honest, if this comic stayed as the short comic it originally was, it would be S Tier. After the author decided to continue it, it kinda felt like they were unsure what to do with it?? I felt like the comic was kinda directionless, going from situation to situation to see what will fit the newly developing story without really being connected into one big thing. The way the story went later on just didn't feel well-fitting for this comic, and I caught myself getting very bored and frustrated with it, to the point I barely even remember how it goes past it's half-way point (maybe I should re-read it soon.) Art is very nice however, the comic is finished.
Doe of Deadwood: Very solid start, interesting premise, loved the worldbuilding. About halfway through, though, the pacing slows down to such a crawl and gets really boring. That's when I realised the author saw the main character as nothing but a victim, meanwhile they're anything but. The writing of the story started to reflect that, which greatly hurt it's integrity and quality, eventually just delving into pointless melodrama that had me wishing I could hit a "go back" button. Art is simple and very "meh" although clearly on purpose so the pages could be made quicker. Comic is finished.
Roar Howl Run: Terrible ace rep, I will say that right off the bat. Story premise is interesting, but it quickly gets smothered when the Mary Sue of a main character goes "It's morbin time" and starts morbing all over the place. It's like this comic is trying it's hardest to shout "girl power!!! Girls don't have to Get Married and Have Babies to be fullfilled by life!! Girl strenght isn't just motherhood!!" and then it proceeds to make it's female main character aggressive, brash, comically strong and desiring of fights, all the traits traditionally associated with masculinity and men, somewhat accidentally communicating that a girl can only be powerful if she becomes a methaphorical man, runining the whole message about feminine power. Essentially every character in this comic is a mouthpiece for the author to some degree and/or attracted to the main character, one way or another, to the point it's just so exhausting to read about. I really do not like this comic, mainly for it's utter faliure at the topics it tries to write about and because they author was completely unable to take criticism about it. Art is simple and "meh" once again clearly done on purpose so the pages could be churned out quickly. Comic is finished.
Asmundr: A very forgettable comic about a pack of dogs. With aliens. Seriously, ask yourself this question; If this comic wasn't connected to Home, would you still talk about it? The answer is most likely "no" since Asmundr. Really isn't anything special. Charcters are shallow, worldbuilding is shallow, story is shallow, no matter how deep and meaningful the author perceived his comic to be, the fact he failed to make it so on paper remains. Asmundr is just really forgettable to me and it's simple writing and themes are what make it a C Tier comic. There just is not enough of a story to make the rating go lower (or higher) Art is pretty nice, I'd even argue it's so much better than it is in it's sequel, although there is plethora of proof that a lot of the artwork in this comic is traced. Comic is finished
AlbinoRaven's TLK Cinematic Universe: There's like five comics mushed into one but all of them follow the same plotline, so I will keep it all as one. I see this comic on the verge between C Tier and D Tier and the only reason why I put this in C is because I enjoy this person's writing of Scar. The comic's pacing is all over the place, storylines are repetitive, boring and don't make sense half the time, half of the characters barely have a personality at all, and like the way it's customary with TLK comics, there's some not-so-tactfully handled sexual assault tossed in there for good meassure. I already mentioned the pacing, but I have to say again that in the last two or so chapters, it slowed down to the point it makes me want to claw my skin off. If I injected a slug with a lethal dose of horse tranquilisers, I'd move faster than this comic. The art is ass at the start of the comic, but drastically improves in it's later volumes. Updated are sporadic and far in between.
D Tier:
Caspanas: I feel *really bad* putting this comic so low on the rating, mostly because I can very clearly see how much this comic means to the author. But the thing is that just because something is deeply meaningful to you, it doesn't mean that it's gonna make for a good story, and Caspanas is a proof of that. The best way to describe this comic is that if feels like an anime full of filler. You know how Naruto is infamous for being 40% filler? This comic is the same. You could cut out half of this comic's pages and the story would be better. Hell, the comic is almost 300 pages long already and I STILL don't know who the main antagonist even is or what this comic is supposed to be about aside from "magical horses go on magical horse adventures." A lot of the time, the comic vomits walls upon walls of text at you, spewing lore and worldbuilding aspects at the reader, which may be interesting for the author to share their story, but it does not make for good dialogue. People Do Not Talk Like That. The main plot of the story (a family of Racist Gods wanting to wipe out the world of all mortals. Or something) is constantly pushed aside for the sake of various character shenanigans, which do not offer development whatsoever and just come off as annoying and filler-y. Speaking of, the pacing of this comic fucking drags. I don't think I've seen a comic aside from this one that drags to this degree. Everything is happening at a snails pace and when something *does* finally happen, it often feels underwhelming. I do not like a single character in this comic, not necessarily because they're all unlikable (although many of them are) but because there's not really much to them. This comic somehow manages to have a lot of Character Is In Situations moments while at the same time, not developing that character at all. Again, it is such a shame this comic is so bad because I *do* want to like it the way I did when I was 16 and didn't know better, and also because I can tell how clearly and deeply the author cares about this story, but alas the fact remains that it's very mediocre at best. She tries to stuff *everything* she comes up with into the story of the comic and the result is a confusing mess of a comic that feels like an anime filler episode because it focuses on literally everything else but it's main plot. The strongest suite of this comic is it's artwork, which drastically improves as it goes along, and honestly, the backgrounds present in this comic are the best I have ever seen in any comic so far. Comic is on a hiatus
River Street: From the author of Aviale and The Hunt. I. I really wish this story was at least half-way good as the other two, but it sadly is not. You can come and shout at me about wanting coherent story and characters from a comic that is mainly a boy/boy smut comic meant for horny freaks, and to that I say; If Avialae did it well, this comic can do it too. With the author's comics, it' clear how the overaching story gets pushed further to the back with each new work the newer the story is, and it's very clear in the case of River Street. Both main characters are reduced to stereotypical horny carricatures you'd expect from a badly written manwha. One is a tsundere to the point it hurts my brain to read about him and the other is a macho dudebro that straight up sexually harasses him multiple times. Like, yeah I know it's played for a joke in the comic (which makes this worse??? If the person getting harassed was a woman instead of a man, you bet your ass the other character would be lynched for his behaviour) but the way the titular character harasses his love interest about going out on a date and smashing when he's told a very clear "No" over half a dozen times just makes him come off as a shallow, pushy, horny bastard instead of someone who's interested in the other as a person. Villain is an Astarion from Temu, a trope-y evil gay vampire who could not pique my interest if he crawled up my ass, and the rest of the story is so smothered by the two main characters being so annoying towards one another that I couldn't be interested in it if I tried. Art is pretty good, has Yaoi Hands moments at times. Updates weekly. Contains very explicit nsfw moments, do not look this comic up if you're not over the age of 18
Tail of Tails: This comic is such a fucking mess, I could not describe the plot if you held a gun to my head. I guess it's about...uuuuh...a space monster eating up the universe? About a dragon kingdom pulling strings in the background, manipulating the characters?? About the main character's shady father except not really?? About...romance?? Slice-of-life shit that frequently gets in the way of the main plot to the point it makes you wanna rip your spine out?? This comic is like 47534846 storylines going all at once, trying so damn hard to be tied together into something coherent and failing,. Pacing is all over the fucking place, plot contradicts itself at times, main character is very unlikeable and her love interest is very annoying and childish. At least the MC gets character development as the story goes. Still doesn't mean I like her. Art is pretty "meh" at the start but gradually improves very well. Characters are expressive and movement is very fluid, backgrounds are nice and detailed. Comic updates weekly. Contains very explicit nsfw moments, do not look this comic up if you're not over the age of 18
Repeat: I straight up just wasted my time with this bullshit. That was an hour and a half I will never get back. I could have spent the time staring at a wall and it would be more productive than reading whatever this is. I was very tempted to put this into an F Tier, but stopped myself because I *do* see a lot of potential buried deep underneath the layer of bullshit this comic is covered with and there *are* glimpses where the comic is almost average with it's writing, but those are sparce and far in between. Ending and resolution of the main comic are very anti-climactic and made me just go "Huh??? THAT is how you're gonna deal with that?? Are you for real??" I would not recommend this comic to anyone unless you love wasting your time. The artist was so unable to handle the criticism they were getting over how bad the comic was that they left dA. Art is "meh" as it's customary with SongDog. Comic is finished.
The Golden Rule: I would not be able to tell you wtf this comic is about if you payed me. "Slice-of-life TLK comic with an extremely unlikable protagonist that also has a hefty dose of incest because why the fuck not" is the best thing I can come up with, because I seriously have no idea what the overarching story is supposed to be about. Canon characters like Kovu and Kiara are very OOC, the main protagonist is an extremely unlikable, incompetent, whiny coward and her love interest pisses me off just as much because I cannot rationalise why she'd be into someone like that. Other characters range between various degrees of "meh." The only compelling character in this is the Incest Lion, because of course this has to have either incest or sexual assault as a part of it's story because it's a TLK comic. Anyway, Ranisha's cunning personality and scheming nature is the only interesting thing about this story, which is kinda yikes imo because she's the antagonist of this mess. Half the time, the lions don't look like lions and overall have questionable anatomy. Comic updates sporadically.
F Tier:
Floraverse: I tried to read this comic once upon a time about a decade ago and my brain just melted. The story is as such: "A blob and a bird find some seeds. They're told the seeds are important and to go deliver them. Where to? Dunno. Why are they important? Dunno. When to? Dunno. This comic is such a mess I wasn't even sure I started reading the right volume because none of the chapters or books are labeled for some reason. The story has a lot of things happening but also nothing is happening at the same time, somehow. Character POVs jump from place to place, from important and plot-driven events to extremely boring slice-of-life bullshit, further ruining the already bad pacing. Speaking of characters, half of these guy's are the author's very obvious self-inserts and mouthpieces and are deeply unlikeable. I had no fucking idea what was going on by the time I was nearing the end (or at least I thought I was. Again, navigating this comic chronologically requires a doctorate in bullshit) I had no idea wtf was going on. The only solid thing about this comic is the art, which is pretty to look at but that's about it. Story makes no sense, characters are annoying to the point I wanted to isekai myself into this comic and whack them with a chair. I would not recommend this comic to anyone unless you want to actively suffer.
I also feel like it's very important to note the author of this garbage mess is an absolute degenerate. You think Kique has a lot of controversy? Honey, you've seen nothing yet. This person has a lot of grooming/pedophilia accusation on their neck, as well as accusations of zoophilia, abuse and manipulation, theft, and they literally seem to get off on the idea that minors are exposed to their NSFW work, taking little to no precaution to separate the two and doing nothing when they know a minor is actively engaging with their porn. Feel free to look them up, you will be reading about them for hours thinking shit can't get worse and then be unfortunatelly proven wrong. I guess their garbage personality reflect in their work as well because Floraverse and anything attached to it is garbage too.
Home: I don't think I have to introduce this mess, we're all familiar with it. An unfortunate sequel to Asmundr, it's arguably worse than it's predecessor in every way. The story sucks, the characters suck, the pacing sucks. Art is pretty at a first glance but looking closer at these dogs will make you realise thy're broken and also a lot of the art is traced. A lot of the stuff in this comic is traced or stolen, actually, whether it's from random google images, tv shows, other people's ideas or ancient mythology and culture, essentially nothing is original about this comic. The lore and characters contradict themselves constantly, the author uses serious topics like sexual assault and slaver as statements for shock value and also he's weirdly attracted to his rapist villain, who he sees as a poor misunderstood babu that just needs a gay bar lol. There is NOTHING redeeming about this comic, absolutely nothing that could fix it at this point. It's also really boring, because the author sucks ass at writing anything that's not a smut scene between his two feral characters. This whole comic reads like an elaborate, self-indulgent daydream that the author didn't care to convincingly adapt into a story and just decided to shit out as he pleases. Kique also needs no introduction, we're all familiar with him. A 30-something year old man-baby with paperthin skin, who starts shaking the moment he hears an ounce of criticism. Currently dating a man who abandoned his (now ex) wife for this freak, causing the death of his pets in the process. I honestly think this says everything you need to know about Kique. The only thing this comic is good for is analysing it on what NOT to do when you're writing/drawing a comic
And now, finally;
Dragon Slayer: I honestly did think there's no way a comic worse than Home can exist. I am a fool and a dumbass and I deserve to be reading this. Nothing about this comic is redeemable. NOTHING. This comic should be a cautionary tale to everyone. Do not write about hard-to-portray topics like sexual assault and rape if you haven't done adequte research about the topic. I honestly cannot think about a comic that handles it worse than Dragon Slayer. Yes, somehow this comic is worse at handling sexual abuse than Home is. Everything in this comic is about sex. You know how I previously said that Horse Age takes deep care about establishing deep familial bonds between it's characters? Forget it, Dragon Slayer has none of that. Just sex, sex and more sex. You know what's funny? This story is apparently based on the Greek myth of Perseus, which is one of the very few Greek myths that don't have rape or sexual assault as a part of it's story. Ironic, huh? The pacing is so fucking fast it offers the characters no time to properly develop, so everyone is a one dimensional carboard cut-out of a horse that just stands around/ Aside from the min villain, that is, who is, for some reason, the only character that gets a story-driven backstory. Yes, you read that right, the rapist priest gets development instead of, you know, the main character, who is essentially just a trauma bingo at this point. The single character I somewhat like is an SA victim that the author herself claims wasn't assaulted despite the opposite being the truth, and I feel like this alone speaks volumes about the comic. Main character is an agressive "Hurr Durr Girlpower!!" because of course she is. Essentially she's like the main protagonist of Roar Howl Run, only somehow even worse. And the "good guy" we're given among the sea of sex-crazed men is a rapist apologist who throws a blind eye at his brother's deeply questionable antics because "it's not my women he's pressuring into sex, so I don't care!" like bruh, am I supposed to feel bad this wankstain is dead?? Everytime I think this comic cannot possibly get any worse, it gets fucking worse. The bar is so low at this point that it's in hell, and somehow it's still digging deeper. I have not seen a work of fiction that had me worked up as much as Dragon Slayer in a long while, specifically for the reason of it's very badly handled topic of sexual assault and rape, and the author's stoic refusal to as much as admit she may have done less than stellar job, to the point she had to close her comment section multiple times before the comic even hit a 100 pages because of all the backlash she was getting from people pointing out her carelesness. I have lost all my respect for this author and can only wish they realise what kind of putrid cancer they created and take it off the internet to maybe turn it into something different. I would not recommend this comic to my worst enemy.
This past week I researched and illustrated a dinosaur alphabet book! I researched and illustrated 26 maniraptorans for the project, specifically limiting myself to species that went extinct before the Eocene to exclude modern birds. This project was a huge amount of fun for me and I'm very proud of the result, so I hope you all enjoy them too! Please look forward to the rest of the series, which I'll be posting over the course of the coming week or so.
As Winter ended in the Australian-Antarctic Rift Valley, the ice and frost melted away. What were once frozen riverbanks now melted and flooded, forming pools in the volcanic soil and sands.
These temporary, shallow bodies of water created opportunity for several animals. Instead of risking going close to rivers that would sweep them away and land them in a variety of dangers, animals could drink at a safe distance.
Some even took the chance to find food. Unenlagiines picked out small fish that became stranded in the pools, stabbing them with their sickle claws. The carcass of a baby plesiosaur even washed into one, prompting two noasaurs to fight over it.
The most numerous dinosaurs were the various ornithopod species like Galleonosaurus and Qantassaurus coming to the river bank. All bipedal with a mix of feathers and scales, they congregated in groups of mixed species as they drank fresh water and ate any plants that washed ashore. Even the largest of these species didn’t grow very big, barely exceeding 3 metres long.
One of these smaller species attending the riverbank had a mother and father with a group of juveniles. One of them, Noddy, observed their surroundings. As their kin ate, drank, and bathed in the pools, their attention wandered elsewhere. They climbed up a hill with some foliage, and found a burrow.
Noddy looked inside, and saw a monotreme, Teinolophos, with her puggles. After observing the mammals, Noddy walked away. They soon stopped however, turning back once they heard digging. A sub-adult noasaur also found the burrow, and was trying to root out the monotremes. It had no luck however, as its attempts to burrow into the muddy ground only left its feathers and scales dirty. It wasn’t worth the effort.
Noddy wandered back to its family, which continued to look around the shallows, digging up seeds and foliage that washed ashore. All seemed peaceful until a flock of birds flew over the other dinosaurs. Some of the larger ornithopods took a look, and called out to their companions as a group of four megaraptorids appeared. The apex predators of the Rift Valley.
Dinosaurs of all species darted in various directions as the large theropods took their chance to snatch up prey, using their jaws as well as hands that bore large claws. Noddy’s family was soon in the sights of one of the predators, prompting them to rush away with their siblings and parents.
One of the megaraptorids was bold enough to run directly into Noddy’s family. Noddy ended up very close to it, but instead of becoming food, it was knocked to the side by one of the Megaraptorid’s hand claws as it grabbed one of their siblings, sinking the same large claws into it. The theropod opened its jaws and swallowed its feathery, scaly prize as it was still breathing.
Noddy couldn’t get up as they watched their family rush into the river. The most they could do was climb into a bush, hiding from the megaraptorid onslaught. The ornithopods were making a bold move to escape predators on land, but that also risked attracting predators in the river.
Noddy’s family struggled to make it to the other side of the river as the currents flowed. However, they were small enough to make it onto some rafts of vegetation. Climbing on, the debris could barely hold the family. Some of Noddy’s siblings got a peek underwater, spotting a Koolasuchus swimming under them.
The large temnospondyl wasn’t their real concern however. From even further below the Koolasuchus, an even larger shape emerged, opening its jaws and biting into the temnospondyl. The amphibian was decently sized, but it was soft and easy prey for the pliosaur. The 4-metre-long predator thrashed with its catch, crushing its bones and letting the blood drain out. The carnage caused Noddy’s family to be thrown off their raft, into the river’s flow.
Back on the riverbank, Noddy watched for any signs of their family, but it was no use. They were on their own.
Retreating into the forests, still recovering from the megaraptorid attack, the ornithopod looked for places to hide in. Dusk soon approached, and Noddy needed to find somewhere safe. They were familiar with the darkness, having lived through a Winter already, but they were never alone.
Noddy searched, seeing small mammals like Ausktribosphenos run into the undergrowth or up trees. Noddy eventually found a reasonably sized den, and approached it. Two ankylosaurs building a nest.
Noddy approached the nest, even picking up leaves and twigs to offer to the ankylosaurs. The ankylosaurs at the very least didn’t react with hostility as Noddy tested to see if they would let them in.
The rustling of some leaves soon revealed the presence of a carcharodontosaur. A smaller predator than the megaraptorids, closer in size to some of the larger ornithopods. Noddy called to the ankylosaurs to warn them of the approaching threat. The carcharodontosaur rushed towards Noddy, only to meet the den. The two ankylosaurs banded together to form a wall, protecting their nest.
The carcharodontosaur observed two separate groupings of eggs formed into the nest, seeing more potential food. However, both Noddy and the eggs were in a den that looked too tricky to dig a way around, as two ankylosaur mothers with their rough looking osteoderms were not going to let their future offspring become food.
The carcharodontosaur gave up, deciding to focus its energy elsewhere. Noddy watched as the ankylosaurs walked back inside, sitting with their nest. They seemed to be fine with their presence, so Noddy got down and wrapped its downy tail around itself, going to sleep with its new companions.
Fujianvenator prodigiosus Xu et al., 2023 (new genus and species)
(Type specimen of Fujianvenator prodigiosus [scale bars = 20 mm], from Xu et al., 2023)
Meaning of name: Fujianvenator = Fujian hunter [in Latin]; prodigiosus = bizarre [in Latin]
Age: Late Jurassic (Tithonian), 149.9–150.2 million years ago
Where found: Nanyuan Formation, Fujian, China
How much is known: Partial skeleton of one individual including most of the trunk and limbs.
Notes: Fujianvenator was an early avialan, a group of mostly flight-capable theropod dinosaurs that also contains modern birds. Most members of this group, including modern birds, have short tails, but like other Jurassic avialans, such as Archaeopteryx and Anchiornis, Fujianvenator retained the ancestrally long tail found in most other dinosaurs. It had unusually long lower legs and feet for its size, not just for an avialan but for a theropod of any kind, which may suggest specialization towards a running or wading lifestyle.
In addition to being a newly named dinosaur, Fujianvenator comes from a newly discovered fossil site, from which over 100 reptile fossils have been uncovered so far. Given that well-preserved fossils of Jurassic avialans are only known from a few localities worldwide, this new site has the potential to become a valuable resource for understanding the early diversity and evolution of these theropods.
Reference: Xu, L., M. Wang, R. Chen, L. Dong, M. Lin, X. Xu, J. Tang, H. You, G. Zhou, L. Wang, W. He, Y. Li, C. Zhang, and Z. Zhou. 2023. A new avialan theropod from an emerging Jurassic terrestrial fauna. Nature advance online publication. doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06513-7
